Loss Prevention Or A Trojan Horse?

A buzz phrase gaining momentum in the insurance market at the moment is “ecospheres of prevention.” It’s about using smart devices to monitor for signs of impending loss events, and to then signal that to policyholders.

For policyholders, this means events relating to your health, your house, your car and other such life contexts. It’s exciting stuff, a harbinger of a new insurance that focuses on preventing losses rather than simply paying out for them. Yet it is replete with issues of ethics and power, which I’ll explore in this post.

I should start by making clear that I’m a big fan of loss prevention. I spent several years immersed in the commercial side of it early on in my insurance career, with qualifications to match.

Later on, I often got involved in related negotiations for personal lines policyholders with particular needs. So the idea of an ecosphere of prevention rings a bell with me.

The more I looked into this phrase, though, and weighed up the sector drivers being messaged around it, the more that bell began to sound like one of warning.