Be bold and look to technology: Cover-More boss Cara Morton on climbing the corporate ladder

Making bold decisions and embracing tech has helped Queenslander Cara Morton climb to the top ranks of insurance giant Zurich Insurance Group.

Global travel insurance and medical assistance provider Cover-More's CEO, Cara Morton.

When Brisbane-born Cara Morton received the phone call up-ending the lives of herself, her two school-aged children and her former partner she knew taking bold decisions in her corporate career had paid off.

The global chief executive of Cover-More had been asked by parent company Zurich Insurance Group to put her hat in the ring for an even more senior role, reporting directly to the global boss of the insurance behemoth, sitting on the executive committee.

A serious conversation about the benefits of a European education took place and now Morton and her family are off to Zurich, where she will become the CEO of Zurich Global Ventures, making her one of the top Australian insurance executives in the world.

“It’s absolutely about backing myself and taking some big bets,” says Morton of how she’s climbed to just one step from the top of the world’s eighth-biggest insurer.

Morton cites her decision to change the selling format of travel insurance to increase direct-to-customer sales, which in turn created more sticky relationships and reduced commissions.

“When I joined Cover-More we sold through Flight Centre, Australia Post, Costco or booking.com and so I’ve changed that from 10 per cent direct to consumer to now over 20 per cent, which means that now Cover-More has more direct relationships with our end customers and is able to have more influence.”

Morton also commissioned a new app providing live updates on at-risk events in countries where people are travelling, and information about where and how to get help in their specific locations.

Given only 6 per cent of premiums result in a travel insurance claim, the app has proved an effective way of creating a bond between company and customer.

“Backing myself into areas that Cover-More had not traditionally been in has paid off because the customers have leaned in and really appreciated that,” she says.

This space, known as InsurTech, is what got Morton noticed at the Swiss parent company.

The global insurance industry has gone through massive changes since the covid pandemic, and while premiums have jumped across many sectors, this has been on the back of dramatic increases in supply chain costs.

At Cover-More post-covid, premiums rose and so did the number of people taking out travel insurance — to more than 80 per cent from 60 per cent —, but Morton points out the cost of bringing people home had increased exponentially due to near-record high airfares.

The real-time safety alerts on the Cover-More app are designed to help people to avoid risks which could see them need emergency flights home.

Deloitte Center for Financial Services points to this key trend in their 2024 global insurance outlook, with technology changes being used to try and better understand customers and customise their insurance to minimise risk.

“Existential threats are driving many insurers to re-imagine how to confront disruptions caused by the changing environment and help consumers across all segments prevent or mitigate risks before they occur, rather than merely paying to rebuild and recover after the fact,” wrote Deliotte in its annual paper.

Morton will be effectively taking on a venture capital approach to InsurTech for Zurich in her new role, as the global giant looks to add more embedded insurance options to its stable.

“Retail customers expect more seamless protection available, sort of anywhere at any time,” said Morton.

“With travel, it’s really easy to embed it, as you go in you buy a flight and it normally says do you want travel insurance etc. When you buy a mobile phone for example, it’ll say, you know, do one warranty protection.”

Companies such as Tesla have embedded insurance options available in many countries, which can be based on the individual driving of the customer using the telematics of the car.

Morton says this is a space she will be looking to expand in.

“We’re looking at something in the motor space,” she says.

Zurich has a product called LiveWell, which is a health insurance product and health app to encourage better lifestyles. It also offers cybercrime insurance, and Morton will retain charge of Cover-More, with her replacement to become a direct report.

She will also be working with firms such as SAP and Oracle to help companies embed insurance options into their intranets.

“For example, if you’re an employee, and you put in for leave, it will then pop up with travel insurance, or if you’re going on maternity leave or paternity leave, it will recommend those types of products. It’s about understanding people’s needs at certain times in their life and offering products around that. It’s my role to define what else that we should have in this retail hub.”

Zurich already has a stake in Qover, an InsurTech start-up that provides embedded insurance for companies to provide for staff in Europe and a Canadian company that provides cybersecurity and insurance solutions for small-to-medium-sized businesses, called Boxx Insurance.

“We’re looking at how we can work more closely with them to offer some of these retail digital propositions. So it’s not all about building this ourselves. We want to be able to make investments and then scale quickly.”

Morton admits the move to Zurich will have cultural challenges both professionally and for her high-school aged children, but on the work front the challenges and the potential solutions are the same.

“Insurance companies are more trying to provide value-added services that prevent anything from happening that would result in a claim and that creates stickiness.”