As part of the 2017 Entrepreneurial Insurance Symposium, heldSept. 6–7 in Dallas, businesses were again invited to submit theirideas for innovative insurance products to a competition modeledafter the ABC television show, "SharkTank."

Each finalist had 10 minutes to pitch the idea, product andbusiness plan to the Entrepreneurial Insurance Alliance's judges'panel and the more than 300 insurance professionals attending thesymposium. The audience included C-level insurance executives,private equity firms, agents, brokers and technology companyrepresentatives.

Related: P&C insurance, innovation and entrepreneursintersect at EIS 2017

The competition was moderated by John J. Kraska, president ofDowlingHales, a leading adviser in the insurance sector. Thedistinguished panel of judges were:

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        • Richard Kerr, Chairman and CEO, MarketScoutCorporation;
        • Barbara Bufkin, Executive Head of Business Development,Assurant;
        • Hank Watkins, President, Lloyd's America, Inc.; and
        • Greg Thompson, Senior Managing Executive — Programs,MarkelSpecialty.

The presentations reinforced the theme of the symposium: Theinsurance industry can foster innovation and creativity. Theproducts presented were designed to meet a need for insuranceprofessionals and their clients using currently availabletechnology. The winner will be named 2017 EIA Entrepreneur of theYear, which qualifies the company for investment capital, mediaexposure and affirmation of the winning concept by the best andbrightest in the industry.

Here's a look at the four finalists in alphabetical order alongwith the winner:

Related: Meet 6 entrepreneurs with innovativeInsurTech products

5. Extraordinary Re

With Extraordinary Re (!Re), CEO Will Dove explains, he andhis team are creating a new marketplace where insurance liabilitiescan be traded. He expects the platform to

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        • Unlock the more than $20 trillion of existing liabilities heldon insurance company balance sheets;
        • Access new sources of reinsurance capacity that are expert inpricing and managing dynamic risks;
        • Create price discovery for liabilities that are difficult tovalue; and
        • Enable institutional investors to access diverse and attractivesources of return.

Dove describes Extraordinary Re as "the next step in theevolution of insurance-linked securities."

Related: If insurers can't beat fintechs, they should jointhem

4. Fluid Insurance Workflows

Founder Jeff Hirst describes Fluid InsuranceWorkflows LLC as a service that automates specialtyinsurance workflow for insurance professionals. At a high level, hesays, Fluid will send out renewal applications, follow up withcustomers, assist with submitting to market, follow up withunderwriters and help organize quotes.

Hirst notes that specialty broker advisors can't be easilydisrupted as they play a critical role in the insurance procurementand risk management process. Fluid is designed as an automatedapplication engine, and organized so that brokers can bring easeand convenience to their customers while maintaining the personaltouch. The service helps brokers free up time for relationships,Hirst says, which translates into accounts retained, accountsrounded and accounts added in his target market of specialtyinsurance aggregators.

Related: Insurers face new challenges in the age ofengagement

3. InsuredMine

As explained by co-founder Raution Jaiswal, InsuredMine is acloud-based insurance management dashboard that providespolicyholders with the convenience of having all their insuranceinformation in one place, plus the power to leverage severalfeatures including payment reminders, insurance document storageand organization, and analytics to understand policies better andmake informed choices.

Jaiswal says that he wants to make it easy to access allinsurance coverage in one place. His goal is "insurancemanagement," the way investment advisors provide retirement plan or401(k) management.

After a policyholder enters the details of multiple policies,InsuredMine displays all the policies and due dates on a singlescreen so policyholders can understand when they're covered andinstantly know what they're missing. Insureds can manage cash flowbetter by having visibility of their payment schedules. InsuredMineis free and ready for policyholders to access anytime, anywhere andsecured.

The intention is for policyholders to register with InsuredMine,then select their existing insurances, import existing data and seehow their portfolios compare with other InsuredMine customers.

Related: Insurance 2017: Priorities for innovation,automation and transformation

2. SmartInsurer

SmartInsurer is described by Vladimir Orovic,CEO of RedPort International, as an "analyst-in-a-box" toolthat can understand, analyze and predict all aspects of aninsurance company's business.

According to the website, SmartInsurer is self-learninganalytics software for insurance providers that interfaces with allthe provider's core processing and channel systems — as well aswith third-party sources — and uses the data collected oncustomers, markets, products, policies, claims, distributionchannels and financial performance to give the insurer a 360-degreeview of its business and the actionable insights to improveresults.

The tool combines capabilities of ad-hoc analysis, campaignmanagement and predictive modeling to allow end-to-end businessanalysis and provide recommendations for optimal customer actionsto maximize profitability while growing premium. SmartInsurer'sadvanced analytics, which include artificial intelligence andmachine learning algorithms, work in a self-learning mode. Thatmeans the more an insurer provider uses the tool, the more accuratethe predictions become.

Related: The power of analytics for insurance: You ain'tseen nothin' yet

1. RiskGenius

The winner of the 2017 competition is RiskGenius, aplatform that applies artificial intelligence to insurancepolicies. Its customers leverage their custom algorithms andworkflow modules to better understand policy language and createmore efficient underwriting workflows.

As CEO Chris Cheatham explained in his presentation, "theinsurance industry doesn't know what's in their own policies acrosstheir portfolios." RiskGenius analyzes insurance clauses across thecompany to find similarities and differences.

The product began as a claim solution created by "two frustratedinsurance attorneys and two technologists crazy enough to listen tothem." Cheatham and his co-founder, Doug Reiser, were insuranceattorneys who learned to "despise messy insurance documents." Theirfirst venture was ClaimKit, a software and services company based inOverland Park, Kansas, offering to collect, organize and deliverclaim documents to attorneys, consultants, accountants and claimshandlers.

A customer asked whether the software could be used for policyanalysis. The ClaimKit team began exploring what policy analysisentailed and worked on a pilot project to apply machine learning toa large library of insurance policies. The "aha" moment came whenthey had the idea to combine policy analysis software with machinelearning, thus creating RiskGenius.

The judges definitely found value in the idea, choosingRiskGenius as the winner of the 2017 EIS "Shark Tank"Competition.

Related: Why InsurTech is such a P&C industrygame-changer