Latest Chris Burand Headlines
All the headlines from our Chris Burand Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Guest Post: Reading Forms: Is It Really Necessary?
Apr 24 2019 // We are grateful for friend of the Academy, Chris Burand, President of Burand & Associates, LLC for this timely article. Thanks, Chris! Now, let’s get to his question: Is it really necessary to read forms? Of...
The Lowdown: The Silent Battle Between Agencies and Companies
Apr 23 2019 // Chris Burand, President of Burand & Associates P&C insurance companies are scared. Not all are scared, of course. Some are big enough, some are smart enough, and others are ignorant enough to not be scared about...
How Errors & Omissions Lawsuits May Change
Apr 1 2019 // Artificial Intelligence and Private Equity Investments Will Play an Increasing Role Plaintiff attorneys, at least the smart ones, must make sales decisions, too. Whereas a smart producer will create a pipeline that filters...
The Power of Trust and the Value of an E&O Audit
Mar 4 2019 // I have been completing E&O audits for almost 25 years now. My first experience was one of the oddest because my trainer had me watch him complete 1.5 audits. Halfway through the second audit, he turned it over to me...
A Regulatory Sandbox for Insurtechs?
Feb 4 2019 // A Regulatory Sandbox is the title given to the concept that regular regulations should not apply to insurtech companies. The reasoning is that technology can provide a better consumer experience than traditional carriers...
How Property/Casualty Insurance Is Becoming Less Valuable
Jan 7 2019 // I wrote about this some months ago and received many interesting comments. I decided to follow up on the same subject because it is so important. Value is a relative term often specific to a given asset. For example, if...
How States Differ in Responding to Coverages and Their Application
Dec 3 2018 // I have done a tremendous amount of errors and omissions (E&O) work over the years, including serving as approved and accredited auditor for two major E&O carriers, a certified E&O instructor, an author of an...
Why It’s Important to Understand Your Carriers
Nov 5 2018 // I have been analyzing the insurance industry and individual insurers and agencies for a long time now. When I started analyzing the industry, I never imagined, and I have not met any industry veterans who could imagine,...
Most of the Time, Nothing Goes Wrong and This Is a Big Problem
Oct 1 2018 // In Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” a character, Mike, was asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” Mike said, “Gradually and then suddenly.” Every agency owner with whom...
5 Ways to Put Customers First and Ice the Cake with Insurtech
Sep 3 2018 // I was surprised to learn I was named one of the 50 most influential people in the United States/Western Europe for Insurtech. The fact that I was the only person, I believe, listed who makes their living on their own name...
The Declining Value of Insurance
Aug 6 2018 // Value is a relative term often specific to a given asset. For example, if the price of gold declines from $1,800 per ounce to $1,250 per ounce, as it has, then gold is less valuable. The price of insurance is set to...
Burand’s State of P/C Insurance Industry: How P/C Insurance is Becoming Less Valuable
Jul 4 2018 // Value is a relative term often specific to a given asset. For example, if the price of gold declines from $1,800 an ounce to $1,250 an ounce, as it has, then gold is less valuable. The price of property/casualty insurance...
Agency E&O: In Praise of Those Who Know Their Coverages
Jul 2 2018 // I was conducting an errors and omissions (E&O) audit for an agency that needed improvements. The easiest part of the audit was drawing a bright line between the couple of producers who knew their coverages and the 10...
I Used to Walk to School and Home Uphill Both Ways
Jun 4 2018 // An interview was recently published in a major industry publication with a notable ex-CEO of a prominent insurance company. Throughout the article, the ex-CEO bemoaned how power and profit has shifted to brokers from...
Burand’s State of the P/C Insurance Industry 2018: Pricing Cycle Effects on Agents
May 29 2018 // The property & casualty insurance and group benefits industry is changing faster than ever, or at least faster than any time in any reader’s history. Many factors are the parents of such change. In part one of...
What If Tech Companies, Carriers Conspire to Denigrate Consumer Protections and Agency Value?
May 7 2018 // Here’s to ruffling feathers: Indeed, entities do exist in the insurance industry that do not look after their customers adequately. Carriers also exist that scrimp on claims, and some take shortcuts in underwriting,...
The Competitive Advantage: Best Practices – Just Kidding!
Apr 2 2018 // Almost 30 years ago, I sat in a large carrier meeting, in an upscale hotel meeting room. The company had brought 20 or so people together from their offices around the country in multiple divisions to discuss “The...
The Death of Underwriting and Underwriters
Mar 23 2018 // Underwriting is not dying. It is just being automated into digital algorithms versus analog human beings. Technology’s effect on life insurance underwriting is easiest to show by example. It is also further advanced...
The Competitive Advantage: The Death of Underwriting and Underwriters
Mar 5 2018 // Underwriting is not dying. It is just being automated into digital algorithms versus analog human beings. Technology’s effect on life insurance underwriting is easiest to show by example. It is also further advanced...
The Competitive Advantage: The Value of an Employee Handbook
Feb 5 2018 // Most small agencies, and quite a few middle-to-large agencies, lack a current employee handbook or at least one of quality. Honestly, day-to-day, an employee handbook really is not that important, especially with just a...
