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Insurance. If you said the word in polite company a few years ago, even a year ago, you had to prepare yourself for some nasty cracks by insurance-hating friends and family members.
You had to, because you knew, beyond any doubt, that in polite company, insurance had become a dirty word.
Now, many signs–including dollar signs–suggest that insurance, or at least what insurance represents, is no longer as repugnant as it once was.
Industry professionals have picked up on the scent, and are already responding. Before assessing this new trend, lets review the underpinnings.
In the financially robust 1990s, insurance-hating was in vogue in many consumer circles. Targets of public ire were the industrys legalistic contracts, its dull and drab guarantees, and/or its failure to deliver as promised.
Insurance was often blamed for: doctors and hospitals not providing certain services; injured loved ones receiving insufficient disability benefits (or none at all); friends being sold inappropriate policies; neighbors having their life policies "blow up;" and on and on.
This alone was enough to make insurance pros want to cringe. They didnt like being tarred with the bad-boy brush that was intended for the bad actors in the business.
As the decade continued, another trend kicked in that bolstered I-word discontent. This was enactment of Gramm Leach Bliley Act of 1999–legislation that allows insurers, banks, and securities firms to sell one anothers products and, in effect, to build a broad-based financial solutions industry.
To some marketers, GLBs arrival meant the time had finally come to downplay insurance as a unique industry. Hence began the quiet tucking away of the I-word into non-I wrappers.
Insurance companies began promoting themselves as financial services corporations, manufacturers, and/or providers. Various industry trade groups and third-party providers dropped insurance from their names and/or added financial or related terms to their monikers. Industry practitioners began presenting themselves as financial professionals, financial services advisors, and the like.
These various interests didnt ditch the I-word entirely. (After all, insurance is part of the laws and regulations of the land.) Nor did everyone hop on the shirk-the-I-word bandwagon–certainly not the very go-go long term care specialists!
Still, for much of the decade, the tilt in the non-I direction was pronounced. Many, I noticed, mentioned insurance almost as an afterthought. As in: "Were a financial solutions firm and we use all kinds of products–mutual funds, annuities, private placements, and, yes, insurance, too…"
Now, fast forward to today. It seems insurance is back in vogue.
