Growing despite Covid, but redesigning one's strategies to intercept new customer needs in times of health and financial crisis. That's what he's doing Insurance Alliance, an insurance company of the Generali Italia group, which has 2 million customers and is the fifth largest in the country in the Life sector. “We have been resilient – said the CEO Davide Passero when presenting the accounts for the first half of 2020 – thanks to digital technology. Our network has been 100% digital since 2018 and this year we settled 97% of Life in digital and now 9 out of 10 policies are full digital". This has allowed Alleanza to reach i 2,8 billion in turnover in the first six months, with a surprising +3%, compared to the -9% of the market. Ditto for new business, which was 1,3 billion despite the lockdown phase: +1%, against -16% for the market.
But now new challenges are on the horizon and the Alliance has identified four strategic levers: financial education, valuable consultancy, network growth and new generation of products, based on sustainability. On the first point, recalling that October is the month of financial education, Nadia Linciano, head of the Consob Economic Studies Office and member of the Committee for the planning and coordination of financial education, also spoke, who outlined the new relationship of Italians with savings, in times of Covid. It turned out that with the emergency, per capita income has fallen, private savings have been affected and uncertainty will increase the tendency towards precautionary savings, with the rate rising from 2020% to 10% in 16.
31% of Italians, according to the Consob analysis, in fact declared that they had suffered a (permanent or temporary) reduction in income in recent months, while even before the crisis 51% said they were pessimistic about the ability to bear an unexpected expense of 1.000 euros. The pandemic is significantly affecting the financial wealth of Italians, which decreased in this period by 140 billion, or about 3,2% compared to the total recorded as at 31 December 2019. This figure will increase the trend towards precautionary savings in the coming months: 75% of Italians are in fact risk averse, but at the same time there is a lack of planning and skills. Only 40% have a financial plan. In this context of poor financial education but great demand for savings, the new strategy of the Alliance, presented by Passero, fits in.
“We have always been committed to developing a financial culture among Italian families – said the CEO -. We have organized a national program of free seminars, with over 500 meetings in 2020, involving 50.000 people". And then to intercept the new needs there are also new savings and investment offers: the Smart Evergreen and Valore Evergreen solutions, just a few months after their launch, have already collected over 160 million. The first is a particularly flexible savings plan with personalized periodic payments, starting from 180 euros per month. It is possible to skip an installment and redeem all or part of the paid-up capital after 12 months. Valore Evergreen, on the other hand, is an investment with an initial payment of at least 5.000 euros, which offers a stable return and agile management, with the possibility of accessing savings in case of need.
Both products are based on sustainability: "Which is not a trend, because fashions pass, but a very serious issue", specified Passero, also recalling the initiative of the Alliance in support of the WWF to save wooded areas and ecological oases throughout Italy. The other two strategic levers of the Alliance for the post-Covid are valuable consultancy and network growth. Every month the network of consultants, capable of operating remotely but without losing contact with people, performs 80.000 interventions between check-ups on customer needs and consultancy reports. This network of insurance experts to support customers is set to expand: Alleanza invests 1 million hours a year in training, in 2020 already 1.600 young talents have been started as insurance consultants, and 510 people have already been hired ( of which 210 during the first Covid emergency), of the total 900 envisaged by the hiring plan which expires at the end of 2022.
