The risks associated with disasters extend far beyond the initial destruction. For insurers, disaster damage assessment and claims processing can pose both significant financial risk as well as introduce personal risks for claims inspection teams.

With limited exceptions, state and federal workers compensation programs are no-fault systems. Regardless of how reckless or ill-conceived an employee’s actions are, they are generally still going to be entitled to recovery through workers compensation under most circumstances.

Property/casualty claims is destined to transform more than any other area of the insurance business over the next decade. Many may see that as a provocative statement, especially with all the attention on distribution and underwriting.

How do you manage employees when they are all remote? I agree with an inspirational business leader, Marcus Lemonis. There are three things that make your company successful.

When we say marketing 3.0, industry 4.0 and technology 5.0, we all get used to cool names ending with zero. I think no one is surprised that insurers fell a little bit behind.

“It is my view that this court could, and should, when such an ambiguous policy is before it, hold without equivocation that the provisions which are confusing and ambiguous as to the liability covered will be resolved in favor of the insured."

Claims and technology are joining forces to change the function as we know it. For many years, the industry relied on paper-based, time-consuming systems for managing claims.

“Hi, Karlyn. It’s your sister. We’ve been evacuated. There’s a big fire up in Paradise that might head down our way. Just wanted to let you know we’re heading to our daughter’s house. We only had 15 minutes to grab stuff, but it probably is just a precautionary alarm. Call when you get a chance.”

The future is now, as insurers warm up to the idea of using a robot to interview job applicants. San Francisco tech firm Entelo ran a survey late last year, which found that 62% of business leaders said they plan to invest in artificially intelligent technology to both analyze human behavior and identify top talent.

The bad news is insurance premiums are likely to go up if, as predicted, the frequency and intensity of hurricanes and wildfires increases as a result of climate change.

Yet another hurricane season has left a broad swath of America’s coast in recovery mode following a once-in-a-generation storm, and wildfires are devastating California. The disasters remind the rest of us how fortunate we are to be safe.

Florida’s second-largest home insurer, Security First Insurance faced more than 3,000 claims in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael earlier this year. It was the perfect time to deploy a new tool to help manage the load: A new chatbot servicing affected policyholders.

Nationwide insurance will lay off about 80 workers at its downtown Des Moines location as it reduces its national workforce by about 1,100 positions. Nationwide spokesman Joe Case said workers were told Tuesday that they would receive an official 60-day notice in January — effectively giving them about four months of notice before the layoffs become effective in March.

Good employees can be hard to find. That’s why clever employers know to seize any opportunity to find workers — even on a ride from the airport.

At InsureTech Connect, there were a lot of innovative approaches and capabilities on display. But the term “bubble” could be heard on many attendees’ lips, especially those who’d watched the event double in size each year.