As Australia’s underwriting agency sector goes from strength to strength, there are significant opportunities to grab market share through greater digitisation and integration of emerging technologies. Here we profile five underwriting agencies that are leading the charge for digital disruption.
Underwriting agencies in Australia are an increasingly powerful force. At the end of 2022, The Underwriting Agencies Council (UAC) reported that annual gross written premium at Australian agencies was around $7.5 billion, about three times the $2.5 billion transacted in 2009. And data from Insurance Business found that 72% of Australian brokers now have up to 50% of their books underwritten by underwriting agencies.
Australian insurance customers are demanding more personalised and digitised insurance, both of which can only be achieved through an agile approach and the right technology. As a result, underwriting agencies are increasingly investing in automating their operations, to differentiate from the competition, through offering a seamless customer experience, innovative products, and efficient, and cost-effective processes, right through the insurance lifecycle.
Here are some of the underwriting agencies leading the market for digitisation in Australia.
Describing itself as a “technology led underwriting agency”, Clover Insurance is designed with brokers in mind, to enable them to sell as effectively as possible to the end customer. Specialising in business, home, and motor insurance, it has developed an underwriting platform that can create personalised products for each customer plus an automated pricing platform to minimise manual back and forth on quotes. It also offers a “connected claims” experience, enabling customers to log their claims online when most convenient for them.
Blend says that it leverages technology to “maximise efficiency and deliver great value for clients”, selling through brokers, partners and direct to the customer. Specialising in accident and sickness cover, it operates on end-to-end cloud infrastructure and has a broker portal where its partners can quote, bind, cancel, renew, log and track claims, chat with a Blend underwriter, and more.
This underwriting agency launched in 2018 and is a digital trailblazer in Australia, having built its own technology platform to better serve brokers and customers. Covering domestic and commercial products, it has digitised the entire insurance lifecycle and draws on extensive data to best understand and price risks. The result is a fast, seamless experience from quote through to claims, and an offering that empowers brokers to better acquire and retain customers.
Emergence is the first specialist cyber underwriting agency in Australia, protecting individuals and businesses against the increasing threat of cyber-attacks. Naturally, given its technical focus, the business is also committed to leveraging technology to deliver its offering in the best way, through maximising data to understand and predict the biggest cyber risks. It also launched a broker portal in 2021 to make it as easy as possible for brokers to sell its policies effectively.
Describing itself as a “true digital underwriting agency”, Argyle Insurance has developed an AI augmented platform to better connect insurers, brokers, and end customers, and ensure policies are tailored to customer needs. Specialising in SME cover, the company has also developed tools to help brokers and customers to interact better and is maximising data to understand how business risks are evolving.
Insly expands ‘down under’
A specialist in insurance digitisation, Insly is on a mission to help more of Australia’s underwriting agencies to begin their own transformation journey. Insly’s no/low-code software has been developed to make automating and streamlining insurance processes as fast and straightforward as possible, through offering flexibility and scalability, combined with rapid implementation.
Taking a modular approach, the Insly platform covers the entire insurance lifecycle from quote and bind, through the policy administration, claims, and finance and accounting. Its open APIs mean that it integrates seamlessly with existing software and systems and provides the ideal foundations for collecting and leveraging data to drive more tailored products, happier customers, and business growth.
To find out more about how Insly can help your underwriting agency to digitise, book a demo with us today.
