Andy McElwee, EVP Chubb Personal Insurance

Financial services sector showed a 51% loss of marketcap in 2008

Insurance success – insure availability of capital in the bad times

2009 Reason for Optimism

Weather the storm: Financial strength and the ability to pay claims

Agents will be taking a closer look at carriers – downgrades will eclipse upgrades in 2009

Responsibility to keep promises to our customers

Like most crises, this will paralyze some and energize others

Good crisis for the people in the affinity business – many have left the financial mainstream – unbanked and under-banked has doubled.

If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less. -Eric Shinseki

Innovative entry by entrepreneurs … acts of creative destruction – Schumpter

A Chinese heavy equipment brand just bought the Hummer brand.

Innovation is the main driver of wealth. – Summers

Reset – replacement of old products, markets and business models with the new

Innovation and entrepreneurial activities are the table stakes

Shifting from self gratification to thrift and conservativism

Note: Awesome visuals – more of a flash preso – headlines and images

Think transformation versus incremental improvement

Increase speed to market

MySpace is over, Facebook has peaked, and Twitter is hot

End of the golden age of credit

Consumers switching from cash spend mode to a cash preservation mode

Trends and association challenges

Avg AAA participant is 53 years old

People aren’t joining

View associations as transactional.  But products are designed for WW2 generation – spend less on direct mail and more on online advertising that resonates with younger consumers – relevance

Stuffed mailbox image – offering real value in new ways

Need to generate the Wow factor – once-in-a-lifetime, appeal to dreams v wants

“Network neighbors” – people in your social network

18-27 – view SN’s as sources of reliable information

Mass Affluent – looking for gap and excess products that supplement core coverages – e.g. dental: bleaching and aesthetics

Medical tourism that includes “best doctor finder service”, pandemic protection

71 million Gen-Y’ers – 1977-1995 – annual income will increase from 1.8bln to 3.4bln in 10 years; eclipsing the boomers income; soon will replace boomers as the largest percentage in workforce; tax-savvy multi-taskers; Scuppies – Socially Consciously Upwardly-mobile; Get information about products from one-another, not “us” or MSM; network of friends; Snack-media consumers – tiny bits of information all the time

Mobile apps, SN, video and podcasting, and blogging

Online and mobile needs to play a more important role

My take – awesome content and a great exhortation to PIMA members.  Ideas: Perhaps take the next 3-4 weeks, break your team into groups, use new venues offsite, and start rethinking future marketing and product strategies and tactics.  Is it time to Re-engineer budgets and resources, find ways to learn, assign some tactical reading, get some favorite links to track, develop a private wiki, perhaps a team blog, and begin the transformational process?  You’re leaders.  Can you Lead out of this mess?  What can you Change?  How have you Innovated?  It’s scary, but time to take some calculated risks?  Can you keep doing what you’ve always been doing?  Happy to help facilitate your efforts – and surely help develop any ensuing insurance technology… Photo Gallery

(Working on the conference podcast on attendees thoughts on the Healthcare reform effort in Washington… next.)