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Industry
Insurance
Systems that have outlived the assumptions they were built on.
Underwriting, claims and policy administration change in a sector where the legacy estate is the strategy constraint.
The sector
We work on underwriting, claims and policy administration in a sector where the legacy estate is the strategy constraint rather than a background inconvenience.
Almost every strategic option in insurance runs through a system written decades ago by people who are no longer available to explain it. Any plan that does not account for that is a plan about a different company.
Start here
The legacy estate is the strategy, whether or not it is in the plan.
Almost every strategic option in insurance runs through a policy administration or claims system written decades ago by people who are no longer available to explain it.
A plan that does not account for that is a plan about a different company. We start from what the estate will and will not permit, then work outward — which produces a less exciting first meeting and a considerably more useful second one.
- Core modernization
In scope - Policy administration and claims platform programmes.
- Claims operating model
In scope - Cost, cycle time and the severity trend that keeps resetting.
- Underwriting workflow
In scope - The workflow and governance around models, which moved slower than the models did.
- Integration
In scope - Post-merger operating model and platform consolidation.
- Actuarial opinions
Not us - We do not certify reserves or sign actuarial opinions.
- Underwriting decisions
Not us - We do not price or underwrite risk.
What is changing
Three shifts we are working against.
01
Underwriting is being rebuilt around data, slowly
The models moved faster than the workflows and the governance around them.
02
Claims cost inflation is structural
Severity trends in several lines have reset. Pricing and reserving assumptions built on the old trend keep being wrong in the same direction.
03
The modernization backlog compounds
Every year deferred raises both the cost of the eventual programme and the risk of running it.
Where we work
Across the sector, not one corner of it.
Life & annuities
Health insurers & plans
Reinsurance
Brokers & MGAs
What we bring
Every service line, applied to Insurance.
Our thinking
What we pride ourselves on.
True of every Taidou engagement regardless of sector — and the three things we are most often told are unusual.
The person who scopes it runs it.
There is no handoff between the team that wins the work and the team that does it. If you met someone in the first conversation, you will still be dealing with them in the last one. This is the single thing clients tell us they notice first.
We write down what we are not doing.
Every engagement starts with a scope that names the things we have deliberately excluded and why. It makes the first conversation harder and every conversation after it easier.
We stay past the point it is comfortable.
Most firms hand over when the design is agreed and the change has been announced — the moment of maximum fragility. We hand over to named owners after it is running, and we come back to check.
Common questions
Before you call us.
No. We do not certify reserves, sign opinions or make pricing decisions. We work on the operating systems and processes around those functions.
We govern those programmes and we have no vendor relationships, which matters more than usual in a market with a small number of very large suppliers.
The same way we handle any recovery: an independent diagnostic, an honest replan, and a date that can be defended. The first of those is usually uncomfortable.
Where the sector meets
The sector calendar.
March
NAIC Spring National Meeting
Regulatory
May
RIMS RISKWORLD
Risk management
September
ITC Vegas
Insurance technology
November
NAIC Fall National Meeting
Regulatory
Related thinking
What we have published on this sector.
Research
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Taidou Answer
Bring us the problem, not the category.
Taidou Answer takes the question in your words, indexes it across 11 industries and 8 service lines, and routes you to the person who has solved it before.