It usually pays to be ahead of the game, and Suncorp’s $US5 million ($6.56 million) investment in US-based technology developer Trov could be the shape of things to come.

For those who don’t know, Trov (as in treasure trove) is an app that lets you to create a digital inventory of your stuff on your mobile phone, complete with images and receipts.

It has been around a while, but now a “world-first” on-demand insurance platform – Trov Protection – has been integrated.

Users can simply “swipe right” to insure individual items, for as long as they like, and the claims process is just as simple, with a slick user experience adding to the appeal.

It is aimed at tech-savvy millennials – a group made up mostly of generation Y, which researchers define as birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. Large sections of this demographic group have so far snubbed insurance.

The platform enables protection for only the items the customer considers most important – whether that is cameras, laptops or tablets.

Have we seen the future of insurance, or is Trov just a flashy gimmick that leaves consumers with a fraction of the cover traditional home and contents policies provide?

According to a report by management consultancy Accenture, investments in “insurtech” grew from $US800 million ($1.05 billion) in 2014 to more than $US2.6 billion ($3.41 billion) last year.

“Most insurers are still tied to a business model based on pooling risk, calculating average pricing and generating gross premium income, which is increasingly threatened by digital technologies such as wearable devices, smart objects and connected cars,” it says.

“However, these technologies also offer insurers a new, rich data source, providing new possibilities for underwriting, enhancing the customer experience and cutting costs.”

Morningstar insurance analyst David Ellis told insuranceNEWS.com.au that, while not “a big money-spinner”, he sees Suncorp’s investment in Trov as a strong move.

“In the next five, 10 or 20 years, the insurance industry is going to be very different,” he said.

“This sounds like a good initiative to get this age group exposed to insurance.

“In February the new CEO [Michael Cameron] went out of his way to stress the focus on customer initiatives and new ideas, and this is obviously part of that strategy.”

Asia-Pacific Fintech Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers John Shipman agrees, and believes established players will increasingly make such insurtech investments.

“Suncorp is actually quite innovative and dynamic, a lot more than it gets credit for,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “These type of solutions are absolutely the future, and not a one-off gimmick. They are only going to get bigger and bigger.

“Insurance is the industry with the most amount of disruption coming. The broker model has been left alone for various different reasons and is ripe for disruption.

“Self-service will be king, particularly for the tech-savvy generations who will be making up more and more of the population. Will traditional models be wiped out? No. But you don’t have to be Einstein to see they are going to be consistently eroded.”

National Insurance Brokers Association CEO Dallas Booth refuses to see platforms such as Trov as a threat, arguing they should instead inspire brokers to be similarly innovative.

However, he believes insurers must make sure consumers are provided with the information they need to make good decisions.

“Let’s not see this as a threat or a problem, but as an opportunity to put our thinking caps on about how we can provide advice in really efficient, easy ways,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“There is no doubt people need information, assistance and advice to make sure they have good coverage. But at the same time people want to make a quick and easy transaction.

“[Trov] comes as no surprise to me and I am convinced there will be more and more of this coming through. But the broader issue is making sure people have enough information to make good decisions.

“The Insurance Council of Australia report on disclosure clearly shows that isn’t happening at the moment.”

Suncorp is clear about the limitations of Trov Protection, saying it is not designed to replace traditional home and contents policies.

“Some renters and millennial customers may decide that a traditional contents policy is more appropriate for their situation,” a spokesman said.

“However, if a customer decides they only want to protect those particular possessions that matter most to them, the platform is a flexible offering that meets their needs.”

Suncorp says Trov has been designed to minimise the risk of fraud, despite the simplicity of the claims process.

“When it comes to preventing organised fraud, the app and platform are designed with mechanisms to ensure customers have valid accounts,” the spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“When it comes to preventing opportunistic fraud, all claims are still manually reviewed and tested against industry-standard assessment criteria and fraud-detection processes.”

While the success of Trov will only become apparent in the fullness of time, one thing is certain: the insurtech trend will continue, and insurers who ignore it will do so at their peril.