A.M. BestTV: Mutual Insurers Good at Sustaining, Less So at Changing

Business Wire

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In this ^A.M.BestTV episode from the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies’ (NAMIC) annual convention in Vancouver, British Columbia, Bryon Ehrhart, global head of strategic growth and development at Aon plc, and Lars Powell, director of the Alabama Center for Insurance Information and Research, discussed what mutual insurance companies need to do to remain relevant in the coming decades. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=namic2916nc to view the entire program.

“Mutuals as an organizational structure tend to sustain themselves,” said Ehrhart. “That doesn’t mean they grow faster or slower, but compared with 25 years ago, the top 100 mutuals are about the same, while the top 100 stock companies have changed drastically.”

“One thing that is different about mutuals is that they don’t always change as quickly as the rest of the market,” said Powell, “so they need to keep their finger on the pulse of what’s going on and are able to react in a timely fashion.”

Looking to the future for mutuals, Powell and Ehrhart said they believe that the sector will have the same kind of problems that the whole industry will have; however, noted Ehrhart, “they have the ability to more often come out of their silos and serve their customers a little bit more differently.”

^A.M.BestTV will be covering the entire 2016 NAMIC convention. Visit http://www.ambest.tv/namic16 for full coverage and exclusive interviews with key mutual executives.

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^A.M.BestTV covers exclusive A.M. Best information and reports, targeted topics and key developments in the (re)insurance industry every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Sign up for alerts of episodes at http://www.ambest.com/multimedia/ambtvsignup.html. View ^A.M.BestTV episodes at http://www.ambest.tv.

A.M. Best is the world’s oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.