Rob Galbraith

Change is coming to insurance. The P&C industry is on the cusp of radical change. And leaders are not prepared for the size, scale and speed of what’s to come.

We’ve heard this before. Insurance has been largely immune to upheavals for many reasons. Brand recognition, tons of data, legal contracts and regulation all insulate our industry.

But this time is different. Forces have been unleashed that will upend insurance sooner than you think. The End Of Insurance As We Know It… Show more

Change is coming to insurance. The P&C industry is on the cusp of radical change. And leaders are not prepared for the size, scale and speed of what’s to come.

We’ve heard this before. Insurance has been largely immune to upheavals for many reasons. Brand recognition, tons of data, legal contracts and regulation all insulate our industry.

But this time is different. Forces have been unleashed that will upend insurance sooner than you think. The End Of Insurance As We Know It highlights areas where opportunities lie, what technologies matter, and how to stay relevant in our revolutionary time. Show less

Closing Quote opinion piece for Insurance Journal reflecting back on the 1 year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey they kicked off a historic 2017 season

Wildfire Insurance 101: What Practitioners and Policy Owners Need to Know

I was recently asked by a woman working to complete her Master’s degree in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for my advice in pursuing job opportunities that would position her for a role where she could make a difference in helping combat the adverse impacts of climate change. I wanted to publish my thoughts to her as my first post on Medium in hopes that it benefit others who may be at a similar stage in life.

Naturally occurring events like hurricanes and wildfires do not cause devastation in isolation. That is, the “disaster” part is not caused by these natural phenomena – rather, the disaster part occurs because of humans and choices we have made. The choice of where to live and what to live in are critical to these disastrous outcomes. If we build in a stronger, more sustainable, and more resilient way, then we are better able to withstand these natural events.

Developed the “Closing the 5-Foot Gap” piece in the Pop-Up Innovations section

Insurance carriers have at their disposal two big levers to back up their mitigation messages and spur action by their customers. The first lever is the provision of insurance discounts to policyholders for performing wildfire mitigation actions, either at the individual homeowner level or community level. While these discounts are not a large amount of money relative to the amount that homeowners typically spend to perform mitigation activities, they serve as a meaningful signal by providing… Show more

Insurance carriers have at their disposal two big levers to back up their mitigation messages and spur action by their customers. The first lever is the provision of insurance discounts to policyholders for performing wildfire mitigation actions, either at the individual homeowner level or community level. While these discounts are not a large amount of money relative to the amount that homeowners typically spend to perform mitigation activities, they serve as a meaningful signal by providing incentive or reward to motivate behavior. The second lever that insurance carriers have at their disposal is the provision of insurance itself. In the private marketplace, insurance carriers are generally free to choose whom to offer policies to and whom to refuse coverage to. This decision on whether to offer or decline to offer insurance coverage can be for homeowners making an initial inquiry to quote coverage, or it can occur at the policy renewal for existing customers, most often annually Show less

One benefit of my role is that I have the opportunity to travel frequently and learn from experts across a wide range of disciplines. I’ve been in the field learning from firefighters, been interviewed by TV stations to discuss hurricane preparedness, and traveled to the Big Island of Hawai’I to see lava flow from the Kilauea volcano. But nothing tops the week that I spent embedded with the Hail Study team from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) doing field research on… Show more

One benefit of my role is that I have the opportunity to travel frequently and learn from experts across a wide range of disciplines. I’ve been in the field learning from firefighters, been interviewed by TV stations to discuss hurricane preparedness, and traveled to the Big Island of Hawai’I to see lava flow from the Kilauea volcano. But nothing tops the week that I spent embedded with the Hail Study team from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) doing field research on hail – consider it “safe storm chasing”! Show less

How can we rethink risk after such huge losses, for individuals and housing stock and the economy, after the wildfires in Fort McMurray (a $3.6 billion loss) and Gatlinburg (an estimated $1 billion loss)? And how well do we truly understand and rate for wildfire risk? This is a question that Rob Galbraith helped explore at the Cohesive Strategy Workshop in Reno, NV in April. Galbraith, who combines expertise in property underwriting and wildfire impacts, shares the insights he presented at the… Show more

How can we rethink risk after such huge losses, for individuals and housing stock and the economy, after the wildfires in Fort McMurray (a $3.6 billion loss) and Gatlinburg (an estimated $1 billion loss)? And how well do we truly understand and rate for wildfire risk? This is a question that Rob Galbraith helped explore at the Cohesive Strategy Workshop in Reno, NV in April. Galbraith, who combines expertise in property underwriting and wildfire impacts, shares the insights he presented at the Workshop and in a recent webinar, in which he details the economic “levers” of change that may be guided by insurance carriers working in coordination (and cohesively) with community, governments, and fire responders. Show less