It makes your vehicle unsafe to drive. This is particularly true when they compete away from the more developed cities and drive deep into the hundreds of emerging second- and third-tier cities, where brand leadership is still wide open. These markets are still in landgrab mode, where the penetration of insurance to gross domestic product (GDP) is still low (2 percent in China and 4.3 percent in India). They will probably still be quite profitable, and many will not see the urgency to change the way they operate and experiment with new initiatives. With the largest players typically saddled with historical legacies and aging sales forces, there is little urgency for smaller players to change their business model radically. But, disinherited beneficiaries may have little reason to cooperate. While the brands may differ in terms of history and recognition, the operating model and the target market are remarkably similar across all players.

In particular, domestic insurers have a very tough time attracting the best investment talent since they are competing with local and foreign fund management houses as well as hedge funds. The accounting-based, absolute-return number that most insurers focus on – even if required to service liabilities from high-guaranteed, interest rate products in the in-force book – is not a good measure to determine value in the investment function. Douglas Wholey and colleagues examined the effects of both the market share of HMOs and the number of HMOs in metropolitan markets in 1993. 20 They found that premiums were lower in communities with greater HMO penetration and greater competition. For contractors trying to cut costs, it might be tempting to respond to internet offers of cheap premiums. These players might be able to defend their current market share, and will even enjoy the natural growth of these markets for some years.

Execution excellence is key for the smaller players to succeed in these markets. For smaller players in these markets, the business model need not necessarily be different from the large incumbents; instead, the focus should be on execution excellence and the development of a stronger management bench. Looking at the development of the past decade, there is no reason not to expect a handful of these smaller players to become large, dominant players over the next 10 years, especially in the rapidly growing markets. Leading players in China and India have built their current strong market position within the last 5-10 years. 2,700 by 2025. In the same year, urban China will comprise of about 940 cities and towns with a total urban population of around 930 million people. For example, The Hartford, in Japan, concentrates solely on variable annuities and manages 22 percent of the total in-force sum assured, as of financial year 2006. Indeed it can be said that The Hartford created this market. And in Japan, Sompo Life successfully markets basic life insurance products using non-face-to-face methods.

Across Asia, life insurance players are not very well differentiated. When certain criteria are met, a contract could trigger payment of the claim without any human intervention, therefore improving the speed of resolution for claims. In many cases, speed is of the essence. And how much more fun we would have had if he had kept that old boat (or bought another used one)? Compared with the much more flexible and professional environment that fund houses provide, it is not surprising that insurers are far behind in this war for talent. Our professional liability insurance can be set up according to the risks that are relevant to your position – choose according to coverage limits (including high limits) or your out of pocket costs. Inflation – primarily controlled by the interest rate policies set by the Federal Reserve. Neither Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (“FGIC”) nor its UK insurance subsidiary FGIC UK Limited (“FGIC UK”) is currently engaged in the business of writing new insurance policies or financial guaranties. This includes ALICO’s direct-channel strategy in Japan that mobilizes corporate agents to sell medical insurance, and ORIX Life’s low-premium strategy, which uses the mail-order channel for low-margin policies.