“Innovative” is not the word I’d use to describe the personal lines insurance space. Industry veterans even affectionately refer to insurance carriers as “slow first movers and fast followers.”

Think back to a time when our industry experienced a monumental change; one such time was the introduction of credit back in the 90s. Credit made significant improvements in predicting risk and to this day is considered by many carriers to be the single rating factor that is most predictive of both loss frequency and loss severity. Many consumers actually saw a reduction on the price of their premiumsfrom credit-based insurance scores, and since then, it has been a valuable tool to price insurance risk. (Source: Triple I Handbook Chapter on Insurance Scores, citing a 2017 report from the Arkansas insurance department showing that for 54.5 percent of 3.4 million 2016 personal lines policies, the use of credit scores resulted in reduced premiums, while premiums increased for 19.8 percent)