Scott Steinberg · Consultant, Analyst and Business Strategist
Most insurance disputes involving consumers come down to what the buyer was told when they bought, by whom, and whether the product they understood themselves to be getting matched the policy they received. A consultant to 3000+ organizations including leading insurance firms and insuretech apps, Scott Steinberg provides feedback and perspective.
Expert reports, declarations, deposition and trial testimony on insurtech apps, policy marketing and advertising, distribution and agency practice, coverage disclosure, product design and bundling, renewal and pricing practice, and consumer understanding, etc.
Consultants look at myriad areas including but not limited to distribution, marketing and industry practice.
Insurance reaches buyers through captive agents, independent brokers, direct channels, aggregators and embedded arrangements, each with different duties and different incentives.
Testimony on areas like distribution convention in the line concerned and what a producer in that channel customarily did and disclosed.
Insurance advertising compresses a complex product into claims about price, coverage breadth and simplicity that the policy itself qualifies substantially.
Research on items such as marketing convention in the category and the distance between the advertised proposition and the contract behind it.
What a buyer learned about exclusions, limits, deductibles and conditions before purchasing depends on how those terms were surfaced in the sales process.
Looking at sample topics such as disclosure practice in that channel and whether the presentation was reasonably calculated to inform a buyer before commitment.
Bundles, riders, add-on coverages and tiered products create packages where the incremental value of each element is difficult for a buyer to assess.
Researching product packaging convention and how the offering was presented relative to what the components delivered.
Renewal disputes examine how premium changes were communicated, whether loyalty was penalized through pricing, and what a policyholder could see about why their cost moved.
Considering renewal communication practice and convention around pricing changes in the line concerned.
Quotes presented side by side imply comparability that the underlying coverage frequently does not support, and the ordering may reflect commercial arrangements.
Testimony addresses comparison practice and whether the presentation would leave a shopper with an accurate sense of what differed between options.
Buyers routinely hold beliefs about what a policy covers that the document contradicts, and the question is whether the sales process created or corrected that belief.
Looks at items such as how the product was presented and what an ordinary buyer in that channel would reasonably have concluded.
Commission structures, contingent compensation, volume arrangements and channel economics shape behavior throughout the sales process.
Reports about items such as how compensation is customarily structured in the line and what incentives the arrangement at issue created.
Sales materials, quote flows and policy documents as they existed at purchase are the evidence these matters need, and carriers rarely archive them in usable form. Any party may instruct.
Written opinions on privacy, cybersecurity, insurtech, distribution practice, marketing and advertising, etc.
Testimony on things like how insurance is sold and what a buyer in that channel would reasonably have understood.
Responsive analysis of consumer understanding assertions and characterizations of industry sales practice.
Non-testifying reconstruction of sales materials and quote flows, plus discovery scoping.
Scott Steinberg is an analyst, consultant and business trends expert with over 25 years of experience providing management and strategic consulting services to more than 3,000 businesses and brands ranging from startups to government agencies and Fortune 500 firms.
He has testified in sample areas including intellectual property — copyrights, trademarks and patents — patent infringement, marketing, branding, advertising, insurance, insurtech, mobile apps, consumer product development, and the growth and monetization of online distribution platforms, etc.
He is the author of over 30 books and has published more than five thousand articles addressing areas including but not limited to marketing, technology, leadership, innovation, advertising, digital transformation, data privacy and social networks. He appears regularly on ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC, and has led seminars and training programs for organizations including Wells Fargo, the PGA Tour, Century 21, Ford, Dell and Procter & Gamble.
His consulting work has been broadly recognized. He has served as a thought leader for the American Bar Association and Corporate Counsel magazine, and has received honors from the International Association for Scholastic Excellence, Fortune, and the 21st Century Icon Awards, among others.
Topics like how insurance is distributed, marketed, disclosed and understood by buyers. Actuarial analysis, claims adjusting standards of care, coverage interpretation and regulatory compliance as well.
Insurtech addresses technology systems such as quoting flows, automated underwriting and claims automation... and business models including embedded insurance, MGA structures and parametric products. Certain times it dovetails with conventional distribution, marketing and consumer understanding across channels.
No. Policy interpretation is a legal question for the court. What testimony supplies is what the sales process communicated, what disclosure practice the channel followed, and what an ordinary buyer would reasonably have understood from the materials they were given.
Sales materials and advertising as published, quote flows and screens as they appeared, pre-purchase summaries and needs assessment documentation, agent scripts and training, and complaint records showing where confusion recurred across buyers rather than in one case.
Both, though the questions differ. Personal lines matters concentrate on consumer understanding and disclosure. Commercial matters more often involve broker conduct, program structure and what a sophisticated buyer was told during placement.
Initial conversations about scope, timing and conflicts are without charge. Helpful detail includes the product line, the distribution channel and the period at issue, plus any expert disclosure deadline already set.
A conflicts check is run before any substantive discussion. An initial note listing the party names and a one-line description of the dispute is enough to start; please hold privileged or confidential material until the check clears.