Carrier Management 5/18/2021- An Alternative View: Crediting Credit Scores

Robert P. Hartwig, PhD, CPCU · May 18, 2021 ·

Many insurers, although starting to use telematics in pricing decisions, still mainly rely on proxies like credit score and employment status. Carrier Management discusses how InsurTech innovation by companies like Loop and Buckle are trying to move away from this practice. However, the question about whether using credit score as a proxy penalizes some customers or is discriminatory is up for debate. Regulators have refuted this claim. Dr. Robert Hartwig agrees and highlights, “It’s important to understand that no insurer knows the race of anyone applying for insurance; this information is not collected. The industry is 100 percent race blind. It has always been that way and always will be.” Read the entire article here.

About Robert P. Hartwig, PhD, CPCU

Director, Risk and Uncertainty Management Center
Clinical Associate Professor
Robert Hartwig (Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1993) is clinical associate professor of finance and director of the Risk and Uncertainty Management Center. His research focuses on insurance markets and structures, risk management, pandemic risk, risk-bearing capital market instruments, the financing of technology risks and venture capital in insurance markets. He makes frequent presentations to insurance industry management, boards of directors, regulators and legislators. Prior to joining the Darla Moore School of Business, he was president and economist for the Insurance Information Institute in New York and in prior positions worked for Swiss Re, the National Council on Compensation Insurance and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University. His professional experience includes expert witness testimony and testimony before numerous congressional and state legislative committees. He holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) credential and speaks frequently in the media on all issues related to insurance markets.