fintechview was honored to have an exclusive talk with Doros Lipertis, the leading Executive Insurance Advisor of at Eurolife with over 30 years of experience in the industry. Qualified by the global association MDRT (Million Dollar Round Table), Doros has received the Top of the Table distinction for three consecutive years and has earned multiple LIMRA awards throughout his career. In this exclusive interview with fintech view, Doros shares his views on the future of insurance and insurtech sector, the top challenges for the industry in 2023, as well as how he personally determines success.
What will be the major trends and challenges facing the insurance industry in 2023?
As the insurance industry has evolved, so too have the challenges facing insurance brokers. Every broker must be able to cope with the challenges and the major trends facing the insurance industry. Some of them:
- Changes in the banking interest rates were always deeply linked with insurance firms, meaning any changes in interest rates affects the profitability of the insurance sector in multiple ways. It also affects the consumers perception and insurance becomes a priority.
- Technology is changing the consumer behaviour, and thus, digitalisation is a priority. The sooner we adopt to cover this need, the better. Insurance brokers need to remain competitive and remain agile to tech trends to secure their market share.
- Unemployment is rising and the need for secure income is keep increasing, while the businesses in certain industries are shaking. Security and sustainable income are needed.
- The new generation is becoming fintech savvy and cannot follow the old financial system. Financial advisors need to evolve to satisfy the new generation, given they are fast decision makers in comparison with the previous generations and can access volume of information online. It is critical for the insurance companies follow the tech trends and meet their audiences digitally, create awareness campaigns, develop the advisors and keep a healthy business environment and culture to support the team and the portfolio.
- Health is becoming more vulnerable given the news risks emerged following the pandemic. Health insurance was always trending but now there is a shift towards new pension and healthcare plans, to ensure the most reliable and transparent solution.
No matter the trends, the only constant is that our income is always at risk and we must always have the adequate protection.
How important is to build a relationship of trust in the insurance sector?
The word trust is the essence of any relationship; and when it comes to insurance, it is the most important factor. Any potential needs to trust three parties: the company, the product and the advisor. In most of the cases, the client only meets the advisor, whose main role is to build that trust, otherwise the client won’t even consider the company or the product.
Trust is easy to say but hard to implement. It starts by building credibility on step by step mode, grows by listening to people’s concerns and challenges, and then gets optimised with the outstanding service that exceeds the client’s expectations. It’s not about nice words or catchy slogans, it is about caring, follow up and a personalised approach. People want to see what the advisor can do for them, much more than what he/she says to them.
On the other hand, the insurance company has a big role to play in supporting the agents and advisors with a good product, a fair underwriting and a solid re-insurance. After all, it is a team work to make it a win-win situation between all the parties and a reliable service is the best trust builder. Trust has a snowball effect; build it right and everybody will win accordingly.
As a renowned and multi-awarded insurance advisors, with over 30 years in the industry, what would you say is the key to your success?
The price of success is hard work and to face the challenges with determination. Success doesn’t have one key but below are several factors that made me keep succeeding throughout the years:
- No matter how bit the challenges are, I always look forward. I believe Good gave us eyes to see what is in front of us and not look backwards. We all have failed or faced difficult times that affected our confidence and appetite to win. But when we learn from those downfalls, we keep growing with more experience.
- I leave nothing to chance. Strategic planning and the rational organisation of an action plan is the secret. Being open to luck puts us in a passive movek we keep waiting for things to happen. While in fact, nothing happens until we take that decision to take control of things and start planning the details to make it happen at all levels.
- Discipline is a golden rule. Excuses don’t help making a living. External factors will always happen, internal challenges will always be there but only with an action plan and a clear goal we can have a direction to follow and a methodology to get there.
- Emotions are good but could be harmful sometimes. Logic, if well moderated can be much more powerful in solving complex problems.
You have achieved the MDRT top of the table (TOT), what does this mean to you as a professional?
The Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) is the organization that shapes our ultimate success.
It is the association that was founded in 1927 and puts under one umbrella the world’s leading life insurance and financial services professionals from more than 500 companies in 70 nations and territories.
Being a Top of the Table (TOT) is one of the highest ranks a person can achieve in this profession. Having achieved TOT means that I have made great achievements, but more importantly, it means that I have protected more families. Being part of this great international family helps me shape my skills, uplift my standards, abide by the code of conduct and ethics and get recognized by the top people in this profession. It gives me a big honour to be recognized by MDRT as a top producer and it gives me the motivation to keep learning from the top experts around the world. It is a big privilege to belong to this community and we sometime feel that it is our big international family.
How digitalisation impacted the insurance industry and what’s next for insurtech?
Insurtech is undoubtably boosting efficiency in the operations while digitisation is totally reshaping the insurance industry. The sales process is being formatted to become step by step fully digital. From the way we target prospects, to how we use technology in approaching them, selling them, servicing them, and maintaining their records; the whole process has changed. To simplify things, only few years ago, before the pandemic, we used to call people, make personal visits, and sell the old fashion way. It still exists, but social media changed the way we get in touch, communicate and stay up to date with our clients and prospects. Now almost everything is digital and we move forward to utilise technology further especially where we can use e-signature, digital processing of policies, claims etc.
Insurtech in the near future and if the law and regulations become more flexible, could support big data analysis, predicting the losses related to sickness, accidents and deaths, but not only. Being able to analyse people’s financials based on their profession, country of residence, hobbies, lifestyle, etc. and create segmented products to fit different market segments based on their risk profiles. The market still holds unlimited opportunities to be explored, new limits that could be achieved and unmet levels of success. But it all starts with the right mindset: being open to technology, open for change and always willing to look forward and face the main risks that keep alarming every single person: death, disability and old age. We can’t avoid all of these three risks. We will face them at some point in time, whether with or without technology, we must keep holding on to our mission to protect people and raise awareness on the importance of life insurance for people and businesses.
Who is Who
Doros Lipertis holds LUTCF and CFA certificates. He started his career as an insurance consultant in 1992 with Eurolife. His an MDRT member – Top of the Table. He has been granted Diamond Distinction award from his company and has earned various LIMRA awards. Doros holds the highest rank as Top Insurance Consultant.
