Executive Outlook 2022: Shelley Willick, Saskatchewan Mutual Insurance Company

Shelley Willick, President & CEO, Saskatchewan Mutual Insurance Company (SMI) 

When the pandemic hit in 2020, what we assumed would last only a few weeks or maybe months has turned into 20 months and counting. The industry has shown tremendous resilience throughout the pandemic as it stretched through 2021. The industry adapted and pivoted, putting the health and safety of employees and customers at the forefront.

The industry was also forced to reinvent business and customer engagement. As the frequency and severity of claims continues to rise, policyholders want to understand their coverages better and learn to foresee and mitigate potential threats.

Innovation and communication are two key themes for SMI in 2022. SMI will continue to innovate our products and how we deliver them. Introduction of straight-through processing for our brokers, providing the capabilities of end-to-end processing directly from the broker management system, will provide greater ease of doing business and enable brokers to focus on providing trusted advice to policyholders. Product innovation will drive growth towards our goal of $150 million in direct premium written by 2025.

Finally, we will continue to invest in our human capital, adding resources as needed and enhancing training of all our team members. Communication with all stakeholders will continue to be important to ensure we are meeting all stakeholders’ needs.

Evolving consumer expectations and needs will continue to shape the industry in 2022. There will be continued investment in technology through ecosystem partnerships using application programming interfaces as the primary connectivity tool. Collaboration among ecosystem partners will drive customer experience-led engagement, consumer education and automation of back-office functions. Technology investments to assist carriers in underwriting and pricing risks appropriately will also be important in 2022. And, as carriers transition to International Financial Reporting Standard 17, there will be an additional focus on data along with development of relevant performance metrics under the new standard.

See all the 2022 Outlooks here.