Calendar of Events 4
IVANS Announces IVANS Connect 4
Ryan Brannan Appointed
WC Commissioner 5
Reserving for Asbestos Still a
Challenge for P&C Industry 6
Cover Story: IIAT Elects Leadership
at 117th Annual Meeting 8
TDI Releases 2014
Enforcement Action Summaries 9
DWC Cites
Dispute Information 13
Selling Strategies:
Sales Rules That Work 14
DWC Issues
Informal EDI Rules 16
Commissioner Rathgeber Appoints
Advisory Committee 18
Autonomous Cars: Bring ’Em On,
Drivers Say in Survey 20
Casual Comments
by Glen E. Hargis 22
Table of Contents
PolicyGenius Finds Texans
Uncertain on Insurance
By Bill Kidd, Austin Correspondent
AUSTIN — Results of a poll conducted for independent insurance
broker PolicyGenius show most Texans believe they don’t have the correct amounts or types of insurance
they need — but don’t consider getting the correct amounts and types a
high priority.
The Brooklyn, N.Y., company
says a consumer survey, conducted
by Onepoll from June 24 to 30, revealed that most Americans (50 percent) don’t think they have the right
level of insurance, and don’t rank it
as a high financial priority.
Only 42 percent of Texans believe that they have the right types
and amount of insurance, the survey
found.
The survey also found 24 percent believe they have more insurance than they need and 27 percent
believe they have less insurance than
they need.
PolicyGenius reports 62 percent
of Texans are “do it yourselfers” when
it comes to insurance questions, and
will “research it themselves online”
(3 percent higher than the national
average).
Of the Texans who research online
to get their insurance questions an-
swered, only 35 percent believe they
have the right types and amount of
insurance
And only 18 percent of Texas re-
spondents ranked getting the right
insurance as their top priority.
“Paying down debt was the highest priority for 33 percent of Texan
respondents, followed by saving for
retirement (26 percent) and sticking
to a budget ( 23 percent).
“The lower prioritization of insur-
ance could explain why 38 percent
of Texans are not too confident that
they’re protected against major fi-
nancial risks,” PolicyGenius said.
Additional insights about Texas
respondents who believe they’re un-der-insured include:
33 percent who reported being •
underinsured said they looked
into the insurance they needed
but didn’t go through with it.
57 percent of underinsured re- •
spondents reported having a neutral or negative experience when
they last dealt with insurance (
excluding health insurance).
52 percent of Texan respondents •
who said that they were underinsured felt they had both a life and
health insurance gap while 43 percent reported only a life insurance
gap.
And 38 percent of Texan respon- •
dents preferred the experience of
buying a used car over buying insurance on their own, PolicyGenius reports.
Jennifer Fitzgerald, PolicyGenius
co-founder and chief executive offi-
cer, said the confusion among Texans
about the right level of insurance for
their individual needs demonstrates
“a need for education in the frag-
mented insurance marketplace.”
PolicyGenius hopes to help pro-
vide that education to consumers,
Fitzgerald told The Insurance Record.
“We also noticed that Texas respondents don’t consider insurance a
high priority, which is why so few are
also comfortable with the level of insurance they have.
“This may have to do with the
shopping experience. We’re looking
forward to working with insurance
industry partners and using our digital platform to change that.
“There’s a very serious gap in insurance understanding, protection, and
access in the U.S., which certainly
resonated with the survey’s Texas respondents,” Fitzgerald commented.
Among the national findings were
these.
Women are less comfortable than
men about their protection against
financial risks, with 41 percent of
women “not too confident’ and 61
percent of men “pretty confident.”
Most respondents take an online, •
do-it-yourself approach to getting their insurance questions answered and associate a negative
shopping experience to feeling
underinsured.
59 percent conduct online research •
as their first step when shopping
for insurance.
48 percent of respondents who felt •
they had less insurance than they
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