Tag: management research services

Management Research Services Unites With American Enterprise Group

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MRS – AEG Partnership Press Release

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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.

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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.

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“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.”

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About American Enterprise Group, Inc.

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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.

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About American Enterprise Ventures, LLC

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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.

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About MRS

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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.

Consumer Direct Life eApp While Maintaining The Agent Ecosystem

By Ken Leibow – May 1, 2021
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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Lingering Cloud Fear And Adaptation

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Lingering Cloud Fear and Adaptation

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The remaining objections to cloud computing.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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

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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.

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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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The Acceleration Of E-Engagement For Life And Health Like Medicare Supplemental Insurance

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By Ken Leibow

Originally Published in Broker World Magazine April 1, 2021

 

COVID-19 has forced independent distribution into e-Engagement for life insurance and health related insurance products. Some technology vendors in the life insurance space have enhanced, configured, and marketed their solution platforms to support health products like Medicare supplemental insurance, long term care insurance, critical illness, and disability income insurance.

 

Medicare is now the fastest-growing segment of the health insurance market, with 10,000 baby boomers aging into the program every day. Medicare enrollment is expected to soar between 2021 and 2029, reaching 77 million enrollees by the end of the decade. That’s an increase of 1.5 million new enrollees each year. With that said, many have to make the decision of what plan they choose: Traditional Medicare and a supplemental insurance policy, often referred to as Medigap, which sees about 60 percent of the market share, or a Medicare Advantage Plan at about 40 percent. Regardless, open enrollment season is a busy one!

 

Digitizing Paper MedSup Insurance Applications
PaperClip Mojo is a collection of the best of technologies paired with human validation to achieve 99.9 percent accuracy at unimaginable speed. A perfect solution for the onboarding of Medicare supplement (MedSup) new business, Mojo4Medicare, the tailored version, makes the open enrollment period the same as any other day. Mojo4Medicare is designed to process unlimited Medicare application packets for a consistent turnaround time. By collapsing the cycle time, you avoid backlogs and deliver faster commission payout. Mojo4Medicare is an e-app alternative.

“There is no longer a need to increase resources, both infrastructure and labor, only to decrease those after the enrollment period,” states Suzy Tuck, vice president of sales. “With Mojo4Medicare you will enjoy the ability to maintain the processing of new business as received, increase your focus on case management without additional resources and have no adoption challenge. Staff will love it and realize that the enrollment period is like any other day!”

 

No-Code eApp for MedSup Insurance
Management Research Services (MRS) is an industry leader in developing customized digital and automation solutions for clients and partners. Recently, MRS led efforts to develop and help a New York brokerage firm struggling to collect In Good Order (IGO) applications from Medicare supplemental insurance (MedSup) clients in a timely manner. The main driver of these issues was that the current processes relied on legacy workflows and technologies that were unable to electronically ingest and automate the large number of handwritten applications they received. This resulted in the reliance of manual entry which consumed a large amount of time, energy, and resources. As issues and delays began to pile up, it became obvious that a new process would have to be developed to fit the needs of their operating systems and clients. MRS was identified as a potential solution to this problem and, upon understanding the challenges, MRS leveraged its no-code platform to quickly create a customized e-App to better automate the workflow. The MRS e-App was able to dramatically improve the workflows in the following areas:

 

  • Collection of the applications 100 percent In Good Order (IGO).
  • Substantial increases in policy processing and acceptance.
  • A better way to follow-up on missing applicant data by sending a personal URL directly to the applicant so they could easily provide the missing data needed.

 

The immediate results seen were improvement of time to issuance, an increase in the number of applications completed IGO, and the streamlining of back office operational efficiencies that saved time, energy, and resources. Additional opportunities around customized reporting dashboards and better real-time data analysis were identified as ways to better serve agents in the field.

 

One of MRS’s core business principles is that once it onboards a new client into production, the work has just begun. MRS is constantly developing new features and capabilities and since customers are always on the most updated version of the platform, these innovations are immediately available to clients. For instance, MRS has identified new integration partners that will enable compliant video communication capabilities that better enable the remote sales processes critical in times like the COVID-19 crisis. MRS will continue to innovate and lead the charge in the future of no-code platforms that advance insurance automation and support stronger sales and operational efficiencies.

 

Life AMS Supports Health Products
Agency management systems (AMS) for life insurance have been retrofitted to support health products. I spoke with Equisoft, who has the number one agency management system in Canada, “Centralize,” which is now available in the USA. In Canada health products like critical illness and disability income insurance have been processed by MGAs on Centralize. In order to get a perspective of the problems solved for life distributors processing new business and commissions for multi-lines of business, Equisoft answered a series of questions about their AMS.

 

What key challenges do distributors face today? Distributors and National Accounts are data driven businesses, but they operate in an environment that has not fully digitally transformed. They take in massive amounts of data that must be processed, analyzed and acted upon, but in many cases the workflows still involve a great many manual steps. Paper apps are still being mailed to their offices. They have to be manually entered, then sent on for processing and approval. Tasks arising from the new business intake process (like follow-ups on paramedical issues) are not automated. In many cases commission payments, claims resolution and customer service are still not as fast, seamless and user-friendly as they could be. Related to those data issues, all distributors and national accounts are seeking to attract and retain more advisors. With the advent of new distribution models, such as robo-advisors, the distributors role in policy fulfillment is lessening, decreasing the advisors’ need for that part of the traditional distributor value proposition. Instead, distributors must find new ways to add value to advisor businesses as part of an emerging new value proposition that serves the digitally transformed insurance landscape. In the new world, advisors place more value on partnerships with those organizations that can help them grow their business.

 

How are Application Processes Automated? Distributors and national accounts need to be able to process new business from advisors on a daily basis. Our advanced case management workflow speeds up the underwriting process for distributors. Equisoft/Centralize allows them to enter policy applications either manually or through a feed from the carriers. They can send those policies through to the carrier and get them approved and in- force—giving distributors the ability to push the process from beginning to end. In a nutshell, distributors who use Equisoft/Centralize find there is less manual intervention needed from the distributors to see the policy through to in-force status. Our automations and case management workflow are unparalleled, ensuring our distributors’ clients can confidently and accurately process cases all the while providing excellent service to their clients—the advisors.

 

How is the platform improving back-office efficiencies? The ease-of-use of Equisoft/Centralize is a huge benefit for distributors. Many distributors, even today, are still getting paper applications—advisors are actually mailing them in. Then the distributor has to manually enter them. Equisoft/Centralize greatly automates this process, which creates efficiencies for distributors and makes for a better advisor experience. How does Equisoft contribute to the digital transformation of the independent insurance channel? Equisoft/Centralize is a very modern, rules-based solution. It is also central to the emerging digital value proposition for distributors—enabling distributors to better partner with advisors in the success of their practice. It identifies opportunities for advisors, removes obstacles in the processing of new business, and makes sure they get paid faster. In total, it helps all industry stakeholders achieve the end goal—making their clients’ financial goals a reality.

 

How COVID-19 Forced the BGA World into e-Engagement
We are now one year past the start of COVID-19 lockdown. Our world was turned upside down as we all faced a global pandemic. Many struggled to find the right process flow and adapt to new ways of doing business. Even carriers were pushed into a “forced pilot” of e-Engagement to insure they could get underwriting information, signature requirements and policies to the customer. The changes were swift and mandatory to support the ultimate customer, the applicant/insured and their beneficiaries. With this, agencies looked to process experts whether internal in their organization or others to help with the transition. Per Stacey Paulson, director of insurance services at eNoah iSolutions, “The beauty of the BGA space is each agency has their unique culture as to what works best for them and their customer base. This serves the greater good in meeting the needs of different customers in protecting their families. The struggle was real when some were forced into an electronic application process and not having the internal resources—all while moving to a work from home environment. I’m glad we were there to help our customers through this difficult time.”

 

While it’s hard to think of much positive to come out of COVID-19, the forced adoption of e-Engagement opened mindsets of how to do business moving forward. It took away some of the fear and challenged us to think of different ways to engage with our peers and current and future customers.

 

Management Research Services Announces e-App For Annuity Policies

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Management Research Services Announces e-App For Annuity Policies

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MRS Introduces e-App for Annuity Policies

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Quicker, easier application process nets client success

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MILWAUKEE, Mar. 3, 2021 — MRS, a global leader in insurance automation and technology solutions, announced today the release of a new electronic application (E-App) system for annuity policies. The new technology will allow financial and insurance professionals to complete and submit annuity applications online, effectively improving turnaround time for processing and final delivery.

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“We’re proud to bring new MRS technology to hardworking financial and insurance professionals,” said Tim Dineen, Chief Executive Officer at MRS. “We’re dedicated to creating streamlined applications that make doing business easier while helping our clients deliver policies to their customers even quicker.”

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The annuity market is substantial and provides a significant amount of revenue for carriers. An annuity policy helps the buyer manage their income in retirement, and other than pensions, annuities are the only products that provide guaranteed lifetime income. The market size of the life insurance and annuities industry is $732.5B, measured by revenue, for 2021. The industry is trending toward a more affluent and older market as it emphasizes the use of life insurance and annuities as retirement, estate planning, and tax-preferred products.

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Given uncertainties with the pandemic and overall market conditions for insurance carriers and the end-customer, MRS has scaled its efforts to support insurance carrier’s digital transformation efforts. The new annuity E-App is an easily-configurable, no-code, cost-effective solution to sell and manage annuity policies.

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Developed for an existing client with a complex distribution matrix, where multiple signatures are collected from end-customer, IMO, law firm, POA, owner, and payor, MRS was able to deliver a solution that has helped increase sales, streamline processes, and improve overall customer experiences. Now, with an easy sign-on and integration of electronic signatures, the client can fulfill an annuity policy in a few days versus months of starts-and-stops and back-and-forth communications with the customer.

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With MRS, the primary benefits for insurers choosing to implement the Annuity E-App system include:

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● 100% in-good-order applications

● Error rate removed

● Applications processed in 15 min vs. days

● Auto-populating State Beneficiary legal clauses

● e-Signature collection up to 8 individuals

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“Our process is the same no matter the product type. Developing an annuity application was a natural extension of the robust ecosystem of E-Apps we already have in the market today,” says Steve Delonge, Customer Success Director at MRS. “With our proficiency for taking applicants from the questionnaire to the contract, MRS is well-positioned to increase offerings to more distribution channels and add more annuity E-App products that can quickly issue the annuity policy and ultimately help quicken payment of the commissions.”

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For more info on our the MRS Annuity E-App call (800)-726-3643 or email sales@mrsreps.com

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At MRS, we help clients transform change into a competitive advantage. MRS provides a high-end technology product to the 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. Please visit us at www.managementresearchservices.com or contact us by email at sales@mrsreps.com to learn more.

Management Research Services and Liberty Bankers Insurance Group Unite (Case Study)!

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Management Research Services (MRS) is an industry leader in developing and delivering customized digital and automation solutions for clients and partners. Recently, MRS led efforts to streamline new business and underwriting processes for Liberty Bankers Insurance Group (LBIG) based in Dallas, Texas.

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When the COVID-19 pandemic began, LBIG experienced an unexpected service disruption with an existing underwriting service vendor for one of their highest volume product lines. In a matter of less than a week, MRS was able to mirror the existing process, as well as refine it to improve the customer experience. This resulted in minimal disruption to the new business process.

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Building on the success of that initial partnership, a second phase followed in June, wherein MRS developed and installed a reconfigured platform that integrated new data sources and greatly improved the customer experience. As a result of this phase, the new and improved MRS solution provided the following for LBIG:

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• A mortality analysis of a prospective client.

• Reduction in time to see which prescription drugs are currently in market.

• A better user experience.

• Access to a reflexive list of questions on health history.

• An increase in production due to a streamlined process for agents.

• Point-of-sale features for a client.

• Real-time reporting capabilities.

• Cost savings.

• Greater efficiency in issuing a policy to a client.

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Finally, MRS developed an e-Application (e-App) solution for LBIG in August 2020. The e-App was customized to LBIG underwriting specifications and completed an omnichannel experience for the selling agents. LBIG clients could now complete the life insurance purchasing process by utilizing one of two innovative e-signature options. This digitally enabled experience allowed a LBIG agent to sell remotely, a key feature that has proven extremely valuable in today’s market.

Ultimately, MRS served as a conduit for LBIG to modernize their processes from a manual process to a data-driven workflow.

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Another initiative MRS spearheaded was collaborating with another one of LBIG strategic partners, TAPP Solutions. TAPP Solutions designed and built a custom mobile app to assist LBIG agents in evaluating the health risk of a prospective client. This new technology enabled a pre-underwriting check that provided an agent a rate class for the prospective client prior to the beginning the application process. Overall, the partnership between MRS and TAPP provided LBIG’s agents with a seamless tool to enhance their user experience.

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Conclusion:

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Over the course of the past six months, MRS was able to maintain LBIG’s current workflow, while also creating and implementing new workflows to make new business and underwriting processes more efficient. The MRS technology platform has transformed what was once a tedious process, to a process where agents and applicants can receive immediate results. The LBIG partnership with MRS has allowed the life insurance provider to work more efficiently and prepare better for the future. MRS looks forward to continuing their relationship with LBIG and together they will continue to be at the forefront of data processing in the financial services industry.

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MRS CEO, Tim Dineen shares, “The whole project from start to finish has been very rewarding for both parties. We pride ourselves on creating solutions for our clients and we were able to do that for LBIG on multiple levels. We look forward to continuing to assist them for years to come.”

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At MRS, we help clients transform change into a competitive advantage.

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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. Please visit us at www.managementresearchservices.com or contact us by email at sales@mrsreps.com to learn more!

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Solving Unique Pain Points For Life Insurance New Business And Underwriting

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By Ken Leibow

Published: August Broker World Magazine

 

There are a lot of changes happening in the life insurance industry because of COVID-19—market environment, types of insurance products, processes, and technology. As these changes are evolving, there are unique challenges impacting new business and underwriting. I want to show you some innovative solutions solving these pain points.

 

Life Carriers Need Predictive Underwriting in the COVID-19 World
In a perfect world insurance companies are changing their strategy in a void, a company changes pricing while the industry is static and the company can evaluate the impact on the policyholders and the profitability of the company over time. Due to new regulations, principle-based reserving (PBR) and a new standard mortality table, the 2017 Commissioners Standard Ordinary (CSO) Table, and now due to COVID-19, companies are changing pricing while the rest of the industry is also changing pricing. To be able to trace the impact of a change, to simulate strategies and make decisions quickly, companies must have reliable data and predictive technology (such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) to evaluate the impact in real time.

 

Companies are building complex products, and sophisticated underwriting protocols and benefit programs, to attract specific distributors, producers and customers or specific market segments or specific risks. Being able to simulate what-if scenarios and build strategies based on data allows companies to be more scientific and therefore generate better results. COVID-19 disrupted the way insurance companies onboard a policy, there is a move to eApp, underwriting is done remotely, the ability to take liquids has decreased. Companies that can predict the probability a policy will be placed and what would be the biggest driver to improve placement probability can help companies optimize their operation, reduce waste, and improve consumer satisfaction with the process.

 

iPipeline,® a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions for the life insurance and financial services industry, has integrated its InsureSight Case Analytics Platform with Atidot’s Predictive Analytics Models to analyze the impact of product and pricing changes based on prior sales performance and industry data. The ability to predict future performance based on product selection, producer group, producer, location, demographic and other critical factors, will enable life carriers to adjust product, pricing, or distribution strategy dynamically to optimize market penetration.

 

Transform Paper Apps into Digitized In-Good-Order Applications
In an ideal world we all want our agents to use eApp for submitting life insurance applications instead of paper so that they are submitted in-good-order, processed quicker, and automated as much as possible without having to manually handle the case. There are times when agents will paper-out of an eApp for various reasons or send paper apps to a BGA sending it down that NIGO, slow, expensive path. But now there is a solution to get the app back on track on the data highway. PaperClip, Inc., has a platform called Mojo. This is an innovative cloud-based service that digitizes the life insurance paper application from handwritten or typed text with 99.9 percent accuracy transforming it to data and data transactions.

 

Let’s say, for example, an agent sends a handwritten paper application to the BGA. The BGA then scans the paper application into Mojo, securely transforming the application into data. The BGA can use Mojo for several purposes. Mojo can send data to the agency management system (AMS) to auto-create the case. At the same time, Mojo can file the documents into the BGA’s document management system like PaperClip’s VCF System. And the application data transformed by Mojo can be sent to an eApp platform automatically to get it back on track and in good order. iPipeline has partnered with PaperClip whereby Mojo is seamlessly integrated into iGO eApp. iPipeline calls the integrated solution iGO Link. If the agent had papered-out of iGO, they still would have the opportunity from the BGA’s website to access iGO Link and get it back on track into the eApp process.

 

BGA’s can Reign in the Costs and Turn Around Times for Informals
Informal underwriting has not kept pace with the advances in formal underwriting. For decades there have been two forms of informal underwriting practiced by agents and agencies. One way, all the collection of health information is collected by the agency before formally presenting a prospect to carriers. When an agency does not have the resources of a support team nor a strong, cooperative relationship with the prospect, an agency will use a victim carrier’s formal underwriting to prequalify a prospect. With this second way, an agent’s investment may only be to find the carrier with the lowest Super Preferred rate, get a ticket app and let the carrier, the agency and the prospect do all the work until the carrier can come back with an offer. Often this offer is not Super Preferred and underwriting and selling starts from here.

 

Both processes are expensive and disruptive. Employee Pooling (EP) has a better solution. They can eliminate weeks of physical and emotional toll on all parties. EP’s accelerated informal platform uses data technology and human capital to give distributors on-demand access to the tools traditionally reserved for insurance companies. Tom Gray, CEO of Employee Pooling, said, “I have been on the distribution side of this industry for 30 years. This is how it has been. I have been determined to obtain solid underwriting data to use to get a meaningful tentative offer that can be counted on and reign in the costs and turn-around time. Our platform can find rich medical data, have it assessed by technology and our medical team and deliver an underwritable package, often within 24 hours. This way, the EP way, gives the agency the tools to put a summarized case up for bid and find the right carrier able to offer a premium that can be placed. The rest is a formality.”

 

eApp and Auto-Underwriting using an Omni-channel Sales Model
Life Insurance is still sold and not bought, however instant issue or simplified issue products can be quoted and applications electronically submitted through a consumer facing solution. This is not a carrier direct-to-consumer model because we are maintaining the agent ecosystem for the purpose of having the agent available for questions and for upselling and cross selling. There is a trend with several vendors today providing these eApp/Sales tools for agents and agencies. Management Research Services (MRS) has a unique platform that is No-Code, fully configurable electronic application platform. It can streamline requirement gathering during the application process, gathering data in the background (in real time) to reduce time with the applicant and provide an instant underwriting decision. Utilize the omni-channel approach to customize your sale, whether in an e-app, tele-app, or both. MRS’ seamless case management provides transparency for your agency and agents so they know where every applicant stands in the process.
COVID-19 and the unstable economy, with service providers who may or may not be in business tomorrow, it is time for BGAs and IMOs to take more control of their business by adding a call center to their agencies. Some of the benefits include increased customer satisfaction, higher conversion rate in completing submitted applications, and higher placement ratio. You also get an automated drop ticket experience that you control. A BGA who changes their model by adding a call center will get more efficiency and reduced costs in agent recruitment, freeing up specialists to focus on handling calls that utilize their expertise. There is consistent service when adding a call center which results in overall improved call quality.

 

BGAs and IMOs Can Take More Control of their Business by Adding a Call Center

A BGA will need a software solution that can seamlessly automate the drop ticket fulfillment process for the call center. ApplicInt’s CallComplete software is an end-to-end digital platform for a call center, already plugged into the carrier’s fulfillment process for completing the app with a client interview for term life drop tickets. CallComplete allows you to take control of the drop ticket process and better service your agents, automatically receiving the drop ticket from the eApp platform and then the carrier’s script, process, and voice signature are all integrated into CallComplete for either scheduling the exam or automatically ordering RX, MIB and MVR for an accelerating underwriting process.

 

Features of a Call Center for a BGA and IMO:

  • Real time assistance for the agent to help complete the drop ticket;
  • Warm transfer agent to client;
  • Call center can initiate the interview without a drop ticket;
  • Agent recruitment (prospecting);
  • Promoting new products and services, then handing over or scheduling to a specialist;
  • Front line to support agents for high level questions; and,
  • Agent pre-script before the carrier compliant interview and post-script cross-selling and agent referrals.

 

Yes, the digital sales model, whether agent-facing or consumer-facing, is being pushed in a direction requiring flexible, easy to use new business eApp tools with products and underwriting that can automatically make an underwriting decision when possible. This is driven by new market conditions like COVID-19 and Millennials. Whenever there is a break in the process there needs to be a doorway to get it back on track. These solutions enable life carriers, BGAs and agents to reduce their operational costs and become more efficient focusing on growing sales.