Microinsurance in Latin America: Disruption in Practice

Microinsurance is aimed at people typically ignored by mainstream commercial and social insurance schemes. The potential microinsurance market in Latin America is estimated at 360 million people, with Mexico and Brazil comprising around 55% of the total.

In the report Microinsurance in Latin America: Disruption in Practice, Celent provides an overview of the microinsurance market in Latin America, looking at its implications as well as its future.

Growth of microinsurance has mostly been through simple products, which are easy to administer and usually tied to microfinance products. The major challenge resides in including more commercial products, such as index insurance.

“The microinsurance market is an excellent source of innovation for insurers. It matches perfectly with the underlying conditions required for disruption. Microinsurance stands as a foothold for an underserved, untapped, and fragmented market, with a high cost to serve under the traditional Insurance model,” says Juan Mazzini, Senior Analyst with Celent’s Insurance Group and author of the report. “Innovation around products, pricing, packaging, distribution, processes, and technology will be necessary for insurers wanting to compete for a profitable market share.”

This report examines the challenges and opportunities for Latin American insurers in the microinsurance market. Business and technology strategies are discussed in detail, along with some case studies from the region and the world. Trends discussed reflect Celent’s experience of the market based on ongoing discussions with stakeholders from the industry as well as secondary research.

This is Celent’s first report about microinsurance in Latin America, although we have published other reports on the subject, such as General Microinsurance in India, Life Microinsurance in India: Potential and Pitfalls; and Microinsurance to the Last, the Least, and the Lost.