When the chief executive officer of Plymouth Rock Home Assurance spoke to Carrier Management in mid-July, it just happened to be on a day that online shoppers of books, clothes, electronics and other household items eagerly anticipate.
Executive Summary
A 42-year-old Northeastern regional carrier may not be the likeliest setting for homeowners insurance innovation, but the leader of Plymouth Rock Home Assurance sees advantages to launching tools usually associated with independent tech startups within an established company. Bill Martin, the CEO of Plymouth Rock Home Assurance, discusses predictive modeling innovations he has championed for more than a decade and what they mean for the future.“If I could be so bold as to bug you when you’re shopping on an Amazon Prime Day like today, and pop my [homeowners insurance] rate up because I know your address is in your record, I’d like to be able to” do that, Bill Martin said during an interview focused on innovations he has helped to introduce to the homeowners insurance market over the course of a nearly 40-year career and what he looks forward to in the future.
Martin noted that the ability to actually show insurance prices to Amazon shoppers is likely restricted (by rules barring the sharing of customer addresses). But the example served to illustrate his idea of being able to present insurance prices in noninsurance situations in the future—without paying for expensive advertising—a prospect made possible by an innovation that he has already brought to Plymouth Rock.
