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One Inc, which operates a digital payments network for P&C insurance, is changing this, according to Ian Drysdale, the company's CEO since 2021. The company has contracts with ten of the top 15 carriers, handling about $70 billion in claims and premiums for 240 insurers annually.
Updating payments technology is necessary to serve the newest generations of consumers, including millennials, Gen Zs and Gen Alphas (currently under 18), according to Drysdale. "They prefer digital forms of payment for both premiums and claims," he said.
One Inc makes it possible for insurance claimants to receive payments in several ways, including ACH, Paypal, Venmo and more. About half of all U.S. claims payments are still done by check, and using One Inc's service will bring an insurer whose operations are 20% digital to 75% shortly after going live, Drysdale said.
Claims on homes with mortgages can be particularly complicated, which One Inc also addresses. A claim check may be mailed to the resident, but that check may be payable to both the bank and the resident. That's because the home could still be up to 80% owed by the bank, depending on the age of the mortgage. So the bank has to be involved in receiving the claim money, which can take a month or two to sort out. This delays repairs even as issues from a loss, like water damage, get worse, including causing mold.
In a case like this, Drysdale said, "We can do that in a day -- get the full digital sign off from the bank and everybody involved."
Without One Inc, insurers find themselves building interfaces with forms of payment on their own, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for each payment platform. Working directly with some payment companies could also mean waits a year long or more for an integration – "expensive and time consuming," Drysdale said.
Lastly, payments companies or even banks offering payment services may not have enough knowledge of the insurance business, he added.
One Inc has support for its efforts from private equity firms Nordic Capital, which took a stake in March for an undisclosed sum, matching that of Great Hill Partners, which invested in 2020. The investments have put One Inc in a position to expand.
"We're doubling down on development, on solving more problems for insurers," Drysdale said. "We have our product advisory board of our leading insurers, and they have many different solutions they want us to, or problems that they have that they want us to fix. So we're going to be solving more problems for insurers. We're going to expand our network of vendors who fix cars or homes."
