Custom Insurance

Most people understand the concept of insurance. People pay a premium to an insurance company for the protection against a potentially catastrophic financial loss. Insurance companies are able to make money by pooling policyholders’ risks and charging a premium based on actuarial estimates.

The most common types of insurance policies are life insurance, disability insurance, and homeowners and auto insurance. But what happens when you want to insure something outside of the norm, say a personal item such as a laptop or expensive piece of jewelry? More and more, technology is starting to act as a disruptive force in the insurance industry that makes obtaining custom insurance more efficient for consumers.

There is a host of startup insurance firms that now allow you to quickly and easily insure single items, for varying periods of time. According to KPMG, this budding industry, nicknamed “Insurtech”, gathered over $1.7 billion from Venture Capital firms in 2016. One of the most popular companies, called Trov, is entirely app based. It got its start in Australia and the U.K., and recently made its way to the States. It can be very convenient if you want to insure an item for a specific period of time. For example, if you are going on a cross-country road trip with the family and you were worried about losing or damaging an expensive camera, all you’d have to do is send a picture of the camera to the app, tell them how long you want it insured, and you will receive a quote instantly.

Another on-demand insurance company is called Sure. It’s very similar to Trov, but you can also purchase baggage protection when traveling, rental car insurance, and insurance on your pet. As these on-demand and custom insurance companies start to mature, it will be interesting to see what other technological advancements will develop that will aim to make our lives easier as consumers.