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Customers' Unmet Needs and Pains

Insurance in Brazil Current Pains Analysis

The Brazilian insurance market is expanding rapidly (total premium volume R$ 435 billion in 2024, +12.2 % YoY), yet policy-holders still face a series of structural and experience-related pains that undermine overall satisfaction. Combining insights from customer identification, pains analysis, social listening and demand behavior reports, five macro pain clusters stand out:

  1. Fragmented & Inconsistent Service
    • Service quality varies widely across brokers, bancassurance desks, call-centres, apps and branches.
    • High complaint volumes (e.g., CAIXA Seguridade’s public target to reduce reclamations) reveal chronic dissatisfaction.
    • Legacy, siloed systems prevent a single customer view, causing repeated data requests and long waiting times.

  2. Slow, Opaque & Stressful Claims Journey
    • Claims are still the “moment of truth”-—yet customers report delays in inspection, authorisation and payment.
    • Disputes over indemnity values are common, aggravated by complex documentation requirements and multiple third-party interactions (loss adjusters, repairers, hospitals).
    • Fraud-control rules add extra scrutiny for honest customers, fuelling mistrust.

  3. Difficult-to-Understand Products & Legalese
    • Policy wordings remain technical and lengthy; many insureds discover exclusions only when claiming.
    • Lack of plain-language explanations during sales or renewal feeds confusion and perceived unfairness.

  4. Digital Divide & Patchy Self-Service
    • While digitally-savvy clients praise apps such as Porto Seguro (3.8 M active users), others struggle with limited or poorly designed portals.
    • Older or low-income segments, as well as many SMEs, still rely on paper or phone and feel excluded from new digital conveniences.
    • Integrations across channels are immature—actions started online often require finishing offline.

  5. Cost Sensitivity & Perceived Lack of Value
    • Premium growth outpaces disposable income for many Brazilians; fraud-related costs are passed on to everyone.
    • B2B customers (especially SMEs and rural producers) complain about limited flexibility in deductible levels and payment schedules.
    • Rising regulatory coverages (e.g., environmental or cyber liability) add mandatory expenses without clear short-term benefit for smaller firms.

Unmet Needs and Pains

1. Seamless Omnichannel Experience

Unmet Need Customers want to move effortlessly between broker, branch, phone, WhatsApp and app without repeating information.
Current Gap Data and process silos; legacy core-systems hamper API integration.
Affected Segments B2C mass market, SME B2B.
Impact Low NPS, high churn intent, reputational risk.

2. Fast & Transparent Claims Settlement

Unmet Need Clear, real-time visibility of claim status and predictable payout timeframes (<48 h for simple losses).
Current Gap Manual reviews, fragmented supply-chain (tow-trucks, workshops, hospitals), limited use of straight-through-processing.
Affected Segments Auto, Home, Health, Rural.
Impact Stress at moment of loss; social-media backlash; higher legal disputes.

3. Plain-Language Policies & Decision Support

Unmet Need Simple wording, personalised coverage explanations and disclosure of main exclusions up-front.
Current Gap Legalistic documents written for regulators—not for laypersons; limited educational content.
Affected Segments All retail lines.
Impact Coverage misunderstandings; claims repudiations; perception of “hidden clauses”.

4. Affordability & Flexible Payments

Unmet Need Modular products, micro-coverage, pay-as-you-go and monthly instalments aligned with cash-flow.
Current Gap Traditional annual premiums; limited usage-based or on-demand options outside Auto telematics pilots.
Affected Segments Low-/middle-income individuals; gig-economy workers; small farmers.
Impact Under-insurance persists, leaving 70 % of cars and 85 % of homes still uninsured nationwide.

5. Personalised, Preventive & Value-Added Services

Unmet Need Proactive risk-prevention tips (health, driving, property maintenance) and rewards for good behaviour.
Current Gap Few insurers leverage IoT / wearables data at scale; wellness or smart-home services still nascent.
Affected Segments Health, Auto, Home policy-holders.
Impact Missed opportunity to lower loss ratios and deepen engagement.

6. Inclusive Digital Access & Assisted Journeys

Unmet Need Digital tools that are intuitive for all literacy levels, plus assisted channels for the less tech-savvy.
Current Gap Interfaces designed for early adopters; limited accessibility features; scarce digital literacy initiatives.
Affected Segments Elderly, rural, low-income customers.
Impact Digital exclusion; dependence on costly physical channels.

7. SME-Friendly Commercial Covers

Unmet Need Simple, bundled packages covering multi-risk (property, liability, cyber) with straightforward claims.
Current Gap Products built for large corporates; complicated underwriting questionnaires; broker dependency.
Affected Segments 5.6 M formal SMEs in Brazil.
Impact Protection gap; business interruption risk; slower economic resilience.

8. Trust & Data Privacy Assurance

Unmet Need Transparency on how personal data are used, fair AI underwriting/claims decisions, and robust cyber-security.
Current Gap LGPD compliance still maturing; opaque scoring models; rising cyber-breach news erode confidence.
Affected Segments All, but especially digital-first customers.
Impact Reluctance to share data needed for smarter, cheaper insurance.

Key Findings

# Pain / Unmet Need Severity (High/Med/Low) Main Customer Segment(s) Strategic Opportunity for Insurers
1 Fragmented service & high complaints High B2C mass, SME Invest in omnichannel CRM and journey orchestration
2 Slow, opaque claims High Auto, Health, Home, Rural Implement straight-through-processing, AI triage & real-time tracking
3 Complex policy language High All retail Roll-out plain-language contracts & interactive policy summaries
4 Affordability & flexible payment Medium Low-/middle-income, gig workers Offer micro-insurance, pay-per-use, instalments linked to payroll/pix
5 Limited preventive services Medium Health, Auto, Home Deploy telematics, wearables, smart-home IoT with incentive schemes
6 Digital divide Medium Elderly, rural Design inclusive UX, hybrid (digital + human) service models
7 SME tailored covers Medium SMEs & micro-entrepreneurs Create modular, bundled multi-risk products with simplified underwriting
8 Data privacy & AI transparency Low (rising) Digital-first Establish explainable AI and clear LGPD communication

References

• SUSEP – Painel de Inteligência do Mercado de Seguros. https://www.susep.gov.br/menu/panorama-do-mercado/painel-de-inteligencia-do-mercado-de-seguros
• Seguradoras arrecadam R$ 435 bilhões em 2024, avanço de 12,2 % – SindsegSP. https://sindsegsp.org.br/comunicacao/noticias/seguradoras-arrecadam-r-435-bilhoes-em-2024-avanco-de-12-2/
• CAIXA Seguridade tem lucro de R$ 3,76 bilhões em 2024. https://agenciadenoticias.caixa.gov.br/caixa-seguridade-tem-lucro-de-r-3-76-bilhoes-em-2024/
• Porto registra lucro líquido de R$ 2,7 bilhões em 2024 – Sonho Seguro. https://sonhoseguro.com.br/2025/02/porto-registra-lucro-liquido-de-r-27-bilhoes-e-cresce-18-no-ano/
• Allianz: crescimento de dois dígitos em vendas de seguros – Sonho Seguro. https://sonhoseguro.com.br/2024/12/allianz-crescimento-de-dois-digitos-em-vendas-de-seguros-e-melhor-rentabilidade/
• Value Chain Report on the Insurance Industry in Brazil (internal analytical document, 2025).
• Insurance in Brazil Customer Challenges and Pains Analysis (internal analytical document, 2025).
• Insurance in Brazil Current Demand Behavior Analysis (internal analytical document, 2025).