Using Social Media Networking Data in Insurance Underwriting
Chiang Ku Fan
Department of Risk Management and Insurance, Shih Chen University Taipei, Taiwan
Yu Hsuang Lee
Graduate Institute of Industrial and Business Management, National Taipei University of Technology Taipei, Taiwan
Keywords: Insurance underwriting, Social media networking, Adverse selection, Insurance fraud, Policyholders.
Abstract
Underwriters often cast a broad net in discovery requests, seeking as much documentation as possible to search for inconsistencies in the applicant or policyholder’s story or indications of potential fraud. Fortunately, the new online social networking technology may help insurance companies to improve their underwriting profits and select prospective policyholders. However, neither regulators nor insurers have developed guidelines for the overall use of social data, and scientific studies have not determined what types of social medial data are referable. By reviewing literatures and employing grey relational analysis this study weights the underwriting factors which are identified by the selected underwriters from insurance companies. The findings may provide information for those who employing social media networking data to make underwriting decision to attain underwriting profits, select prospective policyholders, and provide equity among policyholders.