The definition of insurance risk will always evolve as long as this industry exists.
Executive Summary
In an opinion piece authored days before coronavirus infections started to swell across North America, Tim Attia of Slice Labs thought deeply about increases in longevity and the future roles of carriers and insurance agents in improving the lives of consumers. Carriers and distributors need to invest in consumer happiness, which means not asking them to call an insurer to protect against new economy risks but instead providing coverage spontaneously as they live out their daily lives.Perhaps the earliest date associated with insurance risk on a person and not an asset (which dates back even earlier) is the Edmund Halley survival table from 1693, which later formed the foundation for determining life insurance premiums. As an article from the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society states, in the 1840s as the insurance industry expanded in Britain, the Halley table was still vital in determining potential risk.
Halfway through the 20th century, the insurance industry went through what likely seemed to the 19th century insurance industry as rapid change as the world emerged from two world wars and the Great Depression. The same could be said of the transition from the 18th to the 19th century. Technology, economic and healthcare changes have been the constant driver impacting life expectancy, business efficiency and large societal changes.
