When Cara Morton first agreed to assist with an Interim CEO job helping to reshape World Travel Protection (WTP), part of Zurich, in 2018 as it was going through a period of change, she couldn’t have known what she would soon be taking on. Becoming CEO of Cover-More Group in early 2020 seemed like a natural movement. 

And then – Covid-19. The world stopped turning. Travel insurance providers and travel assistance companies were, overnight, brought to an almost complete standstill. However, we now know how the story turned out – and travel has not just recovered, but is an industry thriving and achieving incredible growth rates. And with this growth comes ambition and opportunities.

Zurich Global Ventures (ZGV) is a global platform business, delivering travel, cyber and life protection products, propositions and services, and more, to partners and customers around the world. Morton became its CEO at the beginning of 2024. And what do these partners want? Consistency, says Morton. ZGV is focused on the retail customer experience, driving resilience for those customers by integrating products and providing customers with value that they can really feel through services. Always a problem for travel insurance – there’s no value in it for customers until they really need it. But this is where Morton and ZGV are trying to change the conversation – travel insurance can be reactive and contextual, she says. “We need to put our feet in the travellers’ shoes.” 

To this end, she has been driving change in the company’s offerings. “One of my most valuable roles was actually the first one with WTP as Interim CEO,” she said. “This gave me the chance to understand firsthand what our customers experience, and the challenges they were facing with assistance and coverage. It gave me the opportunity to understand what needed to change.” Simplifying policy language and the tone of voice of the policies are two changes that have already seen a very positive effect in terms of customer satisfaction.

Embrace change, aim high

This ability to embrace change is one of the things Morton says she appreciates about working for a giant like Zurich. “The company has an ambitious nature,” she said. “We are looking to set the pace in the insurance world.” ZGV has a key role to play in achieving the Group’s plan to win in the market and stay ahead of the competition. One of the ways in which it is going to do that is through the acquisition late last year of Travel Guard, another travel business with a worldwide footprint. 

Integrating the two businesses is a complex task for sure, and it’s going to take time – maybe up to two years, according to Morton. There are a lot of customers to keep happy, both existing ones and new ones taken on when Travel Guard was bought. “The interesting thing about the acquisition, though, is the complementary nature of the two companies,” she said. “There isn’t duplication – each company’s skills and services add value to the other.”

And integrating these new skills and services into customer-focused products is going to be essential in the changing travel insurance environment. From an assistance perspective, customers are demanding more from their providers. More cover for mental health conditions. More information pre-departure on safety and security. “Travel insurance products need to evolve to something more holistic and digital,” believes Morton. “Travellers can use their insurance apps beyond the travel experience if we broaden the scope of the services we are providing.”

ZGV is focused on the retail customer experience, driving resilience for those customers by integrating products and providing customers with value that they can really feel through services

A brief tangent here in the interview as we agreed that increasing the scope of services offered with travel insurance may affect price. In some countries such as the UK we are, however, noticing a significant decrease in premiums over recent years. Why is this? A free-at-the-point-of-care National Health Service, a reliance on the Global Health Insurance Card giving a false sense of security? Not an easy question to answer. 

Zurich as a company believes that there is massive growth potential in the travel insurance sector, if it is approached correctly. “There are lots of touch points with the customer,” explained Morton. “There are so many opportunities to connect with travellers. We can focus on the prevention of claims through dissemination of information. Plus, we might have the opportunity to cross-sell to the customer with life-protection products. The partnership between life and travel makes sense.” The potential for growth varies in rates across the world, with a particular area of focus being Europe.

Digital investment key to ongoing growth

The company’s wider focus on direct-to-consumer products and solutions means investment had to be made in digital solutions – and not a small investment. Zurich has invested over US$1.8 billion in technology over the last few years and put an extensive portfolio of over 200 artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in place, with an additional 300 in development, designed to create growth opportunities, boost performance, and simplify the lives of customers. Universal Assistance, Zurich’s Latin American business, has embedded ChatGPT into its travel app, and there is also the LiveWell app by Zurich LiveWell Services and Solutions. LiveWell is a digital solution that supports its users in maintaining and improving their health and wellbeing through healthy habits. “Our strong goal is that parts of it will be transferred to the customer side for travel insurance purchasers. Of particular note is LiveWell’s Wellbeing Scan, which uses video-based technology to give insights on key health indicators using just the user’s phone camera. Everything has to be for the benefit of the customer,” said Morton. “If we improve our digital assets, we improve their experience.”

In 2018, Zurich introduced its annual global Zurich Innovation Championship. By offering startups the opportunity to co-develop solutions and test them in real-world scenarios, the company also gave itself a massive head start by getting early access to top-notch technologies and the latest solutions that could make a difference to insurance customers. Going forward, the format is evolving – Zurich approaches startups in a targeted way, to help implement solutions related to specific customer needs and validated business challenges. By collaborating with these young and agile companies, the insurer engages with new solutions that can really force change in what, traditionally, has been an industry that is slow to adapt.

And it’s this – making change happen – that seems to be central for Morton’s career, and indeed ZGV. She said her greatest challenge was working through the pandemic as CEO of Cover-More Group. The company had to make around 30–40% of its workforce redundant. Its whole mindset had to shift from ‘what are we doing?’ to ‘what can we do so we are stronger when we come out the other side of this?’. The pandemic was tough, but it also brought with it opportunities – a chance to invest in and develop digital solutions. A chance to analyse claims data and realise what was being done wrong – and then make the changes that were needed.

Her greatest challenge was working through the pandemic as CEO of Cover-More Group

Speaking of change, we moved on to the topic of globally mobile employees – another area of growth for international insurance companies. And an area in which Morton is very experienced, having been an expat for many years in different locations – London, New York, Tokyo and Bangalore, to name just a few. Her favourite? Hong Kong. She moved there for a few months in the mid-1990s with a couple of suitcases, and left almost three years later. “That move gave me opportunities in my career that just wouldn’t have happened anywhere else,” she said. “To be there for the handover was incredibly exciting.”

Maybe that’s the key to Morton’s ambition for ZGV to embrace change and new opportunities in the same way she has throughout her career. Witnessing firsthand shifts in global dynamics and geopolitics certainly gives one a fresh perspective. And with change come challenges – not least integrating two billion-dollar travel insurance businesses – but also opportunity. The chance to influence positive leaps forward for insurance companies. To connect with customers in new and meaningful ways, using the latest technology to enhance services and really underline the value of travel protection.