As part of its commitment to innovation that benefits customers, American Family Insurance (AFI) has introduced a new proactive home protection discount in 2015 to encourage the use of smart devices within the home. The underlying aim is to help prevent fire and flood damage thus reducing AFI’s claims ratio in the future.
Under this scheme, those who use smart devices such as connected smoke detectors and home monitoring systems will be eligible for the Proactive Home Protection 5% discount on their homeowner’s, renter’s or condo policies. The discount is in addition to any other policy discounts customers are eligible for.
AFI has also teamed up with Microsoft and launched an accelerator program where the company’s venture arm will offer home automation start-ups an equity investment of $25,000 in order to establish a mutually beneficial relationship should the startup reach scale.
Julie Schaubroeck, American Family Insurance’s product and field marketing director states that “American Family wants to not only help customers recover from accidents and tragedies, we want to partner with them to take a more proactive role in protecting the things they value. By using these devices, they are demonstrating a commitment to prevent these damaging events and we want to reward them for practicing these safe habits.”
Ultimately, initiatives like the Proactive Home discount demonstrates that insurers are increasingly willing to experiment and even invest in smart technologies which are significantly reshaping the insurance value proposition and redefining the carrier-policyholder relationship in the emerging digital landscape. In this case, AFI are approaching digital by investing in both internal and external efforts.
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