This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync.
Another year passed. How has your organization fared in the past 365 days? In many ways, 2024 was a difficult year for the insurance industry. Amidst thousands of regulatory changes, increased fraud, and the expansion of the P&C sector, the industry and the millions of professionals working within it faced significant challenges this year.
But where there is challenge, there is also opportunity. So before you lock 2024 in the box and throw away the key, think about how your organization has responded to the pressure and how you can rethink your distribution strategy to better navigate any 2025 in store.
Conducting year-end insurance performance reviews
At this point in the year, it’s past time to start evaluating your 2024 performance. The most successful insurance organizations are constantly evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of their strategies in search of areas that need improvement. But everyone has to start somewhere, so whether you’ve already nailed down your 2025 plan and clicked through this article to see where your strategy fits, or you’ve got a year ahead of you and you’re starting to assess your 2024 performance, we’ve got you covered.
Learn where to start when it comes to evaluating your distribution channel management strategy and how optimizing certain areas now can set you up for success in 2025.
First things first: Know where your current strategy stands
To get where you want to go, you first need to know where you are. As you review your business performance, note any gaps in your current strategy.
If you’re building a deep understanding of your current distribution channel strategy, it’s important to understand where you’re working in five key areas:
- Automatic process
- Data quality and integration
- Compliance and risk management
- Scalability
- Work ability and resilience
Entering your business into all five areas can help you better understand your organization’s current strengths, as well as any areas of your strategy that could benefit from improvement. Use the AgentSync Distribution Channel Management Assessment to see how your current strategy stacks up and help define your priorities for the new year.
Three insurance industry predictions for 2025
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of predictions for the insurance industry in 2025, and you’ll get a different list of the most important trends depending on who you ask. But, for the sake of everyone’s time, here are three things that consistently came up in our research:
1. Additional regulatory changes will assess the effectiveness of compliance of organizations
The world of insurance compliance regulations is constantly changing, so if there’s one thing we can be sure the insurance industry will experience in the coming year, it’s an abundance of regulatory updates. At the time of this writing, AgentSync has tracked 302 relevant changes to licensing, appointments, CE regulations, and more in 2024 alone (all of which can be found in the Compliance Library). That’s a new change every 1.2 days that insurance organizations need to identify and address for each manufacturer in their distribution network to ensure they are operating in compliance!
Think about how your organization has handled the changing regulatory environment over the past 365 days. Has compliance become difficult or added unnecessary costs to your bottom line? Did it create a significant hold that prevented new producers from selling? To avoid the same fate next year, organizations with ineffective compliance management processes should consider partnering with a vendor that can help them assess and mitigate compliance risks more effectively.
With the right partner, compliance management can change from a time-consuming, back-end, cost center to a more efficient, proactive, growth-enhancing one for your business. Equip your current team with the ability to meet the regulatory changes of 2025, without hiring additional administrative help, as you expand your distribution capabilities.
2. More M&A activity will open up new opportunities and challenges
Experts predict that 2025 will be the biggest year for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the insurance industry. Improved economic conditions mean businesses can expect a dynamic M&A environment in the coming year, with digital transformation poised to be a key driver of many major deals. Successfully navigating the M&A landscape will depend largely on how well your organization’s people, processes, and data can handle the change.
If the thought of being involved in a merger or acquisition sends a chill down your spine, you’re not alone. But there are steps you can take now to increase your chances of a successful transition regardless of which side of the deal you’re on. That is, dialing in your organization’s change management, starts with the integration capabilities (or lack thereof) of your core systems.
Remember before when you achieved your organization’s level of growth and agility in those five key ways? Also look at your scores for dimensions four (Scalability) and five (Efficiency and Resilience). Are you confident that your current systems can successfully navigate a merger or acquisition without becoming a source of frustration, wasted time and money, and significant data security risks? Does finding an agency mean spending time and energy on-boarding each new producer by hand?
If not, now is the time to consider partnering with distribution channel management technology that will enable you to adapt to new opportunities, such as M&A deals, quickly and efficiently with automated workflows for bulk transactions across multiple licensed manufacturers across multiple and multiple LOAs. he says.
For more information on the latest trends shaping M&A in the insurance sector, including tips and best practices for navigating the changes, check out our webinar in partnership with PropertyCasualty360: The Future of Insurance Industry Mergers & Acquisitions.
3. Organization-wide access to real-time data will give early adopters the upper hand
From 2025, the insurance industry will continue to be influenced by rapid technological advances and digital transformation. As insurance organizations continue to move away from traditional manufacturer lifecycle management systems in favor of modern distribution channel management solutions (especially those that allow them to integrate their technology stack), industry experts and thought leaders predict the widespread adoption of real-time decision support. systems, such as those enabled by application programming interfaces (APIs).
Consider the current status of your producer and agency data. Do you have high confidence in its accuracy at any given time? Can teams across your organization surface that data where and when they need it to make informed business decisions? APIs elevate the quality of your data by synchronizing your existing systems with industry truth sources to ensure that your producer and agency data is always up-to-date and useful.
For example, consider the benefit of accessing accurate producer data in your commission payment system or attaching an authority data line to the information in your policy management system. Partnering with a distribution channel management solution that includes API technology at its core can lead to benefits as simple as ensuring 100 percent compliance with all sales policy and as complex as targeting untapped business lines.
Go ahead and stay ahead by developing your insurance distribution channel strategy now
If your current method of managing a distribution channel is taking too much time, costing too much money, or is hindering your growth, now is the time to make a change. Don’t wait until it’s too late to identify and correct any obstacles and inefficiencies in your current strategy. Remember that while preparing your operations soon will help you successfully navigate these 2025 predictions, it will also put your organization in a better position to handle any unexpected challenges and opportunities that the year ahead may present.
The AgentSync platform, with our team of experts, is currently used by hundreds of leading insurance organizations to scale and optimize their distribution networks to ensure future success. To learn more about how AgentSync can unlock the power of your distribution channel, or to personally review your current distribution channel management strategy, speak with one of our experts today.
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