Top 10 National Insurance Journal Stories of 2022

December 29, 2022 by Chad Hemenway

Auto insurers have had difficulties coming out of the pandemic – when streets were relatively unpopulated. The topic was the top national story published by Insurance Journal in 2022.

If a word cloud was to be done on all national stories this year, it is a good bet that “inflation” would be one of, if not the, most prominent since it was mentioned in commentary on any line of business. But in auto, economic and social inflation – not to mention an inexplicable regression in safe driving habits since drivers returned to the road – have resulted in a lot of red ink in underwriting results and led industry rating analyst AM Best to have a negative outlook for the line.

Changes to AIG’s book of business, policy-language disputes, insurers’ relationship with bankrupt companies, and a spat between brokers interested a lot of readers.

Allstate’s status as a large, publicly traded P/C insurer put it at the forefront of auto-insurance news, especially when it revealed its plan to increase rates, and then continued to increase rates as losses kept pouring in. Recently Allstate CEO Tom Wilson brought State Farm into the conversation. Maybe he was right. Without getting into State Farm’s specific gameplan, CEO Michael Tipsord outlined how the insurer handled auto during the pandemic and admitted to missing badly on the severity of claims after more wheels hit the road. But personal auto results have been slow to recover for insurers overall.

Buyers of cyber insurance have been asked to use multifactor authentication (MFA) as a condition to get coverage. The requirement is relatively new, and this case garnered a lot of attention because the insurer took a stand when it alleged a company misrepresented its use of MFA – or lied about it – following an investigation of a ransomware incident. Eventually, the insurer and insured agreed to void the policy.

In February, AIG’s CEO said the business model of its high-net worth homeowners business “simply needs to change.” The rate of big losses in peak catastrophe zones became too much for the admitted market. And where do a lot of high-net worth folks live? They reside in high-risk areas. Maybe some of them took a look at the Best Areas in U.S. to Live to Avoid Natural Disasters

Tesla and Elon Musk appeared in many headlines in 2023 for a multitude of reasons: employment practices allegations, product recalls, and Musk’s purchase of Twitter, to name a few. However, this story focused on Tesla Insurance and how the car’s data can inform underwriting.

Many organizations continued in 2022 to grapple with the best way to define the post-pandemic “new normal” when it comes to the workforce. What is the best scenario for hybrid work? The issue is not limited to the insurance industry, of course, but State Farm’s CEO recently provided a candid look back at how the insurer handled and continues to handle it’s employees. Also in the category of pandemic consequences to the workplace, a story on so-called “quiet quitting” got a lot of clicks – and some spirited comments.

The hearing was set and in September, a bankruptcy judge – after ordering some changes – granted the Boy Scouts of America approval of its $2.5 billion reorganization plan. The plan is meant to allow the organization to settle tens of thousands of sexual abuse claims. However, some insurers are fighting against it: Insurers Say ‘Bazooka’ of Bogus Boys Scouts Claims Is Abuse of Bankruptcy System.

The search for good talent can result in lawsuits like this one, which caught your attention in 2022. While employee-poaching suits among brokers aren’t particularly uncommon, the back-and-forth allegations here were somewhat different, and this was not the first time Gallagher sued Alliant, who shot back with allegations of sexism and discrimination of women. In September the brokers agreed to work out a settlement.

Early this year, readers took to this story on hockey-puck-sized sensors used to stop water leaks.

Two years in the making since the bank was sued following a data breach that impacted more than 100 million people, this settlement was one of the largest for a multidistrict data breach case.

Our readers are always interested in investments in the insurtech space. Maybe the reason for extra interest here was the fact this news came days after the digital auto insurer laid of more than 300 employees. News on Lemonade’s earnings struggles were also popular, and this year it acquired pay-per-mile auto insurer Metromile. We’ll keep an eye on insurtechs in 2023. Researchers are Forrester didn’t have a great forecast for them.

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