A weekly list of interesting news items that we were not able to write full articles on, but nonetheless, knew our readers would be interested in knowing about …
Private Passenger Residual Market Rate Filing
On April 14, 2017, CAR announced the following in Bulletin No. 1035
Private Passenger Residual Market Rate Filing October 1, 2017 Proposed Effective Date:
CAR filed a rate proposal for the Massachusetts private passenger residual market with the Division of Insurance. The filing has a proposed effective date of October 1, 2017, with a proposed overall rate level increase of 9.9%. The filing, including rate pages and rating factor tables, are available to Member Companies upon request. Requests should be directed to Shannon Chiu at schiu@commauto.com. Final rates will be posted to CAR’s website when they are placed on file by the Division of Insurance.
The PIMA Summer Event
Registration is now open for The Professional Insurance Marketing Association (PIMA) Mid-Year Meeting & Trade Show. This meeting, which is from July 20 – 23, 2017, will be held at the Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, WA (near Portland, Oregon). According to PIMA, its conferences attract the C-suite leaders in affinity benefits distribution.
The conference will focus on the innovations that are changing the insurance industry and will include program highlights such as:
- Innovation: The convergence of the old and new worlds—and implications for the future. Hear from leaders at Majesco, Liberty Mutual Innovation, Aon, and Haven Life.
- The Next Generation of Affinity Marketing: social media, new types of loyalty programs (like the Marsh & Tesla partnership), and how consumers connect & buy today. Hear from leaders at Marsh, RPM, and Homesite.
- Game-Changing technologies: InsurTech innovators will show & tell. Hear from leaders from SalesForce, Denim, LimeLight Health, Insurify and RFP365.
- An update on Regulations & Capitol Hill.
- Millennials’ impact on our future business.
In addition, PIMA’s 2017 Marketing Methods Competition winners will be announced.
“PIMA’s founders were the original disruptors in insurance distribution and P2P insurance. Our summer Meeting & Trade Shows always focus on InsureTech and MarkeTTech—helping us, and new partners, thrive in the new ecosystem.”
As our readers may remember, in February, we interviewed MassDrive’s Bill Suneson about his election as the new president of PIMA. For those who haven’t read the interview or would like to refresh their memories, please refer to Agency Checklists February 7, 2017 article entitled “PIMA’s New President, Bill Suneson, Talks About What Affinity Marketing Is And What PIMA Can Offer Mass. Agencies And Carriers.”
To sign -up for the PIMA Mid-Year conference, please note their is an early bird registration and housing deadline which is June 1st. PIMA emphasizes that non-members are welcome to attend. For a brochure or to register, please continue on to their website by clicking here.
AskKodiak integrates with Bold Penguin
Integration enhances emerging marketplace for commercial lines agents and insurers
Boston insurtech start-up AskKodiak has officially integrated with Bold Penguin and its commercial lines agent portal. The integration will allow portal users to access the company’s search engine capabilities specific to “appetite, eligibility and products highlights.”
In commenting on the integration, Ask Kodiak Co-Founder Mike Albert noted,
For Ask Kodiak, it has always been about creating market efficiency through transparency and insight,” said Michael Albert, co-founder of Ask Kodiak. “The integration with Bold Penguin helps agents quote new business faster and gives insurers more desirable classes of risk by their own definition. It’s about putting the robust search functionality and appetite matching of Ask Kodiak where it is most useful and accessible for agents, and Bold Penguin is using our API to do just that.”
In turn, Bold Penguin Founder and CEO says the addition of Ask Kodiak is one step closer to creating a superb insurance customer experience for its agent users.
“Bold Penguin’s mission is to create a better, digital marketplace for agents trying to place commercial lines business,” said Ilya Bodner, founder and CEO of Bold Penguin. “By simplifying the complex commercial lines underwriting process, we increase deal flow for agents and insurers. The agents using Bold Penguin are top producers, and we are pleased to be able to add Ask Kodiak as another data point within our portal which will ultimately improve the insurance customer experience.”