What has the industry learned from the COVID-19 crisis and how will the pandemic shape its future? Financial Horizons Group CEO Nick Pszeniczny outlined the most plausible outcomes in an exclusive interview with the Insurance Portal. We present his analyses in a series of articles. This is the third.
What’s more, an article covering the in-depth strategic interview with the Financial Horizons Group CEO will be featured in our October 2020 edition of the Insurance Journal magazine.
Financial Horizons Group CEO, Nick Pszeniczny, expects uncertainty in the business environment following the pandemic. For example, he says one question is whether higher insurance limits will become the norm?
To assist advisors with remote sales during the lockdown period, several insurers raised the limit of the life or individual critical illness insurance face amount that clients can purchase with no medical exam or body fluid samples.
Insurers have demonstrated amazing agility and flexibility in response to COVID-19, Pszeniczny says. “They created new underwriting limits, finding innovative ways to underwrite new cases. They set up premium holidays and lower group insurance rates. Carriers are taking a lot more risks in their [underwriting decisions],” he explains.
Speaking in unison
Some of these accommodations will linger after the pandemic blows over, Pszeniczny predicts. He hopes the increase in the insurance amounts available without medical exam will be one of them. “Each carrier is determining the level of risks they take when the COVID-19 crisis is over. I strongly believed some companies will keep those limits and some companies will adjust. It’s too early to tell. It will be a different environment when we return to the new normal,” he says.
Pszeniczny says that insurers realize that the measures were welcomed. “Companies have been incredibly responsive to the idea that we, as MGAs, brought to the table. That is one of the benefits of having the strength of an industry like our MGAs,” he says.
Pszeniczny commented on what his firm did to help advisors navigate the plethora of information from insurers during their adaptation to COVID-19. Aside from the new limits on insurance amounts permitted without medical exam, advisors were bombarded with information on premium holidays, group insurance premium cuts, remote sales conditions and even government aid programs for business.
The MGA centralized all the data in what it calls a repository and data mine, namely a microsite launched on April 15, 2020, available to advisors and the general public: TrustedAdvice.ca. “Advisors wanted accurate and timely information from all carriers. Every company was sending information notes daily. It’s kind of a statement on how COVID-19 impacts our industry right now,” Pszeniczny explains.
…Free universal access
He also explains why he decided to offer the public free access to a tool that represents “a major investment of equity, time and labour.” Financial Horizons Group made the microsite accessible to all advisors, suppliers, clients and thousands of people who “are looking at our website, constantly trying to stay informed through this pandemic.”
“As one of the leading MGAs in the country, our job was to ensure that we took our leadership position seriously. Our repository will be a critical component of information,” Pszeniczny says, adding that this microsite will be one transformation that outlasts the pandemic.
BY ALAIN THÉRIAULT, with contributions from DONNA GLASGOW and SERGE THERRIEN
