A lot has changed in the insurance industry over the last several years. Many agents were forced to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a result carriers and insurance companies alike needed to look for ways to sell policies virtually. While insurtech (or financial tech/fintech) was on a steady increase before 2020, the pandemic became a catalyst for improvements in insurance-based technology.
Now, insurtech is allowing agents to reach more clients using technology that makes helping them easier. Between apps that make underwriting seamless, video conference apps like Zoom and products designed to help specific demographics – insurtech is giving agents at Symmetry tools to be more efficient and more productive.
Here we will break down the benefits of insurtech, how insurtech is changing the way insurance is sold and what the future of insurance looks like as a result.
Agents can now sell life insurance fully online
Insurtech is giving agents a chance to sell life insurance digitally. There is a list of benefits that comes with this change for our agents. Remote work, flexible hours and a work-life balance are all possible now due to insurtech. From a technological standpoint, agents are more productive while spending less time on paperwork and tedious tasks. What’s more, agents can track their business more efficiently now that everything is done virtually.
Reach more clients with remote work
Working virtually means that agents can now reach more clients than ever before. While they used to be limited by physical boundaries when setting appointments with clients, those have now been replaced by virtual appointments. This means that agents can meet with clients nationwide. By securing a non-resident license in whatever states they want to work in, life insurance agents can now work with clients from one coast to the other, all in the same afternoon.
With an intentional schedule, agents can make calls to secure policies, meet with new clients and deliver death benefits to policyholders’ family members without leaving their home office. By telecommuting, agents can gain hours back in their day that they would have spent traveling. With that time back, they’ll have more time to help families find the policies they need. What’s more, as an agency owner, everything from allocating leads to recruiting new agents can be done remotely.
Seamless experience running your business
Through insurtech, life insurance agents are supported with a seamless experience that makes every aspect of their job easier. Everything from digital onboarding and training to virtual underwriting, that leverages more data than ever before, has made a positive impact on the agent experience. To that end, underwriting is one of the big improvements that came out of innovations in insurtech. Insurance carriers are leveraging data from fitness apps to help clients gain better rates on their life insurance policy. Clients can find discounts for their policies by using digital pedometers and heart rate trackers like Fitbit.
The process of using client health information is known as “open data” and makes the experience of buying life insurance easier for the agent and client. This kind of seamless interaction from outreach to policy review is improving how life insurance is bought and sold.
Tracking your metrics is easier than ever
Speaking of data, selling life insurance digitally means more metrics tracking capabilities for agents. Every call, client interaction and policy sold can be tracked by the writing agent. With that kind of data, agents can now keep a closer watch on their book of business. As a result, they can decide what works in terms of recruiting, writing policies and client outreach.
This depth of business tracking is sure to only increase as insurtech develops further. This wealth of data, and the tracking it provides, is just another example of how insurtech is improving the agent experience.
The life insurance industry is changing
If it isn’t already apparent, life insurance is developing in ways that improve every aspect of the industry. As insurtech becomes more tech-forward, everything from products to lead costs and generation will be redefined.
The life insurance industry has been mostly stagnant for decades. Insurtech is the breath of fresh air that was needed for change. Not only is the agent experience improving, but with a more personalized approach to coverage, the client experience is improving too.
New life insurance policies are making coverage more affordable
Insurance companies and carriers are both finding new ways to leverage insurtech and provide clients with a personalized experience. To that end, new products are addressing medical needs to provide more people with the opportunity to get covered. For example, Forester’s Strong Foundation was created to help clients with Type 1 or 2 diabetes find coverage.
Meanwhile, our parent company, Quility, partnered with Afficiency and SBLI (The Savings Bank Mutual Life Insurance Company of Massachusetts) to develop a 100% online term life insurance product, Quility Level Term. Through this partnership, Symmetry agents can offer affordable, customized coverage with flexible term lengths, competitive riders and simplified underwriting. Without the progress we’ve seen in insurtech over the last few years, neither of these products would be possible.
Digital leads
Digital leads are a supplement to traditional mail-in leads. With digital leads, clients can find ads for your agency or the company online, request more information and set up a time to discuss coverage with you through a virtual appointment. To that end, Symmetry agents can purchase leads to connect with people who are looking for coverage at that moment. Contacting these leads quickly makes it much more likely to qualify them for a policy. At Symmetry, we’ve found that agents who reach out to a digital lead within the hour are 60 times more likely to sell a policy than agents who wait.
Another benefit to digital leads is the cost. Traditional leads are more expensive for companies to generate. Direct mail leads are especially costly after considering mailing costs throughout the country. Since digital leads are so much cheaper, those savings are being passed to our agents.
Where is insurtech headed?
The insurtech sector is growing every year. While there are bound to be surprises that will continue to transform the future for insurtech, we can make some guesses on what that future will look like based on what we’re seeing now.
Examples of the current state of insurance, like improved underwriting, more control for agents and readily available data sources, are all good indicators of what we can expect going forward.
Improved underwriting
To start, one of the more important improvements made possible by insurtech is simplified underwriting. Apps, platforms and products have all made a point to make underwriting a priority to impact the client experience. With that in mind, it makes sense that agents can expect those processes to become even more streamlined in the future.
More control for agents
Another benefit that agents can expect to see more of going forward is control over the book of business. Even in its early stages, insurtech has given agents more control over how they contact their clients and, thanks to improvements in data support, how they track their business. It stands to reason that this aspect of insurtech will grow as the technology does.
Whether it’s offering specific policies to a demographic of clientsor making improvements to your agency’s processes, agents should expect to see increases in the amount of control they have over their business with insurtech.
Experience the future of insurance with Symmetry
At Symmetry, we understand that progress towards a digital-first landscape is the only path toward growth for our company and network of agents. That’s why we are constantly in search of new ways to improve our processes and available tools for our agents and their clients.
