Sam Friedman

Sam Friedman – senior manager and the insurance research leader Deloitte Center

Sam is the insurance research leader at the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, putting his journalistic skills and three decades of industry experience to good use analyzing the latest trends and identifying the major challenges confronting the property-casualty and life insurance industries.

Sam joined Deloitte in October 2010 after 29 years at National Underwriter P&C, where he served as editor-in-chief.

I conduct primary research via surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews with insurance consumers and industry officials to support white papers, articles, blogs, webcasts, and conference presentations. I focus on customer experience, operational excellence, technology innovation, risk management, the state of the various insurance markets, and cybersecurity, as well as regulatory issues.

While I specialize in insurance, I also work with my research colleagues across the financial services sector on areas of common interest (such as technology, privacy, and retirement financing) as a member of the leadership team at Deloitte’s Center for Financial Services, which studies trends and produces thought leadership in banking, capital markets, investment management, and commercial real estate, as well as insurance.

My most recent work focused on:

–New ways to address privacy challenges while going beyond regulatory compliance concerns
–Accelerating innovation in the Age of InsurTech
–Product innovation in auto and homeowners insurance for the digital age
–Underwriting transformation and the changing roles of the exponential underwriter
–Obstacles hindering cyber insurance growth and how to overcome them
–The potential for small-business insurers to sell direct to consumers without an agent or broker
–Disruptive threats and opportunities facing the insurance industry
–How financial services companies can overcome barriers to help people plan and prepare for retirement

Before joining Deloitte, I was the long-time Editor in Chief at National Underwriter, one of the preeminent sources for news and analysis among insurance companies, agents and brokers, and corporate risk managers. I ran NU’s weekly newsmagazine, as well as its daily online news service, its conferences and award programs, while writing an award-winning column and blog, “A View From The Press Box.” I continue to publish outside of Deloitte in NU and other publications.