InsurTech – InsurTech Express

Management Research Services Unites With American Enterprise Group

MRS – AEG Partnership Press Release

American Enterprise Group, Inc. (AEG) announced today it will be partnering with Management Research Services, Inc. (MRS), a global leader in insurance automation and technology solutions, announced today the release of a new electronic application system for life and health insurance policies. The new technology will allow insurance professional to complete and submit application for straight through processing and instant policyholder decisioning. The platform will allow for real-time processing 100% in-good-order applications. This partnership will empower the divisions of AEG to service and offer real time policy issuance to our distribution and policyholders.

The partnership with MRS is a part of an ongoing, companywide focus on innovation within AEG, and is a result of an earlier interaction with American Enterprise Ventures, LLC, which is a venture capital company backed by AEG that focuses on investments in early-stage startups in the insurance, finance, and healthcare industries.

“Representatives of American Enterprise Ventures discovered MRS at an innovation summit and were impressed with the new technologies the company offered,” explained Julie Larson, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer. “We were looking for a new rules and application processing platform to better meet our growing needs, so the American Enterprise Ventures team brought the potential solution to company leaders for further vetting. It was a great find for us.” Brad Darnell, MRS Chief Technology Officer, says “At MRS we look for partners, not clients, and we could not have asked for a better one than AEG. Right from the beginning, we have developed a strong relationship with great collaboration between our organizations. This teamwork has led us to a multi-phased product rollout strategy in a short amount of time. Our approach not only supports AEG’s digital transformation goals but is also driving exciting innovation to our platform. We are grateful every day for the partnership that has been developed with this excellent company.” GG Oncel, MRS Head of Customer Strategy & Growth, says “MRS is proud to have been chosen as the exclusive partner of AEG for its digital transformation efforts across product lines and distribution channels. The teamwork between the two companies has been excellent resulting in an implementation process that has moved forward with great speed and efficiency. The MRS No-Code platform has proven again that it can support highly complex application processes at any level of volume needed. MRS places significant value in its partnership with AEG and is excited to showcase it to show how we can support the larger tier carriers in the US market and beyond.”

About American Enterprise Group, Inc.

American Enterprise Group, Inc., has multiple insurance company subsidiaries under the American Republic®, Great Western Insurance Company (GWIC®), and Medico® brands. These companies offer life and health insurance product solutions to help people secure their financial futures through various distribution channels and are licensed in 49 states, plus the District of Columbia. American Enterprise is based in Des Moines, Iowa, and employs approximately 450 people in its Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska; and Ogden, Utah, offices.

About American Enterprise Ventures, LLC

American Enterprise Ventures, LLC is a venture capital company backed by American Enterprise Group, Inc. American Enterprise Ventures’ investment strategy focuses on early-stage startups in the insurance, finance, and healthcare industries. With initial investments of up to $1 million, American Enterprise Ventures’ funds are typically made in seed to Series A round startups. For more information visit www.americanenterprise.com/aeventures.

About MRS

At MRS, we help clients transform change into a competitive advantage. MRS provides a high-end technology product to life, health, and annuity insurance industries. In today’s world where “the only thing constant is change,” that original vision has been expanded to include more services and technology capabilities designed to help clients adapt quickly and in a cost-effective way. MRS has invested heavily in our technology platform to create a foundation for the next revolution in life insurance. MRS’s No-Code platform gives you all the tools needed to build a highly secure, complex application that efficiently collects voice and electronic data without writing a single line of code. The result is a vastly reduced time to market with no initial or ongoing maintenance costs making the total cost of ownership substantially lower than status quo solutions. Our platform’s ability to support powerful reflexive logic makes the MRS rules engine extremely efficient in collecting all information needed to make a point-of-sale decision. The capabilities and flexibility of our platform allow customers to use the MRS technology platform as their single solution or as a tool to support and enhance current technology solutions they already have in place. For more info on MRS product e-Apps, please email GG Oncel at gg.oncel@mrsreps.com or visit the website at www.managementresearchservices.com.

HSBC LIFE AND DACADOO FORGE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP TO ENHANCE HOLISTIC HEALTH AND WELLBEING OFFERING TO CUSTOMERS

5 May 2021

(Hong Kong/London, 5 May 2021) – and dacadoo announce a global partnership to help customers improve and maintain their physical, mental and financial wellbeing.

HSBC Life, the Group’s insurance business, will integrate dacadoo’s Digital Health Engagement Platform into its recently launched health and wellbeing platforms, available to both corporate and retail customers.

HSBC Life’s Well+ and Benefits+ platforms, which motivate people to shift towards and maintain a healthy and financially-fit lifestyle, are currently available in Hong Kong, with customised versions launching in mainland China, powering the Pinnacle Personal Wealth Planner platform, Singapore, and other markets over time.

Post integration with dacadoo, HSBC Life’s Well+ and Benefits+ customers will gain access to personalised insights about their overall health and wellbeing, and receive incentives and rewards for healthy behaviours across lifestyle, body, mind and finances. A “health score” – a number indicating overall health – which changes in real-time depending on the user’s lifestyle factors such as health, nutrition, activity and sleep, will also be accessible to customers using the platform, with Well+ integrated within HSBC’s core mobile banking app.

To engage customers on their journey to health and wellbeing, dacadoo’s technology draws on a broad selection of motivational and scientific principles, ranging from artificial intelligence and gamification, to automated coaching and behavioural science. Bryce Johns, Global CEO, HSBC Life and Insurance Partnerships, commented: “HSBC Life is focused on providing customers with the right products, services, and rewards to boost their holistic wellbeing. Helping our customers make the shift to healthier lifestyles is a key strategic priority for us. Our partnership with dacadoo, and our uniquely integrated approach to health and wealth, will enable our customers to take even greater control of their physical, mental and financial wellbeing.”

Peter Ohnemus, President and CEO of dacadoo, added: “We’re delighted to partner with HSBC Life as we believe in giving everybody better opportunities to access their full health potential through dacadoo’s Digital Health Engagement Platform. We look forward to developing our partnership further and bringing value-added digital health services to HSBC Life’s customers.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. HSBC Life’s Digital Health Engagement Platform, Well+, allows customers in Hong Kong to enrol and earn rewards, such as Apple Watch Series 6, Apple Watch SE and cash rebates, including RewardCash after they have purchased eligible plans. More at www.hsbc.com.hk/insurance/ and www.hsbc.com.hk/rewards

2. HSBC Life’s Benefits+ is a leading digital employee benefits solution launched to commercial clients in Hong Kong in February 2021. The solution is the first-of-its kind dedicated health and wellness proposition for Hong Kong employers with flexible group medical and life coverage and an immersive one-stop digital platform for employees.

3. HSBC Life is the insurance business of the HSBC Group. We manufacture life and health insurance products in Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, India*, France, UK, Malta, Mexico and Argentina. HSBC Life offers a range of insurance products to meet the protection, education, retirement, wealth growth and legacy planning needs of our customers. Our services and products are available through HSBC banking channels, selected third-parties, including financial advisers and aggregators. *Through our joint venture, Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance

4. HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of HSBC, is headquartered in London. HSBC serves customers worldwide from offices in 64 countries and territories in its geographical regions: Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America, and Middle East and North Africa. With assets of $2,959bn at 31 March 2021, HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.

Press Contacts:

• dacadoo: Manuel Heuer, +41 44 251 23 23, manuel.heuer@dacadoo.com

About dacadoo

dacadoo, named a 2021 “Cool Vendor in Insurance” by Gartner, licenses its Digital Health Engagement Platform, including its Health Score and Risk Engine to Life & Health insurance operators (B2B), supplying Insurtech and health-tech solutions to over 35 of the top 100 Life & Health insurance operators globally. Available in over 16 languages, dacadoo’s technology is provided as a fully branded, white label solution or it can be integrated into customers’ products through its API. Through its ‘Connect, Score, Engage’ offering, dacadoo supports Life & Health operators to motivate their clients to lead healthier lifestyles through its SaaS-based Digital Health Engagement Platform. dacadoo also provides its Risk Engine, which calculates relative risk on mortality and morbidity in real-time. dacadoo has over 120 employees across locations in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific and over 100 filed patents around their digital Life & Health solutions.

The Rise of Platforms

…And what it means for the life and annuity sector

May-1-Essick-Tech

by Matt Essick

Mr. Essick is Chief Marketing Officer for Ensight™, a sales and data acceleration provider specializing in the insurance carrier and national-distributor space. He spent a decade as a marketing strategist for the Zurich Insurance Group, U.K. and participated first-hand in the rise of digital platform distribution models. Visit Ensight here.

The era of the platform economy is here.

Actually, it has been here for a decade or longer.

Think Apple, Google, Airbnb, Microsoft, Uber, Amazon, Square, LinkedIn, Lyft, Facebook, and Tesla.

The majority of the most valuable companies globally are now based on a platform business model, which is defined as: “the creation of digital communities and marketplaces that allow different groups to interact and transact”.

And in the financial services space?

Let’s name just a few – Robinhood, Envestnet, eMoney, Acorns, Oscar, Xero, RightCapital, Personal Capital, Avant, Blend, Chime, Brex, BrainTree, Enfusion, Verifi, Circle, Opploans, Transferwise, Venmo, Gravity Payments, Coinbase, etc etc. The list goes on and on.

Fintech platforms are remaking the financial services industry. Redefining the “experience” of every corner of financial services. And thus, redefining expectations, across the value chain, from manufacturing to distribution to consumers. The broad principles of the Fintech platform era:

– Ecosystems and connectivity are key

– Customers now engage product manufacturers through “platform distribution”

– User experience (UX) is fundamental to acquisition and retention

– At scale, Fintech platforms change industry dynamics

– Winners (and survivors) adapt their business model quickly

And so, what does this mean for the Life and Annuity sector?

Some Predictions for the Life and Annuity Platform Era

Predictions are always a dangerous game. But if one takes the broad dynamics of platform-based economies as largely constant through every sector, we can also look into the near future for the Life and Annuity sector.

Here are three predictions over the next decade:

– Life, Annuity and LTC business origination (new business) will proportionately and dramatically shift towards multi-carrier distribution platforms

– Life and Annuity distribution will consolidate onto 3-5 leading “mega-platforms”, owning over 50% share (*similar to financial planning software landscape)

– Distribution focus will shift from traditional, back-office “agency management platforms” to field technology “sales enablement platforms”

Perhaps the grandest prediction is that digital platforms, independent of proprietary development and ownership by insurance carriers and distributors, will become true power brokers in the industry.

The implication? Perhaps, Geoffrey G. Parker, a Dartmouth College professor and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) research fellow, said it best:

“The bulk of the power in industries is likely to shift to ecosystems… So, the message is every firm needs to understand platforms and figure out their place in the industry structure that is coming”.^[2]

Unstoppable Drivers Towards Platform Distribution

There are several unstoppable forces and accelerants now at play.

Each of these trends, in and of itself, is enough to shift the structure of the sector. However, when one considers all five in the aggregate, the emerging future is a foregone conclusion.

Consolidation in Distribution:  Consolidation is at hand in the Life and Annuity distribution landscape and will only accelerate from here. Whether we are talking about LifeMark and Bramco joining together to create LIBRA, or the acquisitions made by the PE-backed national players (e.g., Simplicity, AmeriLife), the future of distribution will look very different. One thing is for sure, technology platforms play a critical role in the integration of firms.

Staggering Investment in Fintech:  Global fintech investment reached $44 billion in 2020^[3], an increase of 14% from 2019. The scale of investment in Fintech platforms is staggering – and insurance carriers and distributors will simply not be able to compete with a legacy internal development (“build” vs “buy”)” mindset. If nothing else, $44 billion definitively underscores the fact that we are in the age of fintech and insurtech platforms.

The March to Best Interest (BI): The Life and Annuity sector is on a continued trajectory towards a Best Interest (BI) centric regulatory environment. While this may differ by channel, a rapidly growing number of distributors are choosing to err on the side of a fiduciary model. This means suitability standards, illustrating different product options, and capturing auditability along the way. There is only one way to accomplish this efficiently and cost effectively – a technology platform (*not paper).

New distribution Business Models: The traditional distribution business model within the Life and Annuity sector is changing. There is a growing focus across several fronts: automating back-office processes; shifting time and focus to field-oriented sales enablement; and, extending a digital platform to financial professionals for advisor-centric “self-service”. This is the strength of technology firms.

The weight of market expectations: Every single financial services experience today is digital, visually intuitive, interactive and easy to understand. Every single one – except the life and annuity sales experience. Moreover, every single core stakeholder group in the value chain now expects this modern digital experience, from employees to financial professionals. Let’s remember, millennials now represent the largest workforce in the economy today.

These drivers are irreversible. To borrow a phrase from the noted American journalist Sebastian Junger – this is the “perfect storm”.

3 Recommendations To Win

So how can Life and Annuity insurance carriers and distributors adapt and win? I have three recommendations to start.

Develop a platform-led distribution strategy

Every carrier and distributor should now be thinking about how this emerging context will impact product development, distribution profitability and the market-facing business model.

There are several long-term strategic questions to be debated. Here are just a few:

– Business origination: What will be the impact on new business origination? Will closed, proprietary service channels remain at scale in the future?

– The wholesaling operating model: What is the future model of wholesaling? How will wholesalers engage with the channel?

– Channel strategy: Where will my target customers be, and how will I reach them? Will I need to access those customers on a 3rd party platform, or can I provision a platform to (capture) them?

– Profitability: How will I drive profit and scale in this new era? Which channels will see an erosion of profitability? What new target operating model may be required to maintain ROE?

These are fundamental questions that need to inform distribution strategy over the next decade. Without addressing these critical questions (and others), insurance carriers and distributors will be flying blind into the “perfect storm”.

Expect to see a few casualties.

“Get on” the dominant platforms early

It is simply not possible to compete with $44 billion in fintech platform investment.

The old “build vs. buy” debate is a different question today. If you are an insurance carrier or national distributor, choose wisely what you elect to “build” rather than “buy”.

An emerging dynamic of the platform economy is the ecosystem. It is critical to buy the flexibility to thrive in an ecosystem. The leading fintech and insurtech platforms bring connectivity and pre-built integrations to the table.

There are two other central reasons to adopt the dominant emerging platforms early, and ahead of your competition:

First, you can ride the opportunity of a “network effect”. A network effect refers to a situation in which the value of a product, service, or platform grows based on the number of buyers, sellers, or users who leverage it. Leading distribution platforms will be rapidly growing the number of customers you can reach – through one efficient digital channel. (Of note, it becomes increasingly painful and inefficient to do business outside of a platform network as well.)

Second, it is impossible to understand how these platforms work ‘in practice’, on a day-to-day basis, the subtle nuances – unless you are actually also utilizing the platform itself. For a carrier, this means potentially being one step-removed from understanding how its products are actually sold, why they are selected, and how to win business.

Smart counsel today is to adopt and use best of breed” third party platforms early on.

Play to win and embrace the change

The Life and Annuity sector today falls into two camps: Early adopters (change embracers) and late adopters (change laggards).

Waiting to adopt emerging technology used to be wise counsel. But in the era of Moore’s Law, this is no longer a recipe for winning.

Digital innovation “lead time” or “cycle time” is becoming an increasingly deciding factor in the emerging winners and losers. And the stakes are higher than ever.

One might say that embracing digital platforms has “compounding returns”. Competitive advantage can double, or quadruple based on an organization’s digital fitness.

Understanding the dynamic of new distribution technology platforms – and how to win on these platforms – takes time. Players who adopt first, stand to benefit from those compounding returns and will be well positioned for market-leading growth and profitability in the decade ahead.

1 The Platform Economy, The Innovator, Jennifer Schenker (https://innovator.news/the-platform-economy-3c09439b56)

2 The Platform Economy, The Innovator, Jennifer Schenker (https://innovator.news/the-platform-economy-3c09439b56)

3 The state of FinTech: a recap of 2020 and a glimpse into 2021, FinExtra, 2/8/21 (https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/19849/the-state-of-fintech-a-recap-of-2020-and-a-glimpse-into-2021)

dacadoo Named A Cool Vendor in 2021 Gartner ‘Cool Vendors In Insurance’

dacadoo & gartner

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – 27 April 2021: dacadoo, a leading provider of Insurtech and Healthtech solutions, today announced it has been named as one of four Cool Vendors in Insurance 2021* by Gartner. This recently published report highlights that “Different stances to customer experience (CX) will be needed to respond to emerging consumer demands, including more digital channel capabilities and new products and services. Many of the Cool Vendors in this report are focusing on radically transforming CX to meet these shifts.” ^*

The Gartner ‘Cool Vendor in Insurance’ research report “does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services”. The report also provides recommendations for Life and P&C insurance CIOs to take their financial services digital business strategy and innovation forward including the following:

• “Create a product and technology portfolio that incorporates Cool Vendors by appraising their ability to deliver innovation across different scenarios to expedite delivery with shorter-term payback cycles.

• Target business innovation projects and proof of concept (POC) efforts by measuring how Cool Vendors have combined emerging technologies and trends to maximize value against existing KPIs.

• Accelerate CX transformation by leveraging Cool Vendor solutions to improve customer intelligence and enable dynamic and more-proactive engagement.” ^*

“We consider our inclusion in the Cool Vendors in Insurance 2021 by Gartner, a strong confirmation of our mission to enable insurers to unlock the power of digital health engagement and health risk quantification to improve their business performance,” said Peter Ohnemus, President and CEO of dacadoo. “AI and reward-driven client solutions are driving further this mayor CX transformation of digital life and health. We believe that the global insurance industry is now ripe for getting into the growing ‘real-time movement’ that we have seen in other industries such as entertainment, travel, retail, etc. It is mission-critical that insurance companies become customer centric and able to build a long-term relationship with their clients. At dacadoo we call this the ‘REF factor’ (providing solutions that are Relevant, Easy and Fun to use) which is a new way of creating and benchmarking client engagement.”

From our view, the information provided in this Gartner report is of value to all insurance executives who are seeking new ways to transform their business models and jump into the future of digitization and customer engagement.

^* Gartner, ‘Cool Vendors in Insurance’, Sham Gill, Richard Natale, Laurie Shotton, Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, Rajesh Narayan, James Ingham, 15 April 2021.

Gartner Disclaimer:

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About dacadoo

dacadoo licenses its Digital Health Engagement Platform, including its Health Score, to Life & Health insurance operators (B2B), supplying Insurtech and health-tech solutions to over 35 of the top 100 Life & Health insurance operators globally. Available in over 16 languages, dacadoo’s technology is provided as a fully branded, white label solution or it can be integrated into customers’ products through its API. Through its ‘Connect, Score, Engage’ offering, dacadoo supports Life & Health operators to motivate their clients to lead healthier lifestyles through its SaaS-based Digital Health Engagement Platform. dacadoo also provides its Risk Engine, which calculates relative risk on mortality and morbidity in real-time. dacadoo has over 120 employees across locations in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific and over 100 filed patents around their digital Life & Health solutions.

For more information, please visit www.dacadoo.com

###

Per Gartner research process, we do not provide courtesy copies for Cool Vendor reports. If you are a client, you can access the document using this link: https://www.gartner.com/document/4000591.

If you are not a client, Cool Vendor reports can be purchased on https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/4000591-cool-vendors-in-insurance. We would also invite you to complete this form to learn more about becoming a client https://www.gartner.com/en/become-a-client.

dacadoo Media Contact:

Manuel Heuer

manuel.heuer@dacadoo.com

+41 44 251 23 23

Consumer Direct Life eApp While Maintaining The Agent Ecosystem

By Ken Leibow – May 1, 2021

We are hearing new terms like eBGAs and eRetailers for the sale of insurance products. Putting the research, education, quoting, and electronic insurance application submission process in the hands of the consumer while maintaining the agent ecosystem is the new model for marketing and selling insurance. This insurance sales model is growing in popularity. The type of insurance products on the direct-to-consumer platforms include: Simplified term insurance, final expense, guaranteed income, HMA, disability insurance, critical illness, and, yes, even cross-selling to property and casualty. More product types continue to be simplified for this sales model like guaranteed universal life, long term care insurance, and Medicare supplemental insurance. Why is this model growing significantly in 2021? There are three reasons: Social media, Millennials, and COVID-19.

In the U.S.A, the average time spent on social media is two hours and 25 minutes daily. The most effective medium for marketing today is through social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and others. Americans also spend about 5.3 hours daily on their mobile devices. This is an indicator that the platforms you use for quoting insurance and marketing should either be a native mobile app, hybrid mobile app, or mobile browser optimized Web App. Millennials, ages 25-40 born between 1981 and 1996, grew up with access to technology, online retail, and the sharing economy; therefore, they exhibit a discernable preference for experiences over product when spending time and money. Eighty percent of Millennials read reviews and do their own research before making a purchasing decision. They will ask for help when needed after they already have attempted the research. The target market of Millennials make up 72.1 million Americans. Yes, Millennials spend about 5.7 hours daily on their smartphones.

Since COVID-19 hit in 2020, the traditional method of selling insurance has relegated consumers to stay home and life agents to sell remotely. This has resulted in the acceleration of virtual tools, Artificial Intelligence (AI) for automated underwriting, and building out an easy consumer experience while still having an insurance advisor available for assistance when needed. Insurance advisors are given the software solutions and websites for marketing direct to consumers by a wholesaler like a BGA, IMO or GA at little or no cost. These direct-to-consumer tools are used to educate, quote, and have the consumer submit an insurance application direct while the agent and his/her upline receive commissions from the carrier. The consumer has easy access to an insurance advisor or call center for assistance during every step of the process from pre-sales to completing the insurance application. If a life insurance distributor did not develop these consumer tools in-house, then they are using a solution provider. The distributor or carrier purchases a license to use the consumer-direct software solutions, which can be used as a recruiting tool for agents. The huge advantage is that this enables multi-channel penetration like property and casualty shops, banks, health agents, and life insurance direct marketers. The formula for success is all about the consumer experience!

Consumer Engaging Solutions
Covr Financial Technologies’ digital, white-labeled platforms integrate seamlessly with financial brands to provide life, long term care, disability, and supplemental health solutions from top carriers to their clients in a simple, turnkey way. AI-driven tools, a digital advice model and omni-channel sales support seamlessly blend high-tech and high-touch. Covr is dedicated to transforming the insurance purchase process from something that was previously slow and paper-based to an experience that is fast, simple and digital. Covr currently serves over 25,000 financial advisors and over 20 million customers across over 30 financial institutions.

Among its new product launches are Covr’s multi-carrier term life insurance platform, which includes a growing number of instant-purchase journeys, and the proprietary LoanMatch Protector product. With Covr’s multi-carrier term insurance platform customers can apply for life insurance online in minutes, with real-time quotes available from the leading insurance carriers. Leading the way in the journey are product offerings from Bestow, Haven Life, Banner Life and Americo, which all offer fully digital, instant-decision capability and Covr’s technology to help clients find the product that fits best for them.

LoanMatch Protector mirrors the remainder of an existing mortgage, small business loan or other debt. The coverage adjusts to the client’s precise need, saving consumers up to 30 percent and offering the market-leading ability to complete the entire process in 15 minutes. Covr’s industry-leading digital life insurance platform integrates seamlessly into a financial institution’s existing website or other distribution model. This allows these financial institutions to offer a broad range of life insurance products from the leading insurance carriers to their customers. Today’s consumers expect choice, simplicity and speed when purchasing life insurance, and Covr’s technology is tailored to those demands.

Sureify’s Lifetime Platform is made up of three solutions: LifetimeAcquire, LifetimeService, and LifetimeEngage. LifetimeAcquire powers omnichannel sales capabilities that drive increased placement rates via quoting, e-application and automated underwriting. LifetimeService enables insurers to deploy a comprehensive digital self-service solution for their inforce business. And lastly, LifetimeEngage creates insights to foster a lifelong digital relationship with policyholders through multiple forms of engagement and analytics, leading to greater value for each policyholder. Sureify’s LifetimeEngage can help BGAs connect with policyholders in a meaningful, personalized, cost-effective way and engage with every customer in a way that helps ensure protection and maximize lifetime value. Rather than only having access to standard policy transaction data, Sureify’s LifetimeEngage platform delivers real time, actionable insights based on life events, interests, and personalized needs creating an organic source of cross-selling and upselling opportunities that strengthen the customer and agent relationship.

Other Consumer eApp Models
Consumers watch over 500 million hours of video daily. Imagine engaging with your clients with a Virtual Video Quoter. Well Employee Pooling (EP) has created Consumer Direct Insurance Tools (CDIT). An agent or carrier can create personalized videos about their products and educate the consumer on the importance of life insurance. CDIT is white labeled with options for you to select color and design. The videos can walk the consumer through an instant quote and an eApp. This is a great recruiting tool for BGAs. It can be co-branded for property and casualty shops, banks, and health agents. Of course, it is used by advisors for lead generation.

ApplicInt has an eApp solution called U*Complete. The power of this platform is the flexibility of the workflow model. An agent can run a quote, start a life insurance application, and then hand it off to a client to complete. U*Complete can also be integrated into a carrier’s website in a consumer direct model. ApplicInt is well known for fulfillment process software solutions like CallComplete, used at a carrier or paramed provider’s call center. They also have a digital paramed used by top providers like APPS. U*Complete is seamlessly plugged into the end-to-end life insurance electronic application process.

The Power of APIs
Solution providers are investing their research and development money into Application Programming Interface (API), which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Equisoft/apply is an easy to use, sales flow oriented eApp wizard for electronic insurance applications resulting in fast and seamless policy approvals used by insurance advisors. Equisoft is the king of APIs, first building their eApp to easily integrate with a carrier’s back-office policy admin system using an API. They also have an agent and client portal platform that has an API that makes it seamless to plug in third-party applications and data. The eApp engine of products rules, mapping data to the life insurance application forms and sending data and forms to the carrier can be accessed by a user interface (UI) whereby a carrier or distributor can build a consumer facing experience for eApp.

No Code eApp is a self-service model. Management Research Services (mrs) for example has created an administration tool that makes it quick and easy to set up mapping the eApp questions to the life application forms and configure all the product rules without having the vendor to program it for you. The mrs API makes it extremely easy for you to build the UI frontend on your website. This is a low cost and speed-to-market life eApp solution.

The industry has recognized the importance of APIs. The Life Distribution Technology Committee (LDTC) kicked off a project in 2021 to standardize APIs for life insurance.

Tying it all together with Mobile and Social Media
I provided some powerful statistics about how many Americans and how much time is spent daily using their mobile devices and specifically for the purpose of social media. The vendors of these consumer tools for insurance understand that their design needs to work on all devices and have optimization for the best experience possible on a smartphone or tablet like an iPad. The power of the API for eApp is that the user interface can be developed on a mobile app and a web app. An agent, for example, creates a marketing campaign targeting a specific demographic on Facebook, and then there is a link to the consumer insurance tool. The consumer runs a quote and applies for insurance in one seamless experience. The agent and his/her upline get paid their commissions.

Covr Financial Technologies Launches New Insurance Product Suite with Investment from Sony Innovation Fund by IGV

covr+sony

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Covr Financial Technologies, Inc.

Apr 29, 2021, 07:00 ET

HARTFORD, Conn., April 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Covr Financial Technologies (Covr), a leading digital life insurance platform, has completed its latest funding round with an investment from Sony Innovation Fund by IGV. This funding comes in conjunction with the launch of Covr’s suite of new AI-driven term life insurance products, which bring market-leading capability to the financial institutions and insurance companies that use Covr solutions to support the growing trend of self-directed, shop-from-home, insurance buying experiences that are now possible because of emerging technology and robo-advice tools.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled with this investment from Sony Innovation Fund by IGV. Wrapping our latest round of funding with a highly recognizable, global brand like Sony, which is also an insurance distribution leader in Asia, is just incredible,” said Mike Kalen, Covr CEO. “This investment and Sony’s global network will go far in helping Covr continue to lead the way in digital insurance innovations in the U.S., and eventually abroad, with solutions such as our newly launched multi-carrier term life insurance platform that includes a growing number of instant-purchase journeys and our proprietary LoanMatch Protector product.”

“We believe Covr reinvents the way life insurance is distributed by leveraging AI and advanced process automation, enabling insurance carriers to broaden their distribution path. This makes it possible for new entrants, such as banks, credit unions, C2C platforms and FinTechs, to efficiently offer policies to their own customers,” said Gen Tsuchikawa, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Sony Innovation Fund by IGV. “Thanks to its comprehensive and modular software stack, Covr provides a genuine no-code environment for optimizing policy distribution, selection and issuance. We are quite confident in the growth path of Covr, and we look forward to supporting Mike and his team as they further grow Covr’s footprint.”

Covr’s industry-leading digital life insurance platform integrates seamlessly into a financial institution’s existing website or other distribution model. This allows these financial institutions to offer a broad range of life insurance products from the leading insurance carriers to their customers. Today’s consumers expect choice, simplicity and speed when purchasing life insurance, and Covr’s technology is tailored to those demands. “Our partners are finding additional ways to serve their customers with our solutions,” Kalen said. “We partner with many of the leading financial planning firms, banks, broker dealers, credit unions, consumer lenders, personal finance apps, and other great brands to bring innovation and affordable insurance to their customers.”

With Covr’s multi-carrier term insurance platform, customers can apply for life insurance online in minutes, with real-time quotes available from the leading insurance carriers. Leading the way in the journey are product offerings from Bestow, Haven Life, Banner Life and Americo, which all offer fully digital, instant-decision capability, and Covr’s technology to help clients find the product that fits best for them.

“Customers today expect simplicity and choice when it comes to protection products – and expect that it’s done quickly,” Kalen said. “Our platform allows our financial brands and other partners to meet this demand with a digital, white-labeled solution.”

Unique among Covr’s product offerings is LoanMatch Protector, a new product designed to mirror the remainder of an existing mortgage, small business loan or other debt. The coverage adjusts to the client’s precise need, saving consumers up to 30% and offering the market-leading ability to complete the entire process in 15 minutes.

About Covr Financial Technologies Inc.

Covr partners with financial brands to provide life insurance solutions to their customers in an efficient, easy way that streamlines the process of selling and buying policies. Covr offers a choice of trusted life insurance products from leading insurance carriers, an easy way to compare rates, and the ability to purchase policies within minutes. Through its white label solutions, Covr helps financial institutions deliver a great experience under an existing brand their customers already trust. Covr currently serves over 25,000 financial advisors and over 20 million customers across over 30 financial institutions. For more information, visit covrtech.com or follow us @covrtech and on LinkedIn.

Covr’s investors include nine leading venture capital firms: Nyca Partners, Commerce Ventures, Allianz Life Ventures, Connectivity Capital Partners, Contour Venture Partners, Aflac Ventures, Fairview Capital, Connecticut Innovations and Sony Innovation Fund by IGV. Covr’s Advisory Board includes financial services leaders, including Chairman Brian Finn, former president of Credit Suisse First Boston; Joe Plumeri, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of First Data Corporation and former CEO of Citibank North America; Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest as well as senior executive roles at Bank of America, Citigroup and Smith Barney; Hans Morris, managing partner, Nyca Partners, chairman of Lending Club, formerly president of Visa; Brady Dougan, former CEO of Credit Suisse; Gregg Fleming of Rockefeller Capital and Bob Kerzner, formerly CEO of LIMRA.

About Sony Innovation Fund by IGV

Innovation Growth Ventures (IGV) is a venture capital firm formed in 2019 by Sony Corporation, Daiwa Capital Holdings Co., Ltd. and external limited partners. Managed by the Sony Innovation Fund (SIF), IGV invests in mid to late-stage startup companies across Japan, the U.S., Europe, Israel and India.

SOURCE Covr Financial Technologies, Inc.

How Insurance Distributors Can Provide Transformative Solutions to Advisor Productivity

The distributor opportunity to transform advisor practices

The insurance distributor value proposition for advisors is built on a foundation of helping remove the barriers that restrict practice growth, create headaches and lower profitability. They already do a great job providing case management support, marketing support and access to carriers, but there is an overlooked opportunity to unlock advisor productivity and strengthen relationships.

The opportunity arises from a very specific advisor challenge.

The insurance advisor challenge: when growth outstrips inefficient processes

Financial advisors seeking to dramatically increase the value of their book of business do a great job of creating plans for finding more prospects and meeting more of each current client’s needs. They look for ways to optimize processes, improve productivity and drive agency growth.

However, even advisors who have set a clear vision and defined a plan for achieving their growth targets can run into trouble when growth outstrips processes. The irony is that, it’s all too easy for advisors to enjoy growth in their business, but then see it choked off because of workflow-related obstacles and slow-downs. Sometimes it’s the simple problems that shut down grand ideas.

Download the full case study. Click here.

Despite all the work an advisor may have done to put staff, structure and systems into place to kick-start their growth engine—if they are still reliant on manual, paper-based approaches to uncovering client needs, too much time is spent on each step in the sales process with each client.

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Why legacy financial planning software can create its own bottlenecks

Financial planning software tools provided by carriers and vendors at some point in the past, are better than relying on jury-rigged Excel solutions, but it’s still not always good enough. Older solutions are less automated, and still require too many manual steps. They may be able to get the job done, but are cumbersome to use, don’t integrate with existing CRM and distributor or carrier systems, and require double entry of client data.

It’s not unusual for an advisor’s assistant to spend 45 minutes collecting information from a client and entering it in their older, financial planning software tool. And then, the advisor may still need to review the results and tailor the recommendations.

Accelerating the in-flow of new prospects brings with it a corresponding increase in the number of client discovery initiatives. And this turns out to be a cap on growth for some advisors. The math is simple; the amount of time each discovery takes, times the number of clients. Once that number becomes larger than a few hours a day, it’s like turning the advisor’s practice into a headwind. Everything slows down. Becomes hard. At a certain point, prospecting becomes secondary, and the growth curve flattens.

These bottlenecks mean that advisors are reduced to making money in their business based on the time they can spend with a client (which is a limited resource) rather than based on the value they can deliver.

Largely manual or inefficient processes create a form of business risk. Especially in a competitive marketplace where growth and being able to carve out a significant niche are vitally important. What advisor in the prime of their career would be satisfied with just maintaining their status quo?

How distributors can provide transformative solutions for advisors that want to increase productivity

The answer isn’t for advisors to hire more staff in an attempt to accommodate manual processes that are suffocating growth. Instead, this is an opportunity for distributors to deliver significant value for their advisors by providing an effective solution for eliminating roadblocks.

To find out more, read the case study

Insights Author

Charles-Pedneault

Charles Pedneault

Vice President, Insurance Distribution Solutions

See more insights from Charles

Contact Charles

EIS Appoints Dan Galdenzi To Lead Dedicated Healthcare Initiative

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Industry Veteran Sees Opportunity to Drive Digital Innovation in Health Insurance Sector

San Francisco, April 21, 2021 – EIS, a core and digital platform provider for insurers, has announced the appointment of Dan Galdenzi to lead a dedicated initiative to drive the growth and expansion of its core EIS Suite™ to carriers in the health insurance space. As General Manager and Executive Vice President, Healthcare, Galdenzi will direct an initiative focused on helping carriers accelerate their digital transformations to provide better customer experiences, achieve greater operational efficiency and deliver new products and services at two to three times the speed of traditional systems partners.

Galdenzi recently joined EIS from NASCO, the digital health solution provider for Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans, where he worked as SVP and Chief Growth Officer. Previously, he served as CIO at BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont, where he led the organization’s journey into a member-first culture and oversaw their four-year core administrative system migration onto NASCO. With nearly 25 years of progressive technology, business, and innovation experience in healthcare IT, Galdenzi brings a deep understanding of the market and a fundamental belief in the disruptive nature of modern technology to EIS.

“As health insurers look to diversify their offerings into ancillary services such as dental and vision, we see a great opportunity to provide them with a platform that can meet their digital needs and serve as a springboard for broader transformation,” said Galdenzi. “Healthcare has lagged the modernization movement embraced by other insurance sectors where EIS is successfully partnering to deliver disruptive technologies. We are assembling a team that has a deep knowledge of the unique challenges healthcare organizations face as they seek to reimagine their core IT systems and we look forward to employing our expertise to help them overcome barriers to transformation.”

“EIS is excited to welcome Dan to lead our healthcare initiative and build a world-class team to drive it,” says EIS’ Chief Executive Officer, Alec Miloslavsky. “Dan is an industry authority, with a first-hand understanding of the challenges health insurers face as they leverage leading-edge technology to provide better experiences, while diversifying their services and moving into new markets.”

Dr. Mark Boxer, a member of EIS’ Board of Directors, a former Cigna executive and an internationally recognized innovator and technologist with more than 25 years of experience in digital health, healthcare technology, and analytics added, “With the growing focus of insurers on delivering personalized and integrated experiences to customers, enhancing provider productivity and improving outcomes and affordability, the industry should heartily welcome the EIS initiative to help it support a broader ecosystem of products and services and use the newest technologies to do it.”

For more information, visit EISGroup.com.

About EIS

EIS is an insurance software company that enables leading insurers to innovate and operate like a tech company: fast, simple, agile. Founded in 2008, EIS provides a platform for high-velocity insurance. This open, flexible platform of core and digital solutions liberates insurers to accelerate innovation, launch products faster, deliver new revenue channels, and create insurance experiences the world will love. And with thousands of APIs, the platform gives insurers the freedom to connect to a vast ecosystem of insurtech and emerging technologies. Headquartered in San Francisco, EIS powers premium growth for insurers in all lines of business worldwide. For more information on how EIS helps insurers become unbeatably fast at everything they do, visit EISGroup.com.

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Media contact:

Matt Conroy

mconroy@stantonprm.com

203-610-1421

Sammons Financial Group Advances Digital Transformation Initiatives With iPipeline

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Automation Leverages Next Gen e-App, Expanded Medical Questions for Non-Fluid Underwriting, and Policy Exchanges

Exton, PA (April 20th, 2021) – iPipeline® – a leading provider of no code / low code cloud-based software solutions for the life insurance and financial services industry, today announced Sammons Financial Group, parent company to Midland National and North American company, advanced its digital transformation initiatives while paramedical exam offices were shut down during the height of the pandemic by extending the capabilities of iGO® e-App with several unique product features to streamline non-fluid underwriting and provide distribution partners expanded options and flexibility. Sammons Financial Group’s best practices approach for the use of e-App has resulted in their agent adoption rate increasing from 56% to 75% during 2020. *

“Sammons Financial Group is a great example of how iGO e-App is enabling carriers across the U.S. to effectively achieve digital transformation initiatives. By implementing unique product features, they have managed to circumvent the collection of fluids by expanding the medical questions within the e-App workflow. This is accelerating how they do business by eliminating the paramedical exam while making the purchase of life insurance more palatable for their clients,” said Larry Berran, CEO, iPipeline. “The industry is working its way through the challenges being presented in the current contactless selling environment. iPipeline is pleased to be working with Sammons on finding innovative ways to increase their speed to market while serving the financial needs of the families seeking their products.”

“I am thrilled to see our digital transformation roadmap come to life and distribution partner e-App adoption surge to 75%, particularly in a challenging year like 2020. The ability to streamline how our distribution partners submit business to us has enabled Sammons Financial Group to address market demand for a variety of our products and ensure our customers do not experience delays in satisfying their traditional needs,” said Neil Berns, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Sammons Financial Group. “We’ve also worked with iPipeline to modify our iGO workflow by expanding medical questions to execute non-fluid underwriting in instances where it wasn’t previously available, making it easier for distribution partners to serve their clients in a substantially better way.”

To learn how you can implement iPipeline’s innovations to automate how your products are sold and processed, contact sales@ipipeline.com or call 1-800-758-0824, option 2.

About Sammons® Financial Group, Inc.
The companies of Sammons® Financial Group, Inc. help families and businesses protect their future to enjoy life’s moments today. A subsidiary of Sammons Enterprises, Inc., Sammons Financial Group is privately owned with member companies that are among the most enduring and stable in the financial services industry. Our companies include Midland National® Life Insurance Company (including Sammons® Corporate Markets); North American Company for Life and Health Insurance®; and Sammons Institutional Group® (including Midland Retirement Distributors® and Sammons Retirement Solutions®). Together, we offer today’s most sought-after life insurance, annuity, and retirement planning products. Sammons Financial Group: With You for Every Moment®.

About iPipeline
iPipeline is a leading provider of no code / low code, cloud-based software solutions for the life insurance and financial services industry. Through our SSG Digital, end-to-end platform, we accelerate and simplify sales, compliance, operations, and support. We provide process automation and seamless integration between every participant in our ecosystem including carriers, agents, general agencies, advisors, broker-dealers, RIAs, banks, securities/mutual fund firms, and their consumers on a global basis. Our innovative solutions include pre-sales support, new business and underwriting, policy administration, point-of-sale execution of applications, post-sale support, data analysis, reporting, user-driven configuration, consumer delivery and self-service, and agency and firm management.

iPipeline’s platform is used by approximately 450 carriers and fund companies, 1,400 distributors and financial institutions, and their agents and licensed advisors in a cloud-based environment. With headquarters in Exton, Pennsylvania, iPipeline has locations in Boston, Bromley (UK), Burlington (Canada), Cheltenham (UK), Dallas, Davidson, Fort Lauderdale, Huntersville, Ontario (CA), Philadelphia, Pleasanton, and Salt Lake City. Visit www.ipipeline.com.

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For iPipeline:
Lisa Shea
Marketing
lshea@ipipeline.com
484-870-6234

*Source: Internal NBUW reporting

Lingering Cloud Fear And Adaptation

Lingering Cloud Fear and Adaptation

Nephophobia is the fear of clouds. It’s thankfully rare: clouds are tough to avoid. The ancient Greeks were talking about storm clouds. Fear of cloud computing is a more recent development; a by-product of forced adaptation. In 2021, 94% of the internet’s workload is processed by cloud data centers. Just two years ago, this figure was 60%. How did cloud use become ubiquitous so quickly?

A little bit of history puts the revolution in perspective. The appearance of “The Cloud” in our lexicon is recent. The earliest usage was in 1996 when a Compaq public-relations piece used “cloud computing” to describe enhanced utility of the world wide web. The men who co-authored the piece both claim to have coined the term. (One of them even attempted to copyright “cloud computing” in 1997, but to no avail.) In 2006, Google and Amazon started describing the new paradigm where users access software and files over the internet (instead of their desktop) as “cloud computing.” Right then it became the hot new buzzword.

The marketing guys from Compaq in the ‘90s had it right. The Cloud is not new; it is what the web was designed to do since it was created in the 1960s. It’s a simple re-branding of the internet; a fitting metaphor for a changed system to where everything is accessed and stored remotely.

Skepticism and suspicion have been mostly quelled by how rapidly the world migrated. Cloud computing is globally pervasive: 85% of businesses worldwide use cloud-based data storage. 77% of companies have an application running on a cloud-based server. It’s the new normal.

The remaining objections to cloud computing.

The upside is undeniable – reduced cost of operation, greater flexibility, and improved collaboration. The benefits far exceed those of older-generation physical servers. Years ago, objections to cloud migration were often related to human readiness or organizational support. Too new and unknown. Today, we are through the looking glass on such fears. The remaining objections for migrating to the cloud are mainly two: cost concerns and privacy concerns.

Though commonly used as an objection, saving money is the most popular reason businesses migrate to the cloud: 61% of businesses say “cost” is their primary reason for adopting cloud use versus just 30% who migrate for the “additional storage.” The storage aspect saves money, too: cloud hosts charge you for the just the space you use. Think of how this contrasts with the IT specialists of yesterday purchasing equipment with tomorrow’s storage needs in mind. No more wasted storage space or hardware growing obsolete. In a recent study, 82% of businesses that migrated to cloud systems reported cost savings that covered any initial up-front migration fees within six months of the switch.

The privacy concerns might be more about control. Knowing where the data was physically housed was of a certain comfort; moreover, we knew the guys on the IT team. They know their stuff, right?

Not to say they didn’t, but in 2021 the three largest providers of cloud services are Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Each has security knowledge, intel, and experience that dwarfs almost every organization’s. It’s what they do. The proof is in the pudding: 94% of organizations report fewer security incidents after migrating to cloud-based alternatives. Less resources devoted to maintaining system security means more savings.

MRS: cloud-based solutions for providers and 3rd party administrators.

Management Research Services (MRS) operates their no-code insurance services platform on Microsoft Azure, a top-tier cloud solution for SaaS (software as a service) applications. Data encryption combined with Microsoft’s dedication to robust security means the sensitive data managed within our application is always secure. Using Microsoft Azure to host the MRS platform and e-App allows us to focus on what we do best: designing state-of-the-art insurance service interfaces that best serve our clients and their customers.

Contact the staff at MRS to learn about trying a demo of our latest products. We are ready to put our cloud-based solutions to work for you. Request a demo here, or email us at: sales@mrsreps.com.

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Category: InsurTech