Future broker: A day in the life

Last week I outlined how the insurance customer of the future - or 2030 to be exact - might interact with their insurer throughout the day.

From Pet tracker apps, to sorting out cover for driverless pod journeys, it offered a pretty radical view of where we could be in 14 years' time.

Having completed that piece, it got me thinking how an insurance broker's day might pan out, so here is my stab. Any thoughts and/or comments would be appreciated.

The alarm goes at 6:30 am on August 2nd 2030 and it is the beginning of another beautiful day as an insurance broker - or as you are now more commonly known by clients, a risk consultant.

Heck, it was the word "risk" that got you interested in "insurance" when you finished your GCSEs and took that apprenticeship at RazorRisks.com, rather than go to University, so as a rebranding it has been quite successful.

Arriving at work you see the bosses Tesla parked outside; and you chuckle at her insistence of continuing to use an old school vehicle in an age where less than ten percent can afford to drive alone - but admit that Insurer Vintage Motor Drive Day you did last month was fun, even if you felt rusty having not been behind a wheel for seven years.

Remote
Entering the office - where the employees mostly work one day in, for every two at home/remotely - you find a pod and log on to see how many instructions for quotes you have had through the various portals you are signed up too - since the night staff went offline at 10pm.

It is now three years since the last aggregator shut its doors with consumers preferring to submit updated profiles every year and let the risk consultants and insurers do the work in assessing their risk profiles and cover needs. Branded "aggregation in reverse", the likes of quotemyrisk.com and insuremybutt.com have really made strides with the latter's recent IPO valuing it at seven trillion BitCoins.

Incredibly - brokers like your employer - have found that consumers use the "Local to Me" tab three times more often than "cheapest fixed fee," and thus the death of bricks and mortar and branch offices has not been even half as pronounced as expected in the early part of the century.

Robot advisers?
Neither has the growth of Robo-Advice and AI brokers, especially after one of the most prominent firms in this space - T-800 Quotes - had to be taken off line after defrauding four insurers of millions of BitCoins having become seemingly bored with its lot in [artificial] life.

Although the quote portals have become common place for individual risks, commercial insurance has not seen as quick an uptake; as many SMEs and Corporates still prefer do business using more traditional e-broking platforms; even if the number of risk management visits you do remotely using your Risk Assessor app has grown in comparison to face-to-face.

However, even these clients find some comfort in having their risk consultant a short driverless pod journey away in the event of a claim or other issues.

High St
Especially as the high street has had a renaissance in light of the updated public traffic infrastructure. The charity shop and take away stores next door have now been replaced by a butcher/deli and healthy restaurant serving classics like wraps and salads alongside beetle burgers and locust lasagne.

Called to man the front desk for an hour, you see a steady stream of clients come in on their shopping rounds, to ask questions mostly about how they can improve their risk persona; plus an 18 year old entrepreneur looking to get cover for his business exporting antique Apple devices overseas. I must look in the attic to see if have still got that i-turntable I bought in 2023 when vinyl records were all the rage.

After a weekly catch up with your team, its lunchtime and you fire up your tablet to check the latest news and headlines on Insurance Age app.

The first story that grabs your attention regards the British Risk Consultant and Insurance Broker Association rebranding to the British Risk and Insurance Consultant Association, with its CEO Emmanuel Kenning noting that the organisation was simply changing with the times.

He added that he looked forward to welcoming people to the first BRICA conference whether virtually or in person at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff in May next year. You wonder if your boss will let you go in person in 2031, having done the last two events in Newcastle and Manchester at your desk. It was fun, you got a lot out of it, but the evening karaoke and comedy sessions lacked something by not being there.

Regulator
Another story concerned the latest on the new super regulator that the current Government was introducing to replace the Prudential Regulatory Authority, Financial Enforcement Authority and Financial Supervisory Authority. Called the Central Bureau of Financial Regulation, some of the older wags in the firm have noted it is a "return to the dark days of the Financial Services Authority". Whatever that means!!!

Lunch eaten you sign on to three remote virtual meetings with insurers, including updates on the latest product developments including liability and possession cover for the passenger drones which are being rolled out in the skies in the Autumn; And a claim conversation about a cleaner droid who trashed a high net worth client's house. The policyholder and manufacturer at odds over liability, with the later claiming the former had tried to re-programme it to perform unusual sexual acts. Let's hope the press don't get a whiff of that one!!!

Come 4 o'clock and your boss shows her face and congratulates you on your latest examination success with the Chartered Institute of Risk Professionals (I think this used to be called the Chartered Insurance Institute) and challenges you to a few rounds of golf in the virtual hospitality room.

You play competitively enough, but lose of course as it is always good to remain in your bosses good books. One of the apprentices beat your boss at virtual sailing last week and she was in a foul mood for days.

Home time, and after a few cheeky pints with colleagues - some things never go out of fashion - it is time to get home in time for The Great British Microwave off; another sign of the retro culture sweeping the nation.

Jonathan Swift is content director, insurance at Incisive Media and part of the InsurTech Futures campaign