UPFRONT
www.ibamag.com APRIL 2017 EDITORIAL Managing Editor Paul Lucas Journalists Maryvonne Gray, Jordan Lynn, Lucy Hook, Will Koblensky, Ryan Smith News Writers Lyle Adriano, Louie Bacani, Mina Martin, Gabriel Olano, Allie Sanchez Staff Writers Tim Garratt, Libby McDonald, Joe Rosengarten, Heather Turner Editorial Researcher Hannah Go Copy Editor Clare Alexander
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EDITORIAL
Why the cup is half full
I
t was Benjamin Franklin who said that “there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes.” Perhaps if he had been around today, he would have contemplated a third: the adaptability of the insurance broker. It seems no matter how gloomy the picture may be for society, insurance brokers prove flexible enough to adjust to their new environment. In today’s unsettled climate, there is evidence of this adaptability around the world. In Canada, there is an expectation of recovery after the Fort McMurray wildfires, the direct and indirect costs of which a MacEwan University survey estimated at close to $9 billion. In New Zealand, the sentiment is that brokers and insurers have reacted much more positively to the Kaikoura earthquake of 2016 than they did to the Christchurch rumble in 2011. In the UK, the initial doom and gloom of the Brexit vote has largely been replaced by feelings of resilience, boosted by the fact that even after so much time has passed, little to nothing has changed.
It seems no matter how gloomy the picture may be for society, insurance brokers prove flexible enough to adjust to their new environment And while other nations may question the arrival of Donald Trump into the world’s most lauded hot seat, a survey from Reagan Consulting revealed that among brokers in the US, there is optimism for the year ahead, even though growth last year fell to its lowest levels since 2011. Why? Because, in the eyes of many brokers, the new president marks the arrival of an economically focused administration – those in the sector are projecting 6% organic growth during 2017. Additionally, although reports of robots and automation have cast a shadow over future job security in the insurance industry worldwide, 42% of those surveyed in the Guy Carpenter Annual Market Pulse Survey 2017 suggested that technological innovation actually represented the biggest opportunity to grow their business in the year ahead – placing it ahead of new products (25%) and new geographic markets (13%). So what stands behind this incredible resilience, positivity and bounce-backability? Perhaps we need look no further than America’s leading risk managers, the subject of this edition of Insurance Business America. It is their ability to identify potential risks, find weaknesses in business processes and identify brokers who can become trusted partners that provides companies with a solid foundation on which to build. With their support, the cup will remain half full, and never half empty, for brokers. The team at Insurance Business America
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