Insurance Experts Research Articles

Service quality study in the property and casualty insurance market using the Quality Function Deployment methodology

The aim of this project is to study the dimensions of service quality in non-life insurance market, applying the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methodology. To achieve the purpose of the paper, a specific service quality scale was developed to reflect the most important service quality elements in the insurance industry. For the first time in any insurance market or insurance service quality research, the Insurance Service Quality Function Deployment (ISQFD) matrix was developed especially for the insurance sector. Furthermore, the SIQUAL scale has been developed which is specifically designed to analyse service quality in the insurance industry. We interviewed over 300 insurance customers (mainly car and home insurance policy holders) and 17 insurance experts – including company directors, researchers, public institution members, private institution members and consultancy directors from the insurance sector. By applying what we propose in this research study, insurance companies can develop their business and focus their actions on what is more efficient in the long term, increase their customers’ satisfaction and loyalty. This research represents the first QFD analysis in the European insurance market and it is the first study based on a specific service quality scale, establishing a solid basis for future research in insurance service quality.

Cash flow generalisations of non-life insurance expert systems estimating outstanding liabilities

For as long as anyone remembers non-life insurance companies have used the so called chain ladder method to reserve for outstanding liabilities. When historical payments of claims are used as observations then chain ladder can be understood as estimating a multiplicative model. In most non-life insurance companies a mixture of paid data and expert knowledge, incurred data, is used as observations instead of just payments. This paper considers recent statistical cash flow models for asset–liability hedging, capital allocation and other management decision tools, and develops two new such methods incorporating available incurred data expert knowledge into the outstanding liability cash flow model. These two new methods unbundle the incurred data to aggregates of estimates of the future cash flow. By a re-distribution to the right algorithm, the estimated future cash flow is incorporated in the overall estimation process and considered as data. A statistical validation technique is developed for these two new methods and they are compared to the other recent cash flow methods. The two methods show to have a very good performance on the real-life data set considered.

PENGUNDERAITAN DALAM PRODUK TAKAFUL KELUARGA DARI PERSPEKTIF SYARIAH: Family Takaful Product Underwriting From Shariah Perspective

In the insurance operations, underwriting procesess are important to determine the premium rate that would be applicable to individuals who wanted to be insured. These processes involves the assessment and examination of the individual in order to fix the rates and risk classes. Takaful operators have known to have a similar practices with the insurance companies in the underwriting processes. Thus, all the issues facing by the insurance companies which are related to the underwriting processes may also occurs in the takaful industry. For example, in the conventional insurance, including gender and family background in the underwriting issues are seen as unfair by the insurance experts. Rigid underwriting processes can also restricted the participations into takaful plans. Strict evaluation in the application will cause the unhealthy applicants to be rejected. There is also a view that stated that the underwriting practices are against the concept of mutual help in takaful. Hence, to ascertain the importance of underwriting processes in takaful, literature research, encompassing books, papers and journals, were used to obtain information. A field study was also conducted by using the interview method. Interviews are conducted amongst the underwriters and a number of Shariah advisors from few takaful operators. The main focus of this study is to gain the Shariah’s insight on the underwriting practices, primarily to justify whether it is in accordance to the shariah principles. This analytical findings of this case study has concluded that the underwriting processes that currently being practiced in the takaful industry is in accordance with the Islamic principles.

PENGUNDERAITAN DALAM PRODUK TAKAFUL KELUARGA DARI PERSPEKTIF SYARIAH

In the insurance operations, underwriting procesess are important to determine the premium rate that would be applicable to individuals who wanted to be insured. These processes involves the assessment and examination of the individual in order to fix the rates and risk classes. Takaful operators have known to have a similar practices with the insurance companies in the underwriting processes. Thus, all the issues facing by the insurance companies which are related to the underwriting processes may also occurs in the takaful industry. For example, in the conventional insurance, including gender and family background in the underwriting issues are seen as unfair by the insurance experts. Rigid underwriting processes can also restricted the participations into takaful plans. Strict evaluation in the application will cause the unhealthy applicants to be rejected. There is also a view that stated that the underwriting practices are against the concept of mutual help in takaful. Hence, to ascertain the importance of underwriting processes in takaful, literature research, encompassing books, papers and journals, were used to obtain information. A field study was also conducted by using the interview method. Interviews are conducted amongst the underwriters and a number of Shariah advisors from few takaful operators. The main focus of this study is to gain the Shariah’s insight on the underwriting practices, primarily to justify whether it is in accordance to the shariah principles. This analytical findings of this case study has concluded that the underwriting processes that currently being practiced in the takaful industry is in accordance with the Islamic principles.

Overutilization, overutilized.

Overutilization is commonly blamed for escalating costs, compromising quality, and limiting access to the US health care system. Recent estimates suggest that nearly one-third of health care spending in the United States is a result of unnecessary care. Despite the surge of exposés that purport to uncover this "new" problem, narratives about overutilization have been circulating in health policy debates since the beginnings of the health insurance industry. This article traces how the term overutilization has spread in popularity from a relatively small community of mid-twentieth-century insurance experts to economists, physicians, epidemiologists, and eventually the news media of the early twenty-first century. A quick glimpse at the history of the term reveals that there has been constant disagreement and debate over the meaning and impact of overutilization. Moreover, the term has been put to very different uses, from keeping socialism at bay to preserving the fiscal integrity of Medicare to protecting the health of patients. The overutilization narrative, seductive in its promise of cutting costs without sacrificing access to quality care, too often drowns out other difficult conversations about social welfare, health equity, prices, and universal coverage.

Institutional Transfer: The Beginnings of Insurance in Southeast Asia

At the turn of the nineteenth century, modern insurance started to spread from the British Isles around the world. Outside Europe and the European offshoots in North and South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, it began to compete with other forms of risk management and often met with stiff opposition on religious and cultural grounds. Insurance arrived in Southeast Asia via British merchants living in India and Canton rather than through agencies of European firms. While the early agency houses in Bengal collapsed in the credit crisis of 1829–1834, the firms established by opium traders residing in Macau and Hong Kong, and advised by insurance experts in London, went on to form the foundations of the insurance industry in the Far East. Until the early twentieth century, they sought to use the techniques of risk management that they had developed in Europe to win Europeans and Americans living in Southeast Asia as clients, along with members of the local population familiar with Western culture.

Analysis of professional malpractice claims in implant dentistry in Italy from insurance company technical reports, 2006 to 2010.

The aim of the study was to analyze the characteristics of implant dentistry claims in Italy based on insurance company technical reports for malpractice claims. One hundred twenty-one technical reports of cases of professional malpractice in implant dentistry between 2006 and 2010 were included in the study. Data included the sex and age of the patient and dentist, the kind of negligence claimed, and the damages awarded as a consequence of the alleged misconduct. Of the cases examined in this study, 9.9% went to court. The patients were female in 73.6% of the cases. Most of the technical errors were committed during implant insertion (82.6%). In 50.4% of cases, the technical error involved the surrounding structures, such as damage to the inferior alveolar nerve (32.2%) or the lingual nerve (2.5%), invasion of the maxillary sinus (9.1%), or pulpal dental necrosis in adjacent teeth (6.6%). Incomplete clinical documentation was apparent in 54.5% of cases. In 9.9% of cases, a civil suit had already been filed before a visit, and medicolegal advice from the insurance expert had been procured. The discrepancy between the total number of cases examined and those that went to court indicates that implant malpractice claims in Italy are most often settled out of court. The large number of intraoperative errors seen and the high proportion of injuries to surrounding structures suggest that implant dentists would benefit from further specific training. Also, clinical documentation vital to a defense against any claims relating to professional misconduct was incomplete or absent in more than half of the cases.

Questions Linger About Health Premiums in New Exchanges

Wildly conflicting estimates about how much consumers will pay for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act�s (ACA�s) insurance exchanges next year reflect politics and the complexity of the insurance market, according to health economists and insurance experts convened by the Alliance for Health Reform for a panel discussion in mid-August. The panel explained the myriad factors that will influence premium rates in the exchanges and offered assurances that fears about �rate shock� may be overblown.

The ‘rule of experts’ in making a dynamic micro-insurance industry in India

India is reported to have the most dynamic micro-insurance market in the world and the largest weather-index insurance market among developing countries. This is interesting because, paradoxically, reports readily suggest that the primary hindrance for the industry is the widespread lack of effective demand for insurance. This paper seeks to identify, understand and problematize the paradox of resolutely promoting micro-insurance and its apparent rapid growth despite a manifest absence of demand for insurance. Neo-classical theories about risk-averse behaviour do not explain the current lack of appeal of insurance among the poor. Rather, I draw on a postcolonial political economy framework to argue that expert investment in getting prices and culture right while safeguarding micro-insurance supply currently explains the celebrated dynamism of Indian micro-insurance. I argue that promoting comprehensive institutional reform for an ideal investment and entrepreneurial climate involves securing mutually beneficial linkages, collaborations and knowledge within a broad assemblage of profit motives, insurance expertise, policy-makers and professionals. Insurance experts rule by promoting the micro-insurance sector while simultaneously investing in and gaining from discursive, material and pedagogical construction of this industry. Future research should address whether such processes and products are effective in managing financial risks of the poor.

A Complex of Models of Insurance Expertise in the Industrial Accidents Insurance

A Complex of Models of Insurance Expertise in the Industrial Accidents Insurance

An application of Fuzzy DEMATEL electronic life-insurance development

Article history: Received September 1, 2012 Received in revised format 17 December 2012 Accepted 20 December 2012 Available online December 24 2012 For years, e-commerce has generated competitive advantage for many industries especially in insurance industry where people could apply for any sort of insurance, very easily. In fact, insurance industry has become one of the most important sectors in the world. E-commerce, on the other hand, has absorbed various people in insurance industry to develop economic growth. However, applying e-commerce for insurance firms may encounter serious obstacles and it is important to know them properly and setup appropriate actions to remove them. In this paper, we present a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique based on DEMATEL with an adaptation of fuzzy logic to find important factors impacting implementation of e-commerce for life insurance industry. The proposed study of this paper designs a questionnaire and distributes it among some insurance experts and then we analyze them using fuzzy DEMATEL technique. Findings indicate that “lack of designing death table based on the existing statistics of population death in Iran”, “lack of variety in protections of life insurance in proportionate to society individual’s requirements by means of low level income of society individuals” and “lack of extensive advertisements for developing the culture of life insurance in country” are the most important factors influencing insurance industry for enhancing e-business. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

INSURANCE SERVICE PURCHASE DECISION-MAKING RATIONALE: EXPERT-BASED EVIDENCE FROM LITHUANIA

Abstract. This paper deals with the examination of the rationale for insurance service purchase decision making with a focus on Lithuania and its possible implications for both Lithuania and other developing insurance markets. This work proposes a model that reflects the several stages of the insurance service purchase decision making process, including the time dimension. This model is constructed on the basis of three hypotheses; these hypotheses are tested based on data collected by means of an insurance expert survey. The results confirm the existence of two stages of insurance service purchase decision making, where one’s intellect and income determine the inclination towards insurance and where the price and quality of an insurance service determine its purchase decision. The research reveals a relatively equivalent impact of both consumers’ intellect and income on their inclination towards insurance in general; however, it strongly indicates the consumers’ strong focus on the price of the service as opposed to its quality when deciding to purchase an insurance service. The research also discloses the higher complexity of the decision making process when purchasing life insurance services as compared to non-life insurance services.Key words: insurance consumer behaviour rationale, insurance service purchase inclination and decision stages, intellect vs. income, price vs. quality, complicated vs. trivial process

Genetics and insurance in the United Kingdom 1995–2010: the rise and fall of “scientific” discrimination

Around the millennium there was extensive debate in the United Kingdom about the possible use of predictive genetic tests by insurance companies. Many insurance experts, geneticists, and public policymakers appeared to believe that genetic test results would soon become widely used by the insurance industry. This expectation has not been borne out. This article outlines the history of exaggerated perceptions of the significance of genetic test results to insurance, with particular reference to the United Kingdom, suggesting reasons why they arose and also why they have declined. The article concludes with some speculation about how policy on genetics and insurance might develop in future.

Audit committee characteristics and loss reserve error

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate two audit committee characteristics – independence and expertise of the audit committee – and the property‐liability insurers' financial reporting quality, which is proxied by loss reserve error.Design/methodology/approachThe authors' hypotheses are tested using multivariate analysis where the loss reserve error is the dependent variable, and audit committee independence, and four types of audit committee financial expertise (accounting, finance, supervisory, and insurance expertise) are the testing variables.FindingsIt is found that accounting, finance, and insurance financial expertise are associated with more accurate loss reserve estimate. In contrast, a supervisory financial expertise and an independence audit committee are not found to be associated with better loss reserve quality.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample includes publicly‐held property‐liability insurers. Although the results from publicly‐held insurers could provide a good laboratory for such investigation in all insurers, they might be limited due to different organization structures of public vs private insurers.Practical implicationsThe implications of the study are important for the SEC and NAIC. The results suggest that the requirements on the audit committee financial expertise would be necessary, even in highly regulated industry, such as property‐casualty insurance.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the extant literature by studying audit committee characteristics in the insurance industry. It also contributes to the extant literature on audit committee effectiveness by decomposing the financial expertise into four types of financial expertise (accounting, finance, supervisory, or insurance expertise) and investigates which (if any) of these four types of expertise really drives the improvement of loss reserve quality.

An Exploration of the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment: The Moderating Effect of Emotional Intelligence: Case Study in Iran

Purpose: This research aims to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment. In addition, we intend to study the effect of emotional intelligence, which moderates the relationship of transformational leadership and organizational commitment. Research methodology/design: Insurance experts ( working in 6 branches of Social Security Organization of Qazvin province completed a measure of EI (Bar-On's self-report Emotional Intelligence Inventory), Multi Factor Questionnaire (MLQ), a measure of transformational leadership, and a questionnaire of organizational commitment. Findings: Correlational and regression analysis revealed that there is a direct and positive relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment. Also results show that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment. Originality/value: This paper establishes a link between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence. It, also, shows that follower's emotional intelligence moderates that relationship. One of the managerial applications of our result is that effectiveness of transformational leadership depends on follower's EI. It means that managers who have transformational leadership style are effective when their followers are high on EI. Keywords: Transformational leadership, Organizational Commitment, Emotional Intelligence

Incidental and Preliminary--Features of the Late Kafka

This article points towards a connection between two research areas conventionally separated from each other: on the one hand, an interest in the social problems and ideas with which Kafka was familiar in his job at the Prague Workmen’s Accident Insurance Institute and, on the other hand, an interest in Kafka’s writing process. The world of Kafka’s late texts looks like one seen through the eyes of an insurance expert, shaped by flexible, only preliminary norms and calculations in which the behavior of a single individual is incidental and insignificant. A closer look at late manuscripts by Kafka demonstrates that he struggled hard against the merely preliminary character of his writing and experienced difficulties deciding what was merely incidental and what was significant in his own texts. The difficulties of the writing process are also difficulties that the figures in his texts have to deal with: hence, the incidental and the preliminary are seen here as features of Kafka’s late writing and writings.

Civil liability for nuclear damage and corporate system of complex insurance coverage for companies and organisations of nuclear industry

Building up a unified insurance coverage system for nuclear industry companies requires the industry and enterprises to perform a number of extrinsic functions (insurance expertise, development of insurance programme of the company, drafting of insurance contracts, etc.). The functions of the organisation of insurance coverage are offered to be deputed to a specialised organisation (insurance broker), which in this case becomes a part of the insurance coverage system of industrial companies. Thus, the proposed insurance coverage structure includes the following: ‘Industry’ (responsibility centre) – ‘Insurant’ (company) – ‘Specialised organisation’ (insurance broker) – ‘Insurer’ (insurance company, pool of insurance companies). As an example, we have examined the organisation of civil liability for nuclear damage. Analysing this kind of insurance and its peculiarities, we have revealed how the insurance broker (JSC ‘Atomic Insurance Broker’) would naturally fit into the system of insurance protection offered for nuclear industry companies.

How to manage knowledge well? Evidence from the life insurance industry

As using knowledge management and performance effectively to gain competitive advantage is becoming critical in today’s knowledge-based economy, an increasing number of industries are trying to explore optimal methods of managing knowledge-based assets, so-called intellectual capital (IC) in both visible and invisible forms and evaluate their performance in this regard. In Taiwan, the life insurance industry includes two crucial factors: first, it is one of main mechanisms that could significantly influence Taiwanese economic growth; and second, knowledge needed for high performance itself. However, not only is difficulty in professions growing, high flow rate of talent and an increase in, and extension of, diversity services, but the recent global economic depression is a drawback that is seriously damaging competitive advantage domestically and internationally. This phenomenon also obviously affects Taiwanese economic growth. Since the renaissance and auspicious future of Taiwanese life insurance industry might be expected by senior life insurance experts, the aim of this study is on the basis of its development nature, profit generation by effective knowledge management, to overcome the highlighted difficulties by developing the critical criteria of IC and utilizing the developed IC criteria to explore the benchmark company. This is accomplished through a hybrid multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach based on a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), the analytic network process (ANP), and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR). Companies in the life insurance industry are encouraged to successfully evaluate and improve knowledge management performance based on the research findings, to bring about radical change in the existing state of affairs and to develop future strategies efficiently and solidly. Key words: Intellectual capital, life insurance industry, DEMATEL, ANP, VIKOR.

Maldives take a climate lead

The Maldives hopes to be the first state to be carbon neutral but threats from sea-level rise still dominate. Nigel Williams reports. The Maldives hopes to be the first state to be carbon neutral but threats from sea-level rise still dominate. Nigel Williams reports. The Maldives carried out one of the most dramatic stunts ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit last December: wearing full diving gear, ministers held a cabinet meeting on the seabed. The aim was to highlight the vulnerability of the Indian Ocean archipelago — much of the land is less than 1.5 metres above sea level. And this year, ahead of the Cancún climate talks, alarm is growing about the threat of sea-level rise, but the Maldives also announced that it is aiming by 2020 to become the first carbon-neutral country. At a news conference last month, the president, Mohamed Nasheed, said that an audit had been carried out covering all 310,000 citizens. The results estimated that tourist flights to the islands emitted as much greenhouse gases as all of the population. The audit is a prelude to an investment plan next year in solar, wind and wave power and to the introduction of limits to fuel imports to less than 15 per cent of GDP. Carried out by auditors BeCitizen, it estimated that the Maldivians emitted 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2009 through electricity generation, transport, waste and fishing. For emissions that will be covered by the carbon-neutral plan, Maldivians produce 4.1 tonnes per person. This compares with 5.5 tonnes per person in China and 23.5 tonnes per person in the US. The plan is that any emissions above the carbon-neutral targets will be offset by the increased planting of mangroves and purchase of carbon credits. “Achieving carbon neutrality by 2020 is possible,” said Flora Bernard, associate director of BeCitizen. Only a few countries have set goals of becoming carbon neutral, including Costa Rica and Norway, but, if the Maldives plans work out, it could be the first. While the Maldives is unsurprisingly so concerned about sea-level change, as it affects the whole population and its tourist industry, a new report, commissioned by the UN Development Programme, with British and Caribbean partners, highlights the threat to other tropical islands. Released at the Cancún meeting, it estimates in detail the impacts of rising sea level on the 15 member Caribbean states of the Caricom regional community. While many of the islands are mountainous, the report highlights that much of the population, infrastructure, agriculture and economy are in the low-lying areas. A rise of one metre, which is widely considered possible later this century is estimated to lead to damage of around $187 billion. The report was carried out at the University of Oxford. The authors also included insurance experts who calculated the huge potential costs of future sea-level rises. At Cancún, the Association of Small Island States (Aosis), of which the Maldives is a member, called for an enormous insurance policy funded by the developed nations to help these small states to pay for future damage from rising sea levels. The states at risk would pay a premium but payout for damage would largely be met by developed countries. “We are the most vulnerable countries in the world, although pollute the least,” Antonio Lima from the Cape Verde islands, vice-chairman of Aosis, told the Cancún meeting. “We want to survive and to survive we need solidarity from those who can do something about the weather.”

What can cities do to increase resilience?

This paper examines climate change mitigation and adaptation from an insurance industry perspective, with particular reference to London and the USA. It illustrates how British insurers are increasingly shaping public policy and using new technology to manage the risks from climate change impacts and makes a plea for society to make more use of insurance expertise in future decision making. In particular, more dialogue is needed between architects, planners and insurers to adapt our buildings and cities for climate change impacts. The paper is an abbreviated and updated version of the paper presented by the author in Houston, Texas, in 2005.