New aggregator app aims to cut broker admin costs

A new aggregator is looking to disrupt the personal lines insurance distribution market by offering a new service that gives users more control over their personal data and reduces broker and insurer involvement in policy administration.

YourBlock allows consumers to store information related to their insurance policies and other financial instruments, such as utilities and bank accounts, all in one place, with only relevant information shared with insurers and brokers to facilitate quotes.

Daniel Antcliff, founder and chief executive of YourBlock, said that this means insurers do not need to handle the full dataset of that individual, and can instead provide quotes based off of the minimum amount of data needed for the rating algorithm.

“YourBlock can effectively sit in the middle between the consumer and the insurer like a blackbox handling all the consumer’s personal data,” he said.

“Insurers don’t need to see all of that data. An insurer can manage that policy using just the risk data [used in pricing].

“We can then reward the consumer for sharing their data with us.

”Consumers can use those rewards to discount their insurance policies, and can also use the YourBlock app to manage their policy [and make adjustments without having to pay expensive administration fees].”

Antcliff said this benefits the insurer by reducing GDPR compliance and administrative requirements, while still allowing them access to the consumer for providing quotes and cross-selling opportunities.

“Our business model works on taking 50% of the broker’s usual margin, but for that the broker needs to allow us to let the consumer do the work [of doing things like making policy adjustments, and not charge them for that] through a dashboard that sits within the YourBlock platform,” he said.

“The broker or insurer can still send the consumer push notifications through YourBlock about additional policies or renewals, but without the need for holding personal information on that customer.

“This will also limit the broker’s GDPR exposure. A broker could usually have 10,000 policyholders on their IT infrastructure, but they don’t need all of their names and addresses and email and phone numbers.”

And even first notification of loss (FNOL) can be handled through the app.

“Through the app, policyholders can record simple information about a claim, such as what happened and who was involved,” Antcliff said.

“And they can also take pictures and videos so the insurer has better information to put a better reserve on their platform.”