By FINTECH Books Contributor, Nabil Meralli For all of the analytical science underpinning the way an insurer prices risk, the approach towards assessing the individual has remarkably stayed constant. A consumer seeking insurance coverage is still categorized into broad segments including whether or not one smokes, his or her age and the existence of hereditary diseases in one’s genealogy. The result is a failure to recognize the unique characteristics and behaviours of the individual. For insurers, it represents a quantifiable disparity between the perceived nature of that risk and the reality. For consumers, such an approach is at odds with an individual’s unique life footprint and the subsequent fair pricing for insurance coverage that they deserve. The emergence of the Internet of Things and its confluence with insurance can potentially be one dynamic that empowers the movement towards accurately pricing the risk of the individual. Examples of smart device integration have been observed with startups like Beam Dental, which utilizes a smart toothbrush to evaluate dental hygiene in order to price customized insurance premiums. In the area of car insurance, MetroMile stands as another example of this integration by leveraging an in-car smart device to track distance travelled and provide an individual insurance based on miles driven. Despite these innovations, the majority of the industry is still reliant on the traditional methods of assessing and pricing risk by grouping individuals into broad customer segments. Perhaps the future vision could be that in this world of over 7 billion people, we each have a unique life footprint, similar to the distinctive status of our DNA – an individual risk profile that can be the basis for customized and fair pricing for a wide array of insurance coverage andconsequently provide insurance companies with a highly accurate measure of risk. If you would like to learn more about FinTech please look at our video courses at FINTECHCircleInstitute.com