No I don’t think that wouldn’t work long term at a public insurer. Expense measures are fairly well understood by analysts, investors and regulators. If expected claims got out of wack with pricing it would become a problem for an insurer.
Many insurers have near fixed acquisition costs due to distribution channel realities. Agents take a commission, Google and Ad networks take a referral fee, etc. and those with large direct to consumer portfolios may experience challenges in underwriting profitability as is. Insurers will certainly try to manage those acquisition expenses efficiently and to optimize underwriting performance. Executive comp would be anchored on those things rather than allowed to underperform and compensated for.
If you call beating actuarial models a trick, then yes that certainly can occur but that’s kind of the name of the game. You’d rather companies figure this out because models become more efficient, pricing becomes more segmented and risks are priced accordingly.
Many insurers have near fixed acquisition costs due to distribution channel realities. Agents take a commission, Google and Ad networks take a referral fee, etc. and those with large direct to consumer portfolios may experience challenges in underwriting profitability as is. Insurers will certainly try to manage those acquisition expenses efficiently and to optimize underwriting performance. Executive comp would be anchored on those things rather than allowed to underperform and compensated for.
If you call beating actuarial models a trick, then yes that certainly can occur but that’s kind of the name of the game. You’d rather companies figure this out because models become more efficient, pricing becomes more segmented and risks are priced accordingly.