NEXT Insurance, an insurance provider for small businesses recently expanded its offerings for its clients with the launch of commercial umbrella/excess liability across 41 US states. The company has stated that it is confident that this highly requested offering will address the demand that they have seen from both customers and agents who require this coverage for contractual obligations.
Reinsurance News recently spoke to Jack Ramsey, NEXT Insurance’s Vice President of Agent Business, as he explained how the new coverage addresses the demand that the company has seen.
“This offering of excess liability/umbrella coverage is hugely important. Within this space there are a number of customers whose exposure does not need extremely high limits of liability. They may just need enough coverage to ensure that the customers they work with are fully protected in what they do as a small business,” he said.
“Then there are others that engage in contracts and relationships that require or demand higher limits of coverage to operate. And so, they start to get into the space that typically demands or needs higher limits of coverage. So, to be in a position to offer that solution across that range where if you operate as a business that is fully covered and insured and can focus on running your business because you have a limit of a million. If so, fantastic, because we have that offering.”
Moreover, Ramsey also highlighted NEXT’s ongoing strategy within it’s new phase of prioritizing agents.
“Where we are headed as a business, and where we are going to make a significant difference for our agents, is providing them with a fully digital solution in the micro space that creates revenue for them instead of expense. Agents will often tell you that if they have to touch a small business account more than once, it costs them money to do it as compared to paid revenue.
“Our value proposition to the agents that we are working with is that we can come to them with a fully digital solutions for both new business and a fully digital capabilities for service that can create a revenue stream for them, instead of an expense that solves a significant deficiency pain point that they encounter every day.”
Ramsey also addressed the effectiveness that digital technology has on the industry, and how much it has progressed over time, and how important it is for companies to remain up to date with it.
“Looking back to as little as 10 years ago, as carriers we did not have access to the same degree of third-party data, or the ability to use machine learning through quoting, that we have today. So, 10 years ago many of those manual processes were necessary because the data did not exist.
“It is much more prevalent now, and the carriers and companies that leverage deeper, more rich resources are the ones who have an advantage. It has never been more relevant for companies to explore the digital data that is available to them today.”
Staying on the topic of the digital, Ramsey then explained how NEXT is looking to expand its digital approach within providing insurance coverage for small businesses and partners.
“We are always looking to expand and staying true to the mission of number one, helping small business owners thrive. And then for number two, it’s being that efficient digital partner, in which data has allowed us to rethink our agent value proposition.
“This could include new classes of business that we have not written before, and because now we have the data that can support it. Staying true to that digital philosophy, we have information that allows us to expand our underwriting thresholds because the data is more available.
“And again, it gets back to the value proposition that is needed in the marketplace, which is don’t create more manual processes, but instead, find places and avenues where you can be that efficient simple digital solution and where we can do that broader than we are today, we are looking at it every day of every week and constantly looking for opportunities for that.”
