MILLENNIALS AND THE HEALTH INSURANCE INDUSTRY

“Part 1: (Why) Is YouTube replacing the insurance broker?

I am a firm believer that everything is interesting even if you’re not interested. Until recently, I had a hard time believing that this aphorism applied to insurance. And that’s not an uncommon attitude! According to a joint survey conducted by The Institutes and the Griffith Insurance Foundation, most young people view insurance, and the industry based off of it, as boring.
But, I’m writing this post—so what changed my mind?
After meeting with Carlos at CRC Capital Group Inc., I discovered that he has some cool ideas for his blog, including working to address the problem I’ve already alluded to: why don’t young people see the value in insurance brokers?

Generational Divides

As a young person myself, I could understand the disinterest, but I couldn’t immediately pinpoint the cause. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that it’s probably indicative of a larger divide between the generations (i.e.; my generation and Carlos’s generation).
The problem isn’t that we don’t understand the importance of insurance. The problem isn’t that we don’t want insurance. The problem is how you’re trying to sell it to us—because, in general, we don’t like being sold to. We like being able to figure things out for ourselves. Ironically, articles like this one refer to millennials as entitled, narcissistic, and pompous.
While those adjectives will describe at least one person from any given group, the fact is that the aversion toward insurance brokers that millennials feel is largely for opposite reasons: we like to do things ourselves.
For example, I would rather teach myself how to fishtail-braid my hair than have my mother just do it for me.  I would rather read a grammar textbook to understand the difference between who and whom, than have a professor try to explain it to me.
And I would certainly rather use my own research to figure out my best insurance option than have someone that thinks I’m entitled, narcissistic, and pompous tell me what plan to buy.

Tailoring the Approach

So what’s an insurance broker to do? Give up on working with youngsters altogether?
Absolutely not! The trick is that different generations value different things and view their needs in different ways.
So, don’t give up on millennials—work to understand them and tailor your services to meet their insurance needs.

Part 2 of this series will further discuss some key differences between the generations, and the ways that these differences influence buying habits (including insurance-spending habits).
Finally, Part 3 will offer some suggestions to insurance brokers on how to engage younger clients.