The Future of Insurance – Bryan Davis, EVP & Head of VIU by HUB

The Future of Insurance

Bryan Davis serves as Executive Vice President and Head of VIU by HUB, a digital brokerage platform backed and developed by HUB International, the largest personal lines broker in the U.S. He is responsible for the vision and strategy, profit & loss, investment priorities and supporting a network of alliance partners.

With more than 20 years of industry experience, Davis has led transformational projects and driven growth in personal and commercial lines, product management and pricing, sales and business development, underwriting and operations.

An industry leader in product, sales, and digital innovation, Davis previously held leadership positions with USAA, Nationwide, and AIG.

Davis is a graduate of Wofford College and also has an MBA. He’s also credentialed as a ChFC & CPCU. and is also a former Member of the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross of San Antonio.

Highlights from the Show

• Bryan spent his career working across different underwriting, product and strategy roles at insurers like USAA and Nationwide
• He joined HUB to build their new unit, VIU
• VIU says they're trying to be a good broker for consumers
• Looking back over the past 20 years, despite all the digitization and move to the internet of the insurance buying and service experience, customers are more under-insured than they used to be
• We also have seen that, despite the war cry to the contrary, the independent agent and broker channel has not gone away, so there's clearly a desire from consumers to have the things this channel provides
• This is what HUB setup to solve for with VIU – brining together the digital advancements typically only seen with direct writers, but in a way that still brings the access and advice of the intermediated channel
  • At the same time, it's not just about digitizing the sales process, which is what aggregators have effectively focused on, but rather thinking more holistically about the entire customer journey, including service, claims and renewal
  • Tech has evolved to allow for this now, so you don't have to leave the customer to fend for themselves after you make a sale
• Despite being built within a major broker, they started from scratch when it came to the technology and processes rather than putting a shiny new skin on top of the existing tools HUB had in place
• Bryan believes you need a good generalist lens of someone who understands the aspects of the insurance business, but can also understand the technology of it, rather than being purely tech or purely business
• They had to ask themselves who they want to be – a technology company or a broker? They want to be a broker, so their decisions are around being a good broker to their customers and building a viable distribution business
  • This is similar to what carriers face as they look at the push from insurtech competitors
  • They see the "What" side and the "How"
    • What - the insurance expertise, but you need to make sure the people aren't constrained by the past of the industry
    • How - technologists who can operate in an Agile environment, and deliver nimbly and adaptably
    • Then you need to get both sides to understand the others
• VIU focuses on personal lines and small commercial, but think about the consumer as their defining bounds rather than specific products
  • Customer segments are fluid right now, and people want different experiences from person to person within segments, so HUB is trying to stay responsive in who works through VIU or doesn't, letting the customer define that
• VIU sees distribution as the path to a unified industry and customer experience, and larger distributors like HUB are well positioned to offer the experiences and technologies needed for the future customer
• They also see human producers as continuing to be valuable and necessary into the future

This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk.

Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.

Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.