The property/casualty insurance market is seeing its biggest shake-ups in recent memory. New players, shifting customer expectations, consolidation and new operational models have all hit the market in the past two years. For example, following in Nationwide’s footsteps, more carriers are releasing their captive agents and moving to an independent agent (IA) model. This is creating a flood of new IAs in the market and increased competition.
But the company didn’t just cut all its captive agents loose without a thought to how the change would impact them. Nationwide made major investments in digital solutions to support those IAs after the transition. Those investments include redesigning and simplifying Nationwide’s digital operations and pricing/underwriting improvements on the personal lines side. For commercial lines, the focus is on streamlining acquisition costs, accelerating small market underwriting, expanding mid-market capabilities, optimizing servicing, enhancing claims effectiveness and modernizing technology.