Tag: mrs

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.

Novarica Report 2020: Management Research Services is an Established Player

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Management Research Services is recognized by Novarica as an established player in their field

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An industry thought leader granted Management Research Services (MRS) accolades and recognition by profiling them among a select group of vendors in an annual niche publication. Novarica is a leading research and consulting firm that analyzes technology and strategy across the insurance industry. They publish numerous research reports that examine trends, best practices, and vendor options for insurers, clients, and anyone willing to buy and leverage their data. In a November report, Novarica recognized MRS as an “established player” in the field of companies providing partial and full-service underwriting solutions to insurers of life, health and annuity.

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Novarica’s 2020 report on Life / Annuity / New Business Underwriting Systems offers an overview of MRS and 15 competitors. The companies included are not rank-ordered or endorsed but presented as the short-list for new businesses evaluating potential vendors in the marketplace. MRS is recognized as being an established player among their peers, which Novarica defines as “having shown staying power in the marketplace as well as substantial customer experience.”

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Their report includes a several-page company profile for each of the 16 firms listed. The profiles summarize each organization, their client base, and the technologies they incorporate. Each description speaks to their product’s key functionality, deployment options, and approach to implementation. Though the company profiles and associated analysis are not available to the general public, they are shared with Novarica’s consultation clients. Non-clients can also purchase and download the full report from their website.

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Inclusion in Novarica’s annual published research represents a win for MRS on multiple levels. It provides affirmation that our team continues to provide industry-leading technology and customer service in a competitive and rapidly changing field. This is confirmation that our no-code platform is among the most sophisticated and dependable options available.

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Furthermore, inclusion represents another growth opportunity for us; our brand and logo are placed alongside those of the dominant providers in the marketplace. Along with their library of research, Novarica is known for providing consultation. They specialize in taking a needs-analysis approach towards helping their customers with vendor selection. Being on their short-list and getting their stamp-of-approval for our no-code platform can only help us continue to connect with clients that will benefit from our product. For those familiar with general consumer products, it’s like MRS just got the Good Housekeeping Seal of approval!

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We’ve already been growing. Since March of 2020, the staff at MRS has grown by 50%! We are heavily invested in our people and platform; we look to continue working alongside other industry leaders during this time of revolutionary transformation. The old adage, “the only constant thing is change,” remains just as true today as it was when we started in 1988. We are poised to embrace and adapt with continued change and growth in the times to come.

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The MRS no-code platform provides companies with everything they need to build a complex, secure, and powerful application – capable of supporting even the most complicated underwriting decisions. Our hands-on, personalized approach to customer services means our platform can be customized from the ground up and fully integrated in surprisingly short spans of time. We offer a flexible, single solution with low start-up costs, rapid integration times, and little-to-no ongoing maintenance costs. The end result is substantially less expensive for insurers and third-party providers than status quo options.

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Find out more about how our technologies and innovation are leading the industry.

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For more information about the MRS no-code insurance services platform, please visit www.managementresearchservices.com or email us at sales@msrreps.com.

No-Code – What Does It Mean?

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What does “no-code” mean, anyway?

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Though still a new term to many of us, the no-code phenomenon is everywhere. Laymen, civilians, and folks across industries find themselves asking, “What do they mean by no-code?” If you look it up, you might find a definition that reads something like this: “No-code technology allows users to develop rapid solutions which transform business processes and meet customer needs.” Um, it does what, now? Explain this to me in English, please.

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Maybe this will help.

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Consider a common scenario from twenty years ago: you hear a friend proudly proclaim they had built their own website. You think, “Hm, I didn’t know so and so could speak Java,” and of course, they couldn’t. They had merely taken advantage of early, first-generation website design programs like Dreamweaver or FrontPage. The end-result looked almost like the output of a professional, at least it did for the standard of the early 2000s.

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The current “no-code” era is just progression of this same thing: designing applications to be do-it-yourself for the non-technically inclined masses. Dreamweaver and FrontPage were some of the first no-code programs in the mainstream. Modern no-code applications have the same pieces: drag-and-drop, clicking, drop-down-menus and template choices allowing users to create something which previously required a programmer fluent in HTML. Real world applications of no-code are all around us. You can create your own virtual storefront with Shopify or design an internal company web-app with Budibase. Today’s DIY, non-coding website designers use tools with late-generation sophistication like WordPress and Carrd.

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The insurance realm is no exception to the no-code revolution. Third-party administrators and carriers can choose from a wide variety of insurance-specific platforms that interface with employee or customer portals based on underwriting decisions. Management Research Services (MRS) has developed an easy-to-use, yet sophisticated application that gives their clients the tools they need to manage their workflow. Their system has comparatively low maintenance costs and no coding experience is necessary for implementation.

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At MRS, we have decades of insurance industry experience to inform the design and features of our no-code insurance services platform. Our rules engine can be customized by SMEs to accommodate even the most complex underwriting or scripting scenarios. The MRS proprietary system is cloud-hosted on Microsoft Azure to ensure state-of-the-art security, stability and scalability that is available to our partners at any time, all year round. Recent metrics show the MRS platform experiences online uptime of over 99%.

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To learn more about how the MRS no-code platform serves their partner clients, customers, and carriers, visit www.managementresearchservices.com.

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The Future of Automation in Life Insurance

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The Future of Automation in Life Insurance

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There are really four areas of technological revolution happening together and at once to reshape the industry: automation, artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and cloud. Combined and intertwined, they mark the current disruption that shapes any discussion on the future in life insurance

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Cloud computing has been around since the 1960s, though only adopted for mainstream use in the last twenty years. Widespread cloud acceptance means uninterrupted access to data. If you think about it, this mirrors the same timeline for many types of records and databases. Twenty years ago, most medical records were not even electronic; the big push was to get industry-wide acceptance of electronic medical records by 2014. Constant access is a new phenomenon.

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Big data means we have more complex data sets from new places. More connected devices in the world means more data. Think of late generation devices and the data they collect: exercise wearables, fitness apps, smart TVs, smart vehicles, and even surgically implanted medical devices collect information about you. The implications for the insurance industry are undeniably massive. Insurance companies will be able to leverage data assets for strategic decision making, sometimes in real time. Constant access to next-level data offers insurers new insights into risk mitigation, and new avenues to recognize and seize opportunities.

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Such opportunities may be just in time to address generational challenges. Millennials have shown a general unwillingness to buy life insurance. Not only that, but they are less likely to join the insurance workforce. Millennials prefer the more lucrative tech-jobs.

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Part of the reason why is that legacy industry entry-level jobs had long been filled with mundane, repetitive, routine-type tasks – the very same jobs that are being replaced by a combination of AI and automation. Underwriting is a perfect example. The job has traditionally required repetitive, time-consuming, manual processes that once provided a small army of young professionals with industry experience. Underwriting was a paperwork-laden task. Today, the desire for fast decisions combined with 24/7 access to increased data sources means the role can be performed electronically and instantly. It’s not uncommon for the technology firms that service insurers to process 19 out of 20 insurance applications immediately and without any human intervention.

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Digital transformation across the industry has delivered business agility but transforming has been more about survival. 44% of policyholders surveyed in 2019 stated they would change carriers if they couldn’t access and service their account electronically.

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The future of life insurance involves a heavy dosage of the same four ingredients: automation, AI, big data, and cloud working together to provide new growth opportunities with the same old-world concept of security. Look for more data, increased reliability, and immediate decisions made with less human intervention.

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Ushering the industry into tomorrow are technology and automation firms like Management Research Services (MRS). MRS helps carriers streamline their application system with their no-code platform. Underwriting decisions can be made in just moments and at the point of sale. With voice and electronic signature capability, the MRS system allows for a time-to-issue of just a few minutes. For carriers seeking a technology partner that provides AI-based automated insurance services and solutions, learn more at www.managementresearchservices.com.

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Covid-19 And Life Insurance

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COVID-19 And Life Insurance

The pandemic is a game-changer. There’s no way around the evidence: closed schools, stock market volatility, shuttered small businesses, and a swamped healthcare system. With civil discourse at an all-time low, we might need to wait for history to decide what happened.

With every sea change comes opportunity; some industries have found a boom amidst the chaos. Courier and logistics services have experienced massive growth with online shopping and doorstep deliveries. Online education is in the midst of an unprecedented heyday. Video streaming services exploded during the initial Spring lockdowns; production teams are now scrambling to keep up with demand in a forever changed television landscape. Another pandemic-time growth industry: life insurance.

The significant rise in policies sold during 2020 is especially notable because it reverses a decade-long downturn. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of Americans holding a life-insurance policy dropped from 63% to 54%. That’s 16 million less people over ten years, even though the country’s population grew by 21 million.

Declines in the number of Americans holding a life insurance policy have been something of a mystery. Life expectancy has steadily increased, but fewer Americans were choosing to buy policies. One would reasonably assume ownership to rise among middle and lower-level earners, but that’s not what happened. Experts point to factors like declines in group policy sales, higher premiums, and more restrictions for an older population, though they don’t really explain the failure to reach younger generations.

Whatever caused the slump, it might be over. The second and third quarters of 2020 have shown sharp increases in policies sold, some months with double-digit percentile increases over 2019. Americans see that good health and a long life is no longer something we can take for granted as COVID-19 has increased our awareness of our own mortality. Daily reminders of tragic losses and spiraling infection rates have set off a round of panic-buying the country has not seen since 9/11.

A new landscape comes along with some new restrictions. Insurers cannot deny claims due to COVID-19, but many firms are restricting underwriting for certain at-risk groups. Individuals over 60 with heart or lung issues, diabetes, or obesity might encounter raised premiums or denials. For individuals over 70 options are even more restrictive.

Finding out your options has never been easier. Online marketplace applications use reflexive questioning to customize each application in a manner that satisfies underwriters. Behind the scenes, medical records are retrieved electronically allowing policy decisions in just moments. Naturally, prospective buyers like the ability to compare rates and options with such immediacy. Growth during the pandemic would have encountered bottlenecks and obstacles with the industry’s old model, which required meeting with an agent and scheduling a doctor’s appointment.

The industry’s new model relies on next-generation application and underwriting processes from firms like Management Research Services (MRS). MRS offers customized insurance underwriting solutions to support a range of insurance services. We can assist with your new business applications and underwriting processes through our proprietary technology and no-code platforms. Together, the MRS no-code technology and services represent a one-stop solution that reduces customer acquisition costs and saves time and overall resources for insurance carriers.

No one can say if or when the pandemic will end. Virus experts contend COVID-19 might never go away, but vaccines and treatments will turn it into something much easier for all of us to live with. As things change, MRS’s flexible system can and will change with it. Our technology is built to allow for progressively more complex underwriting and scripting scenarios. For more information on how MRS is helping insurance companies look toward a better tomorrow, visit their website at www.managementresearchservices.com .

To read more articles related to MRS and Life Insurance click here: https://managementresearchservices.com/mrs-blogs

 

What Is The Latest Technical Jargon For Life Insurtech Point-Of-Sale And Underwriting Solutions?

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Published in BrokerWorld Magazine November 2020

By Ken Leibow

 

Have you started reading a book and then come across a word that you do not know the meaning of like, for example, “patulous?” It can be frustrating to look it up and, in some cases, you still may not grasp the full meaning. Software vendors today are marketing their solutions using words like “API,” “No Code,” “Low Code,” and “AI.” You are not exactly sure what they mean especially for life insurance technology. My objective is to help you not only understand the definition of these terms, but also understand how they are being applied to the life insurance point-of-sale tools and underwriting solutions used today by carriers, agencies and agents.

 

API
An acronym you often hear these days in the technology world is “API.” This stands for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Have you ever used PayPal to pay for something you are purchasing online directly within an eCommerce store like BestBuy.com? After you add your item to the virtual shopping cart and go to check-out, you see a payment option button for PayPal. When the user clicks the “Pay with PayPal” button, the application sends an “order” request to the PayPal API, specifying the amount owed and other important details. Then, a pop-up authenticates the user and confirms their purchase. Finally, if the PayPal process is successful, the API sends confirmation of payment back to the application thereby finalizing the payment of the purchased item. In the life insurance world, there are many examples of an API being utilized. If you are a BGA using an agency management system (AMS) to process new business life cases, you may see functionality that allows you to schedule an exam or order other requirements from a paramed vendor like ExamOne. The agency management system is using an API from the paramed vendor to facilitate the requirement order. It is seamless to the user, while the API is doing the work behind the scenes to execute the requirement order.

 

“Low Code” and “No Code”
Two other popular terms you see today are “Low Code” and “No Code.” I am going to give you the most common business definition as it is being marketed for insurtech applications. Let’s start with “No Code”: A good example in life insurance technology is a “No Code” life insurance eApp platform. When a carrier adds its products to an eApp platform, there are three critical items that need to be setup:

  •  Life insurance product rules;
  • Questions asked to complete the life insurance application; and,
  • Mapping the data to all the State-specific forms.

 

When eApp was first developed decades ago, setting up the three items above required a software developer to program code, then extensive quality assurance testing had to be done, and finally you had to wait for a major release before the carrier’s products were in production ready for agents to submit life business on the eApp platform. This typically was a long process to set up. As the years went by, less programming (hard-coded) was required because of the configuration tools that were developed to help make changes to the software application. Now fast forward to 2020. A No-Code eApp platform means that setting up the life insurance product rules, the questions, and the forms, is completely self-service and does not even need to be administered by a technical person. So, when you see software advertised as “No Code” it usually means you can set it up and configure it on your own.

 

Low Code is a visual approach to software development. Low Code abstracts and automates every step of the application lifecycle to enable rapid delivery of a variety of software solutions. It breaks the traditional silos of business and IT to promote continuous collaboration. When a software vendor is enhancing their system with new functionality instead of programming raw code, they use a graphic interface drawing workflow and moving objects around. If you are buying software from a vendor who is advertising Low Code, then it simply means speed and ease in releasing enhancements, fixes, and new functionality. In life Insurtech today you will see Low Code for eApp, eDelivery, and Underwriting Workbenches for carriers just to name a few types of Low-Code platforms that are available.

 

AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is sprayed everywhere in vendor solutions and processes. There are an enormous amount of ways that AI is being used in our everyday lives. The obvious example is Alexa from Amazon or Siri from Apple. You can ask Siri to play a specific song, or turn on the lights in your house, or schedule a calendar appointment. But it can do more sophisticated tasks like knowing where you are with your GPS and telling you that you will be late for your appointment because your location is too far away for example. Artificial intelligence is based on the principle that human intelligence can be defined in a way that a machine can easily mimic and execute tasks, from the simplest to those that are even more complex. The goals of artificial intelligence include learning, reasoning, and perception. AI programs require training—meaning the more data you feed it, the more intelligent it becomes. When we see AI being mentioned in the life insurance new business process or in insurtech applications, what do they really mean? A great example is eNoah’s eXtract Plus solution. It uses AI to take a 200 page Attending Physician Statement (APS) and make it a searchable document (extracting vitals, medications and key information) for a life underwriter. eXtract Plus can also render medical records and lab documents with hyperlinks and cover pages. This information can be utilized to create APS summaries or validate that APS summaries are complete and accurate.

 

Point-of-Sale and Underwriting Solutions
iPipeline offers a transformational Resonant® Point-of-Sale (POS) decision solution that makes the customer experience quick and easy—like buying auto insurance. This enables a carrier and distributor to sell profitable life insurance protection to middle market consumers. Unlike today’s traditional process of quoting teaser rates only to find out the final premium after underwriting, Resonant POS decisioning changes the dynamic so that underwriting is completed at the point of sale. Answers to medical questions are combined with data received from industry leading evidence and predictive model vendors to provide instant decisions with the final premium needed to complete the sale in one sitting. Resonant integrates with iPipeline’s Quote, iGO® e-Application, and DocFast® e-Delivery automated solutions to manage and control the entire underwriting and new business process from simplified issue to fully underwritten complex cases and other lines of business.

 

Management Research Services, Inc. (MRS) has developed new tools on its no-code sales and new business platform that focus on increasing the speed of issuing insurance policies. MRS has enhanced APS retrieval by integrating with electronic health record (EHR) data partners. Working with the insurance carrier, MRS will integrate an EHR to make an automated decision and issue the insurance policy at the point of sale (similar to how a Rx or MIB integration is used). Additionally, MRS is reimaging the case management and underwriter workbench by providing better tools for the insurance carrier to order requirements. This means that instead of reactively ordering requirements that may add days/weeks to the issuance timeline, the insurance carrier can use MRS’s highly configurable rules engine to write rules that will anticipate ordering requirements needed during the point-of-sale process. This will provide busy underwriters with all the information needed to review and issue the policy, resulting in a much faster and more efficient issuance.

 

The two solution providers mentioned above are leveraging these technologies (APIs, No Code, Low Code, and/or AI) in their platforms that carriers, agencies and agents use every day. You can see this is much more than connecting systems, it is an integrated process. The value of the entire new business flow, from applying for life insurance to passing into the carrier fulfillment process, is seamless, intelligent, and fast because of these underlying technologies. Each new innovative deployment helps agents provide a better experience for their customers and, as a result, place more business.

 

 

Management Research Services Continues To Advance And Excel!

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Management Research Services (MRS) has been able to stay on a positive path of growth and prosperity in 2020.  We offer an unmatched customer service experience that keeps us at the forefront with our clients and the insurance industry.  With quick response times and dedicated staff members, we always put our clients and partners first.  As a core value of the company, customer service is embedded in the culture at MRS.  Elco Mutual Life and Annuity had this to say about the customer service experience MRS provided to them. “In short, MRS has been great. We see tasks quickly going from start to finish with plenty of communication in-between. I would say they do an excellent job of identifying potential issues, offering suggestions, and keeping us updated as we progress. Communication in meetings is clear and concise, and emails are bountiful with information, but not overwhelming. Testing has gone smoothly too. When we identify an issue or decide to adjust, they have made the necessary changes promptly to keep the project on schedule. Overall, the project has been a very positive experience, and we are pleased with their performance.”  This type of service cannot be done without the dedication of our employees.  When an employee gets hired by MRS, it is not just an apply and start type of hiring experience.  MRS puts an emphasis and trust in their employees to be the experts in the field and the interview process guides the applicants to be confident, secure, and ready to go the moment they join the team.  Since the pandemic of 2020 started, many businesses and industries have had to adjust.  Plans for growth and expansion have had to be halted as the world reacts to life during this unprecedented time. MRS has not had to stop operations or plans for growth and expansion, in fact, MRS has been able to significantly grow from 80 to 120 employees since March.

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How has MRS been able thrive in 2020 during the pandemic?  

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The first and biggest reason was MRS’s ability to allow employees to work from home.  Prior to the pandemic 50% of the staff was already working from home and processes were already in place to allow for the organization to transfer to a virtual/home office environment quickly.  The next reason was the innovative vision and foresight of the tech team.  They were a key player in transforming from an in person to virtual working environment. They were able to get the rest of the MRS employees transferred over to virtual offices in under a week and without interruption to the daily workflow.  The tech team acted instantly and MRS adapted quickly.  Another key reason that has allowed MRS to thrive is the software technology currently in place within the company. This technology that MRS created allowed to hire rapidly and train new employees quickly.  The last reason MRS has thrived during the pandemic is that the company has been able to be flexible and adapt.  From client transactions to customer service inquiries, MRS developed solutions that were quick, easy, and efficient.   These transformations allowed MRS to keep growing and advancing, and they are now currently over 120 total employees.  With expansion comes growth and MRS has been able to do both in 2020.

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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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