Opportunity exists in both good times and bad. Here's how insurers can find and have been achieving success despite a failing economy, according to Matt Josefowicz, leader of the insurance practice at Novarica.

TD: A few years ago insurers were relying on mergers and acquisitions to grow their business, but the economy has stalled that tactic. What type of things are insurers doing to grow their business organically?

MJ: First of all, I think we probably will see additional M&A activity pick up in the second half of the year as the larger, well-capitalized companies look around for growth opportunities and perhaps take advantage of competitors or niche players that may be hurting in the current economy. It's certainly a challenging market out there. The U.S. insurance market is not just flat; it's actually down slightly over last year, which is very unusual compared with the last few decades. So, it's quite difficult to grow organically. Where organic growth is occurring, it's always taking from somewhere else. We see in the personal lines market an intense competition that has been driven by advertising spending and a very serious price and value message. And in other lines, in a lot of cases it's really coming down to superior distributor service as well as customer service and customer retention.