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Mutual Admiration

Steve Acunto

The Financial Services Round Table notes that arbitration provides an efficient way for customers to resolve disputes with financial companies. A proposed new rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) could push consumers’ arbitration of dispute resolution options back decades. Arbitration awards customers relief more quickly than lawsuits, which must make their way through a cloyed court system. In class action lawsuits, customers generally receive nominal damages, while trial lawyers garner large sums of money. Encouraging impartial arbitration advances the possibility for timely and efficient consumer relief. The FSR is working the CFPB and other policymakers to ensure the best dispute resolution options remain available and to identify ways arbitration processes can be improved as needed. …… Speaking of consumers, Prudential Financial, Inc., (NYSE:PRU) has inked an agreement between its Individual Life Insurance, Annuities and Prudential Advisors businesses and the dfree® Financial Freedom Movement to help individuals in the Greater New York area through financial education to help protect their families’ financial future. The independent community-based financial education program was developed by Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr., senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J., and creator and founder of dfree®. …… The International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) has noted that US mutual insurers have continued to outperform the total US market since 2007. The full research was announced to more than 270 delegates from 35 countries at ICMIF’s Biennial Conference in October (6-9) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. USA 2014 key findings state:

  • The US mutual sector registered a total growth of 29% between 2007 and 2014, compared to a 3.4% growth in the total US insurance industry
  • Growth of the mutual market exceeded the total US market in six of the previous seven years, with year-on-year mutual market share growth since 2010
  • Mutual insurers collectively wrote USD 475 billion in direct premium income
  • 37.1% share of the total US market
  • USD 2.6 trillion in admitted assets
  • Approximately 450,000 people employed
  • More than 330 million member / policyholders served
  • Almost 1,800 mutual insurance companies active in the USA
  • The US is the largest mutual market in the world in terms of mutual insurers’ premium income (contributing around 36% of the global total). It is also the 11th largest market in the world compared to mutuals’ share of the national market (source: Global Mutual Market Share 2013)

Shaun Tarbuck, CEO of ICMIF summarizes: “Mutuals typically go beyond what is normally expected of an insurer for the benefit of their customer/members; putting them at the centre of the business; from product development, underwriting and investments, to sales, service and claims. They also demonstrate a far wider level of responsibility by supporting local communities, combating climate change and alleviating poverty. It is these aspects of mutual and cooperative businesses that make them ‘more than’ just insurers.”