At Insurtech Insights USA 2025, we spoke to a variety of industry leaders during the Trust Talks podcast series. Common key themes emerged. Namely, trust is a critical part of the insurance ecosystem and an area for strategic investment. To rebuild trust and boost efficiency and profitability, insurance leaders shared their top recommendations. Here are key takeaways for cultivating a trusted insurance ecosystem.
Prioritizing trust for the consumer is critical:
Andrew Leeds is the Vice President of Homeowner Claims at Plymouth Rock Assurance. At his organization, trust is one of the driving factors in their evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Leeds believes that “having a claim is the moment of truth in the insurance equation…and when a customer has lost their property damage, (or has significant damage to their) property, it's often the worst day in their life. And so for us being there at that moment of truth, we have one moment to build that trust on that first call with that person… and then we spend the rest of that claims process delivering on that promise each step of the way.”
For customers, these are emotionally charged moments in their lives and the claims process is the more critical opportunity to build or lose trust. So insurers have to set the tone for the future of this relationship by using trust as a catalyst.
For Sarah Jacobs, SVP of Personal Lines Product & Underwriting at Nationwide, she thinks about the claims experience from a customer's perspective first, noting that carriers have to regularly ask how they can improve that experience. Insurance organizations have an opportunity to win their customers' trust by increasing their transparency about the claims process while reducing friction.
Jacobs highlights the growing importance of technology, like self-inspection, which lets consumers conduct inspections in their own homes through apps. Tools like these improve convenience, decrease disruption, and also provide insurers with more data. Technology like this is changing the game and is a reflection of overall customer expectations in the modern world– people want a seamless and digital experience.
For Mindy Chen, VP of AI and analytics at Mutual of Omaha, preventing trust erosion via a sub-par customer experience is critical. This is where Chen sees insurance companies surviving in a competitive, and ever-changing market. She says that “the future of insurance is not just about selling policies, it's about building solutions that adapt to customers' lives in real-time.” Karlyn Carnahan from Celent shares a similar narrative, noting that “trust comes in every interaction that a company and an agent house with that policyholder, whether it is you can trust that the premium I'm offering you will stay; whether it's the denied claim or a complicated renewal or some other life-altering event, every one of those moments has the ability to create an emotional connection, and we run a risk of over-automating in some cases.”
Collaboration as a competitive edge
Richard Wolff, Managing Director of Casualty Claims at Markel, also joined us on Trust Talks to bring his perspective on fraud and the insurance industry as a whole. Wolff sees the insurance industry as being “competitive but not cooperative” and that we are “competing for business on the front end, but on the back end and claims we're all kind of in the same boat – we need to do a better job of rowing in the same direction. So… that prevents us as an industry from combating the fraud piece.” Instead, he would like to see carriers work together in collaboration in fighting fraud on things like data-sharing as it is a major issue that impacts all of insurance and beyond.
Joey Darayani is the Vice President of Specialized Services at CSAA with over 40 years of experience in P&C. Daryanani has a practical ask for leaders in terms of reframing the workplace. He believes it's critical for insurers to take action as a shared responsibility by investing in emerging technologies like AI. That's not to replace agent and adjustor positions, but rather provide a blend of AI and human expertise that will elevate employees. Darayani urges leaders to move today and not “bury your head in the sand”, as investing in tools to expose fraud early and data sharing will result in more efficiency. Making meaningful decisions like this will allow insurers to focus on what matters – the customer.
Greg Crawford of P&C Specialist,is the managing editor of P&C Specialist, who’s also reported on Wall Street and big business. In the Trust Talks, he noted how many carriers spend a lot of time and money without a clear return on investment. From litigation costs to ineffective advertising, financial waste is a real outcome that comes with lost trust and reputational damage. Crawford called for a shift from the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality to switch up the system where disruption is needed.
Instead of asking why, ask why not?
“What if you took that defensive mindset and literally just flipped it on its head?” Dr. Dave Rengachary Senior Vice President, Head of Underwriting for US Individual Life at RGA Reinsurance Company asked. Leaders are often stuck in their ways and find difficulty in making changes that might benefit their organization. But, Rengachary asks that leaders rethink this for the sake of positive innovation, especially in life insurance. Instead of making consumers jump through more hoops, he asks, how can we trust data at the outset? Tools like artificial intelligence can be utilized to bring more transparency into underwriting decisions. Rengachary also noted that he often fields questions about how the data is used, especially when AI is involved. “On a daily basis, we are using the most sensitive information possible (mental health history, genetics, alcohol) - nothing more sacred than the commitments we’re already making around protected class information.” Insurers already carry this responsibility, so it should be used to innovate.
Bryan Falchuk is the author of The Future of Insurance book series and host of its podcast, president, and CEO of the PLRB (Property and Liability Resource Bureau) and brings a unique lens to the state of trust in insurance. He says, “If we haven’t learned the lesson that accuracy matters and there are tools that can help us, we should just dividend out our surplus and sell out.” Better tools, like Clearspeed, exist to help insurers optimize by making smarter decisions, faster. Missing opportunities to implement technology like this results in falling behind and as Falchuk puts it, “change is hard, irrelevance is worse.”
There are a lot of opportunities that leaders already have to innovate and scale. Brian Poppe is the Senior Vice President of income and wealth planning at Mutual of Omaha and thinks that in order to get affordable products into customers' hands sooner rather than later. With that, he thinks “about generative AI and how it could potentially help us reimagine the customer experience, empower associates, and build industry-leading solutions to get products into the hands of customers sooner.” Where a lot of the profit loss is, is in the cost of not using technology that will help companies scale and allow protection for more people and families than ever before.
The narrative needs a makeover.
This sentiment was echoed by several of the guests we had on the Trust Talks, and is almost a universal belief that the insurance industry needs to do more to change the narrative. Alexis Cierra Vaughn is the founder and CEO of Off-Course and Insurance and Insurtech expert and adviser. From a customer perspective she believes that, “There shouldn't be a question where I don't really understand my policy until I file a claim and that is where the issue where trust comes in because then people feel like you pull the wool over their eyes when you didn't really tell them everything, that it's not covered in the policy.” When gaps are discovered in the system, the worst happens – trust is lost. Vaughn also worries that with life insurance, there is lots of work to be done in terms of long-term care and annuities. Only some insurers are actually tackling this by figuring out the best way to get life insurance to people easier instead of using manual processes. This is where responsible use of AI can come into play and “bring insurance to where people are” through the click of a button.
As the industry faces pressures to digitize and deliver customers better experiences, one thing is clear– trust is a strategy. Based on the Trust Talks, leaders across all types of insurance have demonstrated building trust through interactions, and how we handle data and collaborate are all crucial to gain a competitive edge. Those who are best positioned to lead the industry will innovate proactively and build trust at every point.
