Although banks have made considerable advances in taking customers online, the insurance industry as a whole has demonstrated reluctance about selling its products on the Web. State Farm Insurance , Nationwide , and The Allstate Corporation s resistance to e-commerce during the Internet s gold rush years of the 1990s stems, in part, from the nature of their business. Insurance professionals don t possess the same brazen entrepreneurial spirit that say, online pornography provider Internet Entertainment Group does.
Insurance companies are accustomed to collecting the premium before any risk is taken.
Things are changing, however. Its marketing potential is sweeping, and, more importantly, Web sites are cheaper to operate than a nationwide distribution network, involving offices, agents, and free calendars for every policyholder. General Electric Capital Corporation s Mortgage Insurance has responded by launching a Web site for its agents that allows approval of mortgages within minutes of submission. Auto insurer Progressive has been more, well, progressive in this area, selling insurance online directly to consumers since 1997. But resistance remains.