Pie Co-founder and CEO, John Swigart, recently joined Coverager founder, Shefi Ben-Hutta, for an engaging Q&A. Below are a few highlights from the virtual conversation. For more, watch the recording on Coverager.
On the value of efficiency and effective pricing structures…John sees an opportunity within the industry for commercial insurance and incumbent carriers to improve efficiency such that they’re returning more and more value to customers. He also discusses room for improving pricing structures for commercial lines in the way that homeowners and auto insurance have highly sophisticated algorithms for identifying risk.
As for underwriting…Pie has a broad spectrum and writes over 80 percent of all classes. Most of Pie’s customers are contractors, janitors, truckers, landscapers, restaurants, retail, and construction companies. And because these are small businesses, they’re particularly feeling the economic impacts of COVID-19. To help ease the burden on customers, Pie has proactively reached out to them so that if they’ve had to reduce their workforce, the changes to premium could be made mid-term to provide immediate relief.
In regard to independent agents…John points out that in addition to serving small businesses, independent agents are small businesses too, and small businesses are fighting for their lives right now. Independent agents are currently working hard to support their customers and save them money, and they’ve been tremendous partners during this crisis. Pie has seen increased submissions because many agents are now working from home and find Pie’s cloud-based systems accessible while their office-based agency management platforms aren’t available remotely.
On small business owners’ incentive to shop around for insurance…Because workers’ compensation insurance is a meaningful expense for small businesses, their incentive to shop around is significant. With an average expense of $8,000 for workers’ compensation, if they can save a few thousand dollars a year, that makes a big difference.
Watch the full interview on Coverager.
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