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March 15, 2023

Changing of the Seasons

The insurance industry is grappling with significant, concurrent changes. But change itself is neither good nor bad. The shifts we see now in our business and economic climates are creating both opportunities and challenges for the industry. Those who ultimately “win” in this space will be those armed with the best combination of navigational and investment savvy. A few weeks ago, I had...

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Robert McIsaac

March 13, 2023

Top 10 Trends in Life, Annuity, & Benefits Insurance: Preparing for a Dynamic and Variable New Reality

On Tuesday, February 21st, I co-hosted a webinar on the Top 10 Trends in Life, Annuity, & Benefits Insurance with my Aite-Novarica Group colleagues: Nancy Casbarro, Senior Principal; John Keddy, Senior Principal; and Ken Toffolo, Research Council Fellow. During this hour-long presentation, we discussed each of the 10 trends and shared our perspectives on how we see them impacting the life,...

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Robert McIsaac

February 13, 2023

Manage What You Measure

Now that we are well into the first quarter, most insurance carriers are taking stock of finalized budgets and plans, and moving into a more focused execution mode. The planning process for 2023 was much longer than normal for many carriers as they grappled with a dynamic environment that produced potentially significant implications—frequently, diametrically opposed implications. We are headed...

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Robert McIsaac

February 7, 2023

The Urgency of Finding—and Keeping—Talent

One of the most common areas of discussion now with CIOs and CTOs in Aite-Novarica Group’s Insurance Technology Research Council is related to finding, and keeping, the talent needed to run effective operations. Technology has always been an important underpinning of the insurance industry, but the age of this tech has taken on increased urgency in the pandemic/post-pandemic era. Digitization...

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Robert McIsaac

January 31, 2023

Welcome to 2023!

Happy New Year! And welcome to 2023, a year which appears to offer great promise, fascinating contradictions, and some real risks for insurance carriers as they execute in what feels like a different era. The changes we have experienced over the past three years have been profound and, in many ways, have altered our trajectory. We are, we hope, finally entering a post-pandemic era. Many...

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Robert McIsaac

January 23, 2023

Tech, Talent, and Experience Highlight 2023 Opportunities (and Challenges) for Life, Annuities, and Benefits

The last two years have dramatically impacted the life insurance industry. As the pandemic has gone on, remote work, a talent shortage, social distancing, and direct reminders of mortality have been impacting the daily lives of customers, distribution partners, and insurers. These factors have led to changes in the processes for underwriting, applying for policies, and distribution. Ongoing...

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Robert McIsaac

January 16, 2023

Critical Success Ingredient: Wobble Wobble

In central North Carolina, we are graced with unusual art sculptures which look, for all the world, like giant pinwheels. They are, in fact, exactly that—the product of the ingenious mind of Vollis Simpson. His art went from curiosities which graced his farm in Wilson County to something which came to be part of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and Atlanta’s Olympic Village. And of course, today, the...

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Robert McIsaac

January 5, 2023

Communication Matters

Many of us are now finalizing plans and budgets for the new year, which appears to offer an array of both challenges and opportunities for insurance carriers. With fingers crossed, we are looking forward to a post-pandemic era, even while dealing with the consequences of compromised immune systems in many areas, making the health recovery seem bumpy at best. There’s been a headlong rush of...

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Robert McIsaac

January 3, 2023

Situational Awareness Will Be Key for Insurance IT Success in 2023

As we close the book on 2022, it’s perhaps appropriate to consider how different the year we are entering will be from the past years we remember fondly. For insurance carrier IT organizations, planning for the future now will be key. As the quote typically attributed to Winston Churchill goes, “Generals are always ready to fight the last war.” The corporate equivalent of this is to think that a...

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Robert McIsaac

December 7, 2022

Investing in the Future

Recently, Aite-Novarica Group’s Insurance Practice hosted our quarterly Broker-Dealer Technology Research Group meeting. I had the opportunity to co-host this session with my colleagues John Keddy, Nancy Casbarro, and Jack Krantz. These sessions focus on the unique challenges and opportunities faced by broker-dealers that are owned by insurance companies, which are distinctly difference from true...

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Robert McIsaac