Disqus - Latest Comments for williduke

Re: 4 Myths About Independent Agents

williduke — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 17:19:42 -0000

I find it interesting that you think the insurance agent as advisor can only communicate in person. I read an interesting book recently, The Future of the Professions by David and Richard Susskind. They make a great argument for exactly why all professions will become automated.

Over my 40 year career in insurance I have seen file clerks replaced by databases, rating clerks replaced by rating software, underwriters replaced by automated underwriting and receptionists replaced by those annoying automated receptionist and IVR systems. I see no reason to believe that all rule based knowledge professionals will not be replaced.

E-signatures does not replace signatures, it just delivers it differently. That is what has happened to these other tasks. Delivering knowledge - the task of professionals - is next in line.

Re: Immature Kyrgios deserves further punishment for jaw dropper: Shantz

williduke — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:04:48 -0000

This is a great example of why tennis does not have more fans. Trash talking is not for everyone, but this is 8th grade level trash talking. You think hockey players ever say things this mild to each other.

For the ATP to fine Kyrgios when they never fined Hewitt for racial attacks on a line judge, or the long line of players who kick Nadal's water bottles over is absurd.

From now until forever Warinka will be hearing about this in every locker room. What a fool for reacting.

Sports where the players insist on quiet before they will serve need to think about how exciting it is when during a great rally the fans are going nuts.

Grow up.

Not to say I want to see tennis become wrestling, but really, this reaction is only happening because one of the "bad boys" trashed one of the grand slam winners.

Re: 5 ways agents can beat Google's new insurance service

williduke — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 10:27:58 -0000

Why is Google making us think they are interested in the personal lines insurance market place? I used Yahoo Finance to look at Google's financials and compared them to the property and casualty sector as a whole also using Yahoo finance. In 2014 Google had revenues of $66 billion and a net profit of $13.93 billion. According to Steve Anderson - who I believe - 24% of Google's revenue came from pay for click ads for insurance. 24% of Google's net profit of $13.93 billion is $3.34 billion. How much insurance would they have to write to make that much money as an insurance carrier? Yahoo finance shows the average property casualty carrier has a gross margin of 0.26%. What premium volume would that take to make $3.34 billion in net profit? Help me with my math but it looks to me to be $3,340,000,000. divided by .0026 equals $1,284,615,384,615. That is $1.28 trillion. With all property casualty written premiums in the United States being in the $500 billion range for the past several years, that does not even seem possible. So why is Google playing this game? Any ideas

Re: Googlezilla | Leader's Edge Magazine

williduke — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 15:11:12 -0000

Not many people think the P&C industry is slower to use tech than I do, but this article misses many obvious questions. I am not saying insurance will not be disrupted - it will, but...

Google has tried to get into payments. What has been the result?

Google bought a travel site for airline bookings. What has been the result?

Google tried to get into medical records. Results?

Google is a data platform. They have succeeded with many free services - maps, email, search. What paid services have been a success for Google? Advertising.

Google bought Nokia to offer a physical product. That has lost money.

Google's big money makers are services which allow companies, products and services to compete and succeed. They have not succeeded by becoming the provider of those products and services themselves.

Google is built on extremely high margin services. Insurance is certainly not that model.

I believe the use of data, the outside the box imagination and technology will allow for new competitors in this space. I think while Mr. Banham and those he quotes are staring at Google the real competition will have enough time to develop unseen.

Think, did Google start Uber?

Re: What is the Future of Mobile Money? [Part 1]

williduke — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:51:49 -0000

The point I believe most people miss is what makes any payment system work. This applies whether the payment method is cash, checks, credit cards or any future concept.

There are three separate behaviors which must all come together. These three behaviors are the merchant, the consumer and the infrastructure. It does no good for me to try to pay with a method only a select few merchants will accept. Merchants have no incentive to take on yet another cost of taking payments if it is only going to be used by the occasional customer. The infrastructure has to provide protections to and confidence to both the consumer and the merchant.

The pure genius of the credit card industry has been its ability over a long period of time to bring all these parties together while adding 3% to the cost of everything. The credit card industry made this work by delivery the money faster than checks cleared and eliminating NSF checks for the merchants. They made it work for customers by putting off payments until a later date. Where are the similar problems that will drive this change in behavior?

I am still amazed by how this has happened. This is not a technology issue. As long it is seen as a technology issue there will be a very, very long time before we see a change in the future off money.

Re: Can Email Save The U.S. Postal Service?

williduke — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:51:59 -0000

Here is an idea for the Post Office. In many industries - insurance is one I know - paper notices are required by law. The companies are required to get a receipt of mailing for each document from the post office as proof of mailing in the event of any legal action. If the Post Office could accept these notices in electronic form and email them to a customer certified email address, and then provide a legal receipt of mailing, this would satisfy the legal requirements of the sender.

I assume the Post Office could charge a premium for this service that was more than the cost of mailing but less than the savings from the company not using paper processes. I also assume the Post Office could deliver the email for less than the cost of delivering the paper mail.

Re: http://www.entrepreneur.com/technology/newsandtrends/article205368.html

williduke — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:08:25 -0000

This has proven to be an article ahead of its time. I am adding this comment 14 months after the article and still most small businesses are about as aware of the opportunity smart phone apps can bring them as they were aware of web sites in 1999.

But as more and more people buy a smart phone - supposedly over 1/2 of all Americans will have them by the end of 2011 - I think they will catch up fast.

Certainly the cost to have a small business phone app has dropped significantly. The business I work for - www.sehmobile.com - builds custom apps for much les than the prices that you correctly quote from 2010.

Re: Today on Talk Social News we discuss Google having goats, Sprint to outsource it’s network and why are netbooks so popular? - episode 029

williduke — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:48:23 -0000

Goats? I don't have goats - just horses and cows. But I think that the animals with a leg at each corner have enough in common for me to project issues.

1 - they don't really eat the grass evenly.
2- they are not yet toilet trained - can you say "road apples"?
3 - domesticated livestock is the primary source worldwide of methane - a greenhouse gas.

Maybe they should offer the folks they laid off a job mowing with the old fashioned reel mowers or even scythes. They probably are toilet trained - although after being laid off they might have nefarious motives for excremental vandalism.

Re: Youtube goes real time, Ustream new design and Facebook Vanity urls- episode 021

williduke — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:35:43 -0000

Wayne - - - don't you know coaches don't wear the zebra shirt. I am going right now to find a place to print some t-shirts up for you. Dude - coach in a zebra - its embarrassing man.

Re: The un-written rules of the web for bloggers and tweeple. Tips, comments & women. - episode 017

williduke — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:22:13 -0000

Thanks Jeffery - I will give it another try.
Duke

Re: The un-written rules of the web for bloggers and tweeple. Tips, comments & women. - episode 017

williduke — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:10:37 -0000

OK - I tried twice. Then I noticed Mr. Cohen had used Seesmic. so I uploaded to Seesmic. Still clueless.

How about a clue on some future post?

Re: The un-written rules of the web for bloggers and tweeple. Tips, comments & women. - episode 017

williduke — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:32:24 -0000

Deleting 2nd attempt - Sorry - edit will not let it be blank.