Ken Leibow

Digital sales platforms and operational outsourcing has been trending in the life insurance space for the last two years. I have touched on these topics in previous articles, however today I want to dive deeper. I also have been slowly introducing in the Broker World Tech-Tock column technology related to selling Medicare products because these have become the hot cross-sell products for life agents.

BGAs Reducing Operation Costs While Focusing on Sales and Marketing
Firms seeking scalability and growth are turning to an operations model that right-sources business processes to offshore firms with industry-wide experience and expertise. This shift catapults the trajectory of company growth by optimizing efficiencies and freeing essential staff to focus on sales and customer experience while reallocating expenses towards sales and recruiting efforts. Right-sourcing reduces operational costs and creates stability and continuity during seasonal ebbs and flows of business, providing a solid foundation for growth.

Employee Pooling (EP), a third-party financial services processing firm headquartered in Nashville with services delivered out of New Delhi, has numerous success stories with large and small firms that often start in the baby pool. It begins by establishing a trusted working relationship and steadily adding more services over time. The scenarios for seeking external support vary greatly: A firm has suddenly lost a key staff member, a BGA wants to focus on sales and doesn’t have the time or resources to manage essential administrative positions, there is too much unpredictability in hiring, training, and retaining skilled personnel within budget and scaling to meet service standards depending on work volume, or simply desiring to keep salaries and expenses to a minimum. No matter the “why” the results are impressive.

A BGA with three agency principals out of Seattle decided to completely reimagine the way they do business: They changed from a brokerage agency to a marketing organization focusing on sales and increasing profits while adding more resources to their general agency—they committed to eliminating everything that got in the way of sales and customer experience. Over a two-year period, starting with six full-time employees to manage agent appointments, new business application processing, case management, commissions, and policy management, this firm transitioned five of their employees out of the company, reducing annual payroll by $312,000 ($62,400 per employee). They moved all administrative tasks to EP, who appointed an equal number of experienced department specialists and their team leaders to deliver and manage the agency’s business. The payoff was dramatic. The firm added $265,200 to their bottom line. EP allows a variable pricing model and only charges for services delivered. With a huge, low-cost, young, educated labor market in New Delhi, EP can afford to add scale and stability and back up staff to meet strict service standards in an industry with wide swings in the flow of business. The total annual cost for this BGA’s services totaled $46,800—25 percent less than the cost of one in-house employee.

An eBGA is Changing the Game for Life Insurance (Sales + Technology)
My definition of an eBGA is a life distributor that uses technology for recruiting agents. This technology attracts agents because it is designed specifically for agents to use for client prospecting. It could be a mobile app, web app, and/or micro-site that can be marketed for example in social media giving the consumer the ability to do their own education for life insurance, perform a needs analysis, run a quote, and apply for insurance while the agent is available at any time during the process for assistance.

An eBGA that is re-framing the entire life insurance sales ecosystem is BackNine Insurance and Financial Services. You can also classify BackNine as an insurtech company with two proprietary platforms designed to streamline the way in which life insurance agents, agencies, and consumers engage with their product and clients. Whether you own an agency or are an individual producer, their platforms can help agents turn their business into a fully digital solution to increase sales and improve client retention.

BackNine’s Quote & Apply platform is the first multi-carrier, consumer-facing e-application platform for life insurance. Agents can white label the software and use it on their own website or platforms, optimize their client onboarding processes, and ultimately monitor and scale their business 24/7. Users can also access quotes, compare rates, and file e-applications virtually and digitally. With Quote & Apply, anyone can apply for life insurance in under five minutes with their computer, tablet or smartphone, and be quoted with several policy options by answering only six questions (age, gender, height/weight, smoking history, and rating the person’s health on a scale of one to five). The agent can also send direct links to customers and they can shop multiple carriers and apply on their own time with ease.

Instead of the typical BGA website with multiple disparate tools, BackNine has created an agent platform called BOSS, which is a life insurance CRM empowering agents to monitor and manage their life insurance business across the board. The platform keeps agents updated on cases, and access to their commission statements. The dashboard is configurable for each agent’s preferences. BOSS allows agents to stay up-to-date on all of client activity and manage their data in real time. BOSS can also be utilized as an agency management system for outreach to new and existing clients and helps agents grow their life insurance book. The internal sales desk offers agents assistance in finding the appropriate products and carrier options for clients’ specific needs. Agents can also avoid client data dual-entry by integrating an existing AMS or CRM for all future life insurance transactions. These platforms are for both new agents and seasoned advisors who want to digitize their agency. The end result is maximized efficiency and more life insurance sales. You can learn more about BackNine by visiting http://www.back9ins.com.

Medicare Sales: An Upgraded Solution
These days, most Medicare consumers expect online access to carrier plan information, quoting, and even enrollment. For this to happen, insurers and agents must present digital access that better uses data, forms, and communication—or risk losing customers. Consumers aren’t the only ones asking for updates either. The old way of requiring agents to navigate legacy systems requiring paper applications, physical signatures, and clunky data transfers slows sales down and has agents looking elsewhere.

Many Medicare agents rate back-office and customer-facing digital tools as the top supports carriers should provide. Comparing the two, you can see why.

Traditional System

• Poor integration with agents and consumer data complicates workflows
• Relies on a semi-digital toolset, with extensive human intervention
• Outdated and slow processes frustrate
• Agent licensing compliance headaches

Digital Solutions

• Seamless digital connections with agents and consumers
• Easy access to data from multiple sources
• Efficient distribution and support for products
• Agent licensing compliance integration

The Benefits of Reshaping Operations
Research shows that carriers and agents who use digital technology are able to automate 50 to 60 percent of administrative operations and have expense ratios that are close to 40 percent less. Time saved reduces time to market, lowers prices, and improves profitability. Early adopters of better online tools are positioned for growth by meeting the digital demands of today and planning for tomorrow.

Knowing When It’s Time for an Upgrade
When any system starts to experience productivity issues, it may be a sign it’s time for an upgrade.

Other signs to look for include:

• Loss of sales year over year
• Increasing security concerns from customers and employees
• New products or services don’t easily fit into current systems
• Operations experience slow responses or even downtime
• Legacy systems not technically compatible with outside data sources

Updating current technology could mean the difference between keeping up or falling behind.

Trusty.care provided the information on Medicare platforms. They are a New York based InsurTech company working to improve efficiencies in distributing senior, individual, and ancillary products. By connecting the point of sale to the consumer’s needs, Trusty.care can radically improve consumers’ financial stability related to healthcare costs and decrease rapid disenrollment. Today they have over 50,000 agents and top FMOs using their platform.

I attend many webinars and now finally travel to industry conferences. Speakers love to use analogies when attempting to make comparisons to hammer home a point. Sometimes it connects and sometimes it is just too way out there for the audience to understand. Either way, in 2022 we have turned the corner in life insurtech from AI in underwriting and expansive use of electronic health records, to innovating the sales digital experience and renovating the life insurance value chain. Since we have turned the page, a metaphor would be more appropriate when describing the exciting innovations in life insurance technology. Here is my metaphor, “Life Insurtech in 2022 is a whole new highway.”

Five Ways to Renovate the Life Insurance Value Chain
The first week of March my company, InsurTech Express, exhibited at the iPipeline Connections conference in Las Vegas. At the conference, I met Hari Srinivasan, CEO, and Nicole Mwesigwa, co-founder and COO, of iCover. As I have said in previous Tech-Tock articles, data is the fuel driving innovation in the life insurtech space. iCover is an AI/algorithmic underwriting platform that assesses, prices and delivers life insurance in five minutes. With a built-in eApp, QUITM behavior-based questions and a proprietary decision engine, iCover can transform your new business process in 12 weeks.

By most measures life insurance is essential to household economic stability, but ownership fell in the last decade from 63 percent to 52 percent (these stats are from LIMRA Fast Stats Sept. 2021). So, what is preventing us from “connecting” with and “covering” more consumers? Lack of product innovation and the buying experience, which is too long and too complicated! The good news is we have the tools, the data, and the talent to change the trajectory of our industry. Here are five ideas that can be implemented in 2022!

• Offer a multi-channel distribution platform to reach consumers wherever and whenever they are primed to think about insurance and seamlessly connect them to a digital buying process. Include digital messages to keep the consumer engaged and informed about the application status and next steps.
• Revamp the eApp to use behavior-based vs. reflexive questions. This will make the purchase journey intuitive and fast. Fast means less than 10 minutes from app to offer for most consumers.
• Use data differently. Data functions to knock out apps or supplement the traditional underwriting process. Using data to detect non-disclosures and rate applications behind the scenes eliminates the uncomfortable task of fact-checking the consumer over the phone and increases opportunities to price applications on the spot.
• Install AI/Algorithmic underwriting to simultaneously assess applications and make decisions at the point-of-sale. A data-driven system maximizes auto-acceptance without compromising risk and is the flywheel for the entire buying process!
• Create a feedback loop for the AI decision platform. Whether online or offline, this loop will expedite learning, improve accuracy and increase straight-through processing rates. Data can come from multiple sources; consumer buying analytics, claims, post-issue DHR requests, manual underwriting decisions, application and admin surveillance activities.

Renovating the value chain does not have to be overwhelming, particularly when using an agile approach to manage incremental change. Choosing the right partner and solution, like iCover, also helps!

Effective Life Insurance Illustration System Implementations
Over the years working on various single carrier and multicarrier illustration systems, the implementation process includes critical pieces like the functionality and the user experience. When adding life insurance products to a platform there are three areas that are key to the implementation (Calc Engine, Reporting, and User Functionality). Some features in the illustration platform are already baked in, but other features such as how to select age, riders, and strategies, just to name a few, can be sensitive in ease of use and practicality in running the illustration. What most agents and BGAs may not realize is that it is not necessarily the vendor who may be the cause of a challenging user experience, but how the carrier did their implementation. The key to a successful implementation is to have advisor and BGA beta testers in the field before the launch.

“Modern and capable Illustration systems are absolutely critical for carriers, of any size and complexity, to both drive the sales process and enable the exponential benefits of a digital ecosystem,” says Lyndon Edwards, president of illustrate inc, a leader in providing illustrations, eApp, and other digital cloud-based solutions to the North American life insurance industry.

Edwards continues, “Illustration systems are much more today than they used to be, and they continue to evolve. In addition to providing accurate, instant, compliant, and secure information, today’s systems also need to be feature rich, integration capable, and future ready to deliver customer, user, and operational experience, all critical for carriers to attract agents, succeed, and grow in today’s market. Choosing a proven illustration partner with the actuarial, industry, and technology expertise required, to understand and deliver on specific carrier needs and requirements, will ensure and provide the continued innovation, evolution, and commitment in a constantly changing environment.”

More Innovation Using Electronic Health Records (EHR)
If you read my Broker World article in February, Electronic Health Records (EHR) For Life Underwriting Surging In 2022,” then you will see the rapid expansion of how EHR is being used in the life insurance industry. AdamsBridge understands the healthcare data and pharmaceutical industry which defines their expertise to retrieve and translate medical records from an industry that uses them for maximizing healthcare reimbursement, not for the interpretation needed for the life insurance Industry.

“We are the only organization in the industry to show and document the risks of using EHR records for risk assessment in life insurance, showing variances it has in ‘missing’ data compared to legacy APS records—variances that could range several tables. It is not about your ‘hit’ rate, but the ‘useability’ rate of the data,” said Peter Iras, executive director of AdamsBridge.

Iris continued, “We further redefined the logic used by other summary/data providers with the industry’s first LOMA certified summary team. Another first for the life industry—a customer driven tier builder platform where the clients can build their own summary. Imagine getting the medical data of your choice digitized, extracted, and sorted the way you want and not by some off the shelf or plagiarized version. Data that is searchable, sortable, chronological by body part, body system, key words, diagnosis, scripts, labs, or whatever method you want to use to gain that edge. Useful reports designed by you that focus on impairments with their underlying factors, morbidity, diagnosis, prescriptions, labs, body limbs and specific body systems, delivered in any format, from any data aggregator, with even a customizable analysis focused on directional recommendations (decline or approve) for your underwriters or an underwriter snapshot so you can make easy directional decisions.”

Up until now, many InsurTech disruptors were start-ups steered by ambitious young people with impeccable technology credentials but limited knowledge and understanding of the life insurance industry. They typically arrive with a solution looking for a problem to fix and often stumble when confronted with regulatory and compliance obstacles as well as with the complexity of insurance distribution. The situation is now being reversed.

You can control your own destiny with web-enabled Lead Gen and Data-Driven Decisioning.

Raise your hand if you want more leads.

Hands up if you think your website could be better utilized to capture interested prospects.
Okay, last one. Hands in the air if you have felt an intuition about a strategy that could make a substantial impact on your business, but had no facts or metrics to back it up.

If you have any hands above your head right now, read on. First, let’s talk lead generation. Lead gen has two primary impacts on your business: 1) the potential for new revenue and, 2) attraction and retention of agents. I have yet to encounter an agency that doesn’t want more leads. And with the right tools at their disposal, agencies can efficiently attract, capture, and distribute ample leads.

One of the biggest areas of lead capture opportunity? Your website. Think of your website as a storefront. When you don’t provide a virtual shop window for prospective clients to browse, you forfeit the chance to draw them inside. A consumer-based quote engine on your website can be a game-changer for your agency in 2022. You can increase lead volume, leverage existing CRM technology as you transfer leads to agents, and even jump-start an application. Sound interesting? Check out this clip: https://www.ipipeline.com/bgas-jump-start-your-lead-gen-in-the-new-year/.

Next up, data-driven insights and decisioning. Most agencies are short on resources—people, time, and money to examine strategies, test and analyze, execute, and improve. In the absence of humans, more hours in the day, and an influx of unexpected funding, the differentiator is data. What if you could look across your carrier partners and know where your cycle times are shortest and longest? What training would you prioritize for employees if you could pinpoint where execution breakdowns were occurring in case management? What if you could measure agent productivity by premium and cycle time? What if you were able to see that by reducing cycle time by five days, your placement ratio would go up by 13 percent?

If you were able to use metrics to drive decisioning, you would gain invaluable insights into your business, enabling you to confidently take courses of action using the resources of teams three times your size. Data is that powerful. And the best part? You don’t have to be a data scientist to utilize it. Check out this video of three BGAs discussing the results of their data-driven decisioning: https://www.ipipeline.com/bga-panel-how-data-is-driving-better-performance-more-business/.

Small adjustments can make big impacts. Ask yourself the questions above in a few months…and let’s get those hands down! These video links and metrics were provided by Roy Goodart who is head of product management at iPipeline, offering an end-to-end ecosystem for fully digitizing the life insurance industry. iPipeline provides distributors with the technology needed to differentiate themselves from their competitors by offering a comprehensive end-to-end platform. They provide you with the agent tool sets that a modern workforce needs in order to process business quickly in this ever-innovating market.

Agent Tools Using AI Predictive Data for Product Recommendations
Sproutt is a new kind of life insurance provider who is transforming how life insurance is purchased and distributed. I met the Sproutt team at the LIDMA conference last October in Denver. I found their sales model coupled with their Insurtech platform very innovative. I asked Sproutt about their technology: Using proprietary AI technology, Sproutt’s Quality of Life Index (QLI) identifies consumers’ “hidden” healthy behaviors to provide a personalized life insurance buying experience, in 10-minutes or less. Sproutt has established itself as a key player within the direct-to-consumer space, and following its rapid growth and technology evolution in the last two years, it is now pioneering agent distribution within the insurtech sector.

Sproutt is bridging the gap between traditional distribution and modern technology, providing agents a competitive advantage. They do things differently at Sproutt. “We put agents first and we provide them the tools and latest technology to be successful,” said Assaf Henkin, co-founder and president. Sproutt covers the full spectrum of omni-channel distribution including independent agents, brokerage, P&C, banks and wire-houses, along with partnerships and affinity groups.

Sproutt’s agent platform includes proprietary Smart Routing technology, which can accurately match clients to a personalized product that best meets their needs and buying preferences. The agent platform includes instant issue term and permanent life insurance covering protection and accumulation sale scenarios while enabling agents to reach clients in a much more effective manner. “We have fully integrated the needs of a life insurance agent into our platform and leveraged our proprietary technology to provide a best in class agent experience,” said Henkin.

As a data-first company, Sproutt is leveraging historical and real time data to provide a predictive experience for both agents and consumers. The ability to accurately predict customer needs, confirm that with agents’ input, and recommend the right product is extremely valuable in a digital buying scenario where speed, transparency, and responsiveness go a long way. Sproutt is preparing to launch a new, fully-redesigned agent portal that will feature a “next generation” series of products all hosted on the company’s predictive data platform later this year.

More Life Digital Sales Platforms and Using Behavioral Science
New from Covr Financial Technologies is Covr Pro, which brings Covr’s digital life insurance technology to independent distribution across multiple channels and agency business models. Originally built for Covr’s 30,000 financial advisor partners, Covr Pro gives independent agents, agencies and producer groups a new digital toolset to rapidly grow their business while future-proofing their practice.

In addition to term and permanent life insurance solutions, Covr Pro offers asset-based long term care, disability, and will introduce an annuities path from more than 30 top-rated carriers including Prudential, Protective and AIG. The fully digital experience also includes needs analysis tools, multi-carrier quoting, case status tracking, and policy delivery and review. The platform is the only one in the industry to offer drop ticket for 100 percent of the available products.

Covr Pro also gives agents access to Covr’s team of industry experts with omni-channel support and assistance. Signing up is easy and fast—agents can create an account and submit business immediately, and get paid some of the most highly competitive commissions in the industry today.

InsurAware™ is an end-to-end digital distribution platform built on state-of-the-art data analytics, behavioral science, and artificial intelligence which aims at matching clients with cost-effective insurance policies provided by leading policy providers. InsurAware™ is equally beneficial for financial institutions, as it leverages the power of precise digital marketing coupled with the accuracy of industry data processed with state-of-the-art AI to become a one-stop solution for the customer acquisition journey.

I asked the InsurAware team, “What are the market trends?” They replied, “We are seeing traditional and digital carriers coming to market with truly end-to-end digital products complete with APIs. Helping to identify the consumers that have the ability and intent to purchase while also providing agents with digital tools to better match these prospects with the right solutions for their specific needs will be table stakes in the future. The ability to take customers and agents through the fulfillment journey, achieved through using data services, data analytics, and state-of-the-art flexible rules engines and fulfillment systems, is becoming table stakes as well. Low code configuration tools are increasing speed to market and accelerating the pace of digital transformation within carriers and distributors. Real time interface techniques through APIs and SDKs are making automated underwriting and the intelligent quoting process much easier.”

There is a surge of services, innovative solutions, streamlined processes and automated underwriting for life insurance utilizing Electronic Health Records (EHR). I get it that the availability of electronic medical data still has a mountain to climb to completely replace Attending Physician Statements (APSs), however what you will find is that solution providers are creating intelligent processes to support both. By the end of this article, you will be convinced of the surge of EHR.

Accessing EHR
MIB is e-connected to 99.9 percent of the insurance companies in North America and for over 100 years has been a trusted industry partner, providing unique insights to aid in the underwriting process. Their Electronic Medical Data Service (formerly MIB EHR) improves the life insurance industry’s ability to access electronic medical records, streamlines the broader APS process, reduces overall costs, and accelerates the underwriting process. Offering the only solution in the life insurance market with access to the top three EHR systems in the U.S. (Epic, Cerner and Allscripts), and with access to NextGen and Practice Fusion (through Veradigm) and over 5,400 patient portals, MIB has more than doubled their release rates in the last year. Available to carriers as well as distribution, MIB provides the industry with a single point of access to secure records from multiple data sources, including the ability to systematically reflex to a traditional APS where electronic records are not available.

MIB recognizes the growing opportunity for electronic medical data platforms to provide a greater value to underwriting in 2022 through improved access to data, enhanced speed of data retrieval, and enriched usefulness of the data available to life insurance underwriters. “To meet the full needs of the life insurance industry, we recognize that data needs to be available from multiple sources through a single interface, including electronic data and traditional APSs,” said Andrea Caruso, executive vice president and chief operating officer of MIB. “It must also be provided in a way that makes it easily utilized in the underwriting process and comprehensive so that it can be decisional in nature.” In addition to making the format of the data more useful, MIB recognizes there is a critical need to provide underwriter support and educational materials to encourage use and adoption of electronic medical data. With former underwriters on staff, they are taking a leadership role in providing training and other resources, developed by underwriters for underwriters, which can help organizations get past the learning and adoption barriers.

Last year when I was browsing Human API’s website, their Vision Statement caught my attention and sent a simple yet powerful message, “We exist to radically accelerate the pace of health innovation for everyone, everywhere.” I reached out to the product team at Human API to find out more about their ever evolving EHR platform for life distribution. “Human API launched their Health Intelligence Platform for BGAs to enable better carrier collaboration, improve placement rates, and create better consumer experiences. The platform simplifies EHR and APS ordering into one unified process and turns health data into actionable intelligence that accelerates underwriting. With a single order, Human API searches for all available EHRs through their proprietary network. If no electronic records are found within a predetermined time period, an APS will automatically be ordered, reducing the operational burden on agents and case managers while decreasing the time it takes to get usable medical evidence.

Human API’s electronic health record network consistently exceeds a 50 percent conversion rate for customers by leveraging the largest combination of networks including HIPAA authorized networks, patient portals, and consumer-mediated record retrieval networks. The Health Intelligence Platform was built with distribution in mind, allowing brokerages to securely share evidence directly with carriers, keep agents and case managers informed with automated status notifications, and quickly understand the key aspects of an applicant’s health with simple health summaries. In addition, Human API’s structured health data powers improved client experience and better placement rates with personalized product matches. To learn more about how Human API’s Health Intelligence Platform can empower your business, reach out to Human API through humanapi.co/request-info.

Sharing Information and Integrating Solutions for a Better User Experience
This is the fourth consecutive article where I mention APIs. An open API (Application Programming Interface), is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. The market of Insurtech for life insurance has made it necessary that solution providers offer APIs. This emphasizes the importance of sharing information seamlessly between disparate systems and also building your own user experience. APIs make both of these possible.

MediPro Direct offers simple API connectivity solutions for exam and APS ordering. This includes access to MediPro Direct’s zip scheduler, which identifies coverage and availability for insurance exams before an order is placed. Additionally, MediPro Direct has partnered with Clareto and AdamsBridge Global to deliver real-time access to consolidated EHR data, reducing both time and cost throughout the underwriting process.

Industry consolidation in the life insurance exam space left service gaps including a lack of concierge type services for large, fully underwritten applications. MediPro Direct is filling this gap with a team of highly rated mobile nurses and phlebotomists, as well as informal APS and lab services.

Management Research Services, Inc. (MRS) has 33 years of history with Attending Physician Statement (APS) services, leading the U.S. market. MRS takes pride in its ability to locate the records, obtain needed special authorizations and conduct all research needed to verify requested information. MRS representatives contact the applicant and/or the agent when necessary if your process allows. In essence, MRS makes every effort to find the records prior to closing an order.

Recently, MRS has evolved into a more technology focused company supported by growth capital partners to help enhance its breakthrough no-code platform. This technology focus has resulted in tremendous growth over the past two years, proving MRS’s excellence in insurance technology and automation. MRS migrated its entire APS business to its modern platform in 2021, enabling an agile solution for its clients and internal representatives to process and complete orders with minimal human touch.

MRS’s technology platform allows it to support a stand-alone APS business, or to provide APS as an add-on to an e-App or tele-underwriting service. The MRS platform also provides advanced reporting capabilities that provide standard reports for time-service, volume, and average cost per order. The entire platform is constructed utilizing Application Program Interface (API). This allows for other systems to use their own existing technologies to still harness the power of the MRS rules engine. Data is collected via the MRS call center, online application or both. The next generation of application collection and underwriting technology is here. This is how it works: The rules engine enables the user to construct the detailed scripting and logic necessary for completing and underwriting an application. The MRS self-service model allows any subject to construct the scripting and underwriting decisions without the support of a software developer. This enables a more cost effective and timely process, as well as easy maintenance moving forward.

New Services and Solutions
eNoah has developed a structured, streamlined, cost-effective, technology-driven solution which addresses not only traditional medical record collection but EHR/HIE retrieval. With this, expert team members have developed time-tested and foolproof methods of speedy and effective communication with hospitals, clinics, physicians’ offices, and their copy services. Their deep long standing relationships with these facilities and copy services also contribute to best-in-class cycle times without compromising quality. Because of new technological developments and increasingly stringent security measures, confidential data is secure and in accordance with the regulatory guidelines of PHI and HIPAA privacy rules.

Traditional medical records collection is not going anywhere any time soon. While electronic health records are making an impact for some carriers, it will be some time before we get strong adoption. eNoah has developed and is continuing to develop advanced technology to assist with getting the records in as quickly as possible without compromising quality. eNoah is partnering with some of the top EHR/HIE vendors to ensure a smooth and timely request process and transition to the traditional records request when needed. Their platform and records retrieval experts insure there is no lost cycle time in being able to immediately switch to the traditional records request.

In response to the increased complexity of the insurance sales and underwriting process, ApplicInt has automated the information collection process. Whether you are an agent, carrier, call center representative consumer or examiner, ApplicInt solutions are utilized by their partners for the life insurance application digital point of sales and fulfillment end-to-end process with the data transmitted to the carrier in-good-order, which significantly decreased cycle time and ultimately results in placing more business. ApplicInt’s EHRComplete platform Integrates the collection of electronic health records (EHR) directly into ApplicInt’s ExamComplete, CallComplete or UComplete data collection processes. It saves time by obtaining permission from the consumer to initiate the collection of EHR in real time when the proposed insured is engaged in providing medical history. This simplifies and speeds the application process and at the same time reduces the workload for the underwriters or other staff from needing to initiate the collection of EHR separately.

I know when this article gets published there will be push back from other firms and vendors whose innovative EHR solutions and services were not mentioned. This just proves my point about EHR surging in 2022.

Let’s draw the roadmap of where life and annuity inforce automation is going as we end this year and move into 2022. Policyholder self service will continue to grow and dominate whether it is account management in a carrier’s portal or an App that can be used to perform inforce transactions on your mobile device. Then there are inforce policy management platforms that can help advisors create policy reviews with their clients and discover new sales opportunities using innovative data mining, analysis, and reporting. The key to these solution platforms to be successful is the data. We will also take a quick look at solutions that leverage your inforce book of business in the social media/online virtual world.

Inforce Self-Service Portals and Apps
Today’s generation of insurance policy portals include a host of features that help modernize and improve the advisor and client experience. Equisoft/servicing portal removes the need to take your team away from more important tasks. Their portal provides policy holders and agents the ability to self-service changes to addresses, beneficiaries, and payment details. Equisoft/servicing portal is a ready to go, out-of-the-box, online solution that drastically improves the customer servicing experience at any time, on any device. It provides detailed policy summaries and coverage information. Customers get up-to-date information like cash value, payment requirements, and more. And, on the portal, changes are able to be made to policy contract info, eliminating the need for paper change request forms to be sent by mail or fax and reducing the need for calls to the agent’s office.

As more organizations seek to put their customers in control of their policy servicing experience, insurers that provide digital self-service will not only improve their customer loyalty but will support their profitability goals by reducing their servicing costs. Sureify’s LifetimeSERVICE platform is a great example of a simple, intuitive online and mobile self-service interface that leads to customer and producer satisfaction. It gives customers control and takes the burden off producers who want to sell, not service, the business. Additionally, insurers will see immediate cost and efficiency savings using Sureify’s LifetimeSERVICE because in weeks, not months, they will be able to comfortably scale new business without increasing customer service salaries.

Notifications to the policyholder are very important. Sureify’s LifetimeSERVICE includes push notifications, emails and text messages for critical information like lapse notices and account changes. The platform has strong support features like Chat, Co-Browsing, Video-Chat, Advisor Lookup and FAQs. There is life and annuity account information which includes performance visualizations. The policyholder can do transactions like withdrawals, loans, payment and billing. Account maintenance is an expected feature like beneficiary changes. To round out the self-service features would be document management like policies/contracts, illustrations and tax documents (upload/download).

Inforce Policy Management Systems and Services
Employee Pooling (EP) has been developing a holistic policy management system since 2018. They can work with your CRM or one of the policy management platforms like Insured Connect (NIC) and Proformex. The current version of EP’s system includes policy data aggregation, updating policy data, policy monitoring (identification of policies in danger of lapsing or rate increases), campaign development, annual review presentations, and lead management. In a version to be released in the first quarter, EP expects to include policy owners’ current contact information (email and/or phone).

Post-sale policy servicing has historically been a nightmare for independent advisors. While writing policies through multiple distributors and carriers has major benefits in terms of product availability for clients, it has its downfalls too, namely in the way that an advisor’s clients’ policy data is all over the place. As a result, the concept of managing and monitoring policy performance for an inforce book has been largely reactive; it’s only when a carrier or client notifies an advisor that they even know there might be a problem like a lapse-pending policy. Proformex is transforming life insurance servicing from a reactive approach to a proactive one. The key to enabling proactive management of policies is access to timely and current information. Carrier data access is critical, and Proformex centralizes carrier data into a single, secure platform. It’s all about having the right information on the right policy at the right time. That enables advisors to have meaningful interactions with their clients and take proactive action to correct a policy that is no longer meeting its owner’s objectives.

Inforce APIs to Exchange Information
This is the part of the article where I discuss API’s again. I am hoping that by illustrating a variety of business cases month after month you will see the value of APIs. API stands for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Insured Connect (NIC) Inforce Data Exchange provides existing NIC carrier and distributor subscribers with even greater access to inforce data and the ability to use that data with multiple tools, apps and solutions. Whether you want to push pending lapse notices to your CRM, populate your sales pipeline with renewal opportunities or update your AMS, NIC’s data products are specifically designed to support your business. NIC’s data products support both life and annuity inforce data.

Policy/Contract API: Includes individual policy information that can be used to populate reports, forms, tools and apps (e.g. inforce illustration tools, digital marketing platform). The policy API supports individual policies or lists of policies. The policy API does not include policy owner PII data.

Policy Owner / Annuitant API: Includes PII data about the policy owner that can be used to populate a CRM or marketing automation solution. The policy owner API supports individual policy owners or lists of policy owners.

Agent Profile API: Includes data about the agent that can be used to populate a CRM or marketing automation solution. The agent profile API supports individual agents or lists of agents.

Agent Book of Business API: Includes all of an agent’s policies with information about each individual policy owner and policy. The API can be used to populate apps and tools (e.g. CRM) for pricing or analyzing an agent’s book.

Distributor Book of Business API: Includes all of a distributor’s policies with information about each individual policy owner and policy. The API can be used to populate apps and tools (e.g. CRM, AMS) for pricing and analyzing a distributor’s book.

Carrier Book of Business API: Includes all of a carrier’s downline firms, agents, policy owners and policies constructed in the distributor’s hierarchy. The API can be used to populate third-party databases.

Sales Opportunities API: Includes sales opportunities including renewal and conversion opportunities identified by NIC. The API can be used to update carrier and distributor CRM, AMS and other systems.

Policy Service API: Includes policy service changes initiated by NIC users, and includes address changes, beneficiary and other policy changes. The API can be used to update carrier and distributor CRM, AMS, and other systems.

Standardization in data exchange for annuity inforce data is widely adopted in the financial institution channel using DTCC services between annuity carriers and banks, clearing firms (e.g. NFS and Pershing), independent broker/dealers and wirehouses (e.g. Merrill Lynch and Raymond James). On the life insurance side, ACORD has a Life Inforce Product Group, which I have been a co-chair for the last couple of years. The group’s objective is to standardize life inforce data transactions from notifications like lapse notices, replacements, and conversions to financial transactions like withdrawals and fund allocations on variable life products. The concept of a next generation digital strategy by ACORD is to establish a common approach to setting standards, structures, and implementation guidelines while leveraging ACORD data standards invoking API methods.

Solutions Using Social Media/Online Finding New Sales for Your Inforce Book of Business
There are solutions driven by algorithms used in social media/online like Verisk Jornaya for example. These are strategic products and solutions that help you adapt your marketing and lead buys in real time by incorporating your consumers’ online shopping behavior. A solution like Jornaya takes your inforce book of business and optimizes timing and messaging for improved acquisition, cross-sell, and retention using this technology. This is a model similar to what Google, Facebook, and Amazon use. A good example: If your customer was shopping for a mortgage online, then in real time it could trigger an event where they may need more life insurance. This is a winning formula that will continue to gain traction in the insurance industry moving forward into 2022.

Digital point of sales solutions for life insurance continue to become more innovative. I am trying to keep up. The auto-fulfillment process for applying for life insurance is all about data and getting an instant underwriting decision. While we all want instant underwriting decisions, the impaired risk business is not going away. There are new enhancements regarding Electronic Health Records (EHR), and lab testing for COVID. The Internet of Things (IOT) is now playing a role in personal wellness that will affect underwriting in the future.

Point-of-Sale Instant Underwriting Decisions and Data Prefill
SCOR’s Velogica^® helps protect families by facilitating easily acquired life insurance at affordable prices while digitally integrating the most advanced evidence sources. Using a patented process to deliver instant underwriting decisions, the Velogica algorithm helps major clients drive new models of efficient distribution through predictive risk assessment and point-of-sale policyholder capture by correlating information from the life insurance application, motor vehicle reports, MIB reports and prescription drug history and other data sources. Velogica is designed with flexibility to incorporate new data sources as they become available.

The most recent release of Velogica integrates SCOR’s predictive analytics capabilities and electronic health records scores and offers powerful data visualization and analytics functions that allow for strong case management and tracking. With more than four million life insurance applications processed, this proven platform has a record of achievement that is unmatched in the industry.

Ash Brokerage, Ameritas and SCOR recently announced a new next-generation term life insurance product, Ash Instant term issued by Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. Ash Instant term is an example of how Velogica’s solution for point-of-sale life insurance combines reinsurance and product development. Ash developed the frontend journey for Ash Instant term and Velogica is the underwriting engine that supports it. This innovative digital product is available to Ash advisors through the Ash Term Express platform.

“We were excited to partner with ASH Brokerage and Ameritas to assist in the development of Ash Instant term. This digital product offers one of the best automation rates in the market while it maintains very competitive prices,” explains Richard De Sousa, senior vice president, deputy head of Growth and Development at SCOR. “Qualified applicants can confirm receipt of coverage within 15 minutes in either an agent-assisted or self-serve fully digital environment.”

LexisNexis^® Life Data Prefill is an interactive single-inquiry solution that streamlines the insurance process at the point of application, reducing the time and cost of capturing data to evaluate applicants. With just a name, address and date of birth, Life Data Prefill can help prefill other important application data in near real-time. This solution reduces the number of questions that need to be asked, minimizes mis-keys and enhances the overall customer experience. Life Data Prefill can help easily reduce Not in Good Order rates, minimize errors and prefill information that is often incorrectly entered. Completing the application more accurately the first time helps reduce customer follow-up so that agents can better place policies in a more efficient manner, carriers can speed up the application process and underwriters can better evaluate risk.

LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions also just released four new enhancements to Life Data Prefill that add additional value at the point of sale by providing an even more improved experience for the insurer and agency/broker. The four optional enhancements to Life Data Prefill include:

• Criminal and Bankruptcy Flags, which can be used by insurers to reduce critical application omissions related to criminal and/or bankruptcy records, determining a more appropriate applicant path.
• A Persistency Indicator, used by insurers and agents to identify the potential for early lapse and increase consumer satisfaction.
• A Family History Flag, used by insurers and agents to reduce application omissions related to premature family deaths and determine a more appropriate path for the applicant.
• An Accelerated Indicator, designed for agents, to provide a likelihood that the applicant will progress through accelerated underwriting programs.

All of these new Life Data Prefill enhancements provide point-of-sale data points that enable carriers and agents to approach the underwriting process with more confidence, while simultaneously increasing placement and retention ratios.

EHR, Latest on Labs for COVID, and Personal Health Scoring
I followed up with vendors to find out what they were doing and found that Human API had evolved their solution into a Health Intelligence Platform that connects carriers and distributors and converts health data into actionable information that drives faster underwriting decisioning. All of this is of course aimed at ultimately improving the consumer buying experience and increasing placement rates.

Human API’s new platform has different layers of capabilities designed to make it easy for carriers and distributors to get started with using EHR data. It’s powered by a data network which is a source of raw health data that feeds the platform that converts data into meaningful information. The reporting capabilities then transform this information into contextual knowledge that underwriters can leverage to make their decisions faster. Finally, the analytics layer provides insights to continuously optimize the performance and impact of the Health Intelligence Platform.

Human API is now connected to all electronic health records (EHR) data sources via direct EHR networks (Epic Chart Gateway and Veradigm), public networks like CommonWell Health Alliance, regional health information exchanges (HIEs), and their proprietary patient portal network, in addition to traditional APS vendor partners. It’s now possible to get health data through their platform via a HIPAA authorization or with patient portal credentials. They informed me that these new data integrations along with their Smart Orchestration capabilities which automatically order medical evidence from the best available data source are consistently powering hit rates above 50 percent for their carrier customers (a milestone for our industry). This is a signal that life insurance is really starting to make the transition on the digital transformation journey since there are platforms like Human API that are enabling health data access and useability.

Their new Health Intelligence Platform brings full stack data capabilities under one solution, from access to normalization to customer reporting and analytics. Historically a lot of these data capabilities had to be purchased from different vendors and stitched together, so they designed their platform to make it easy to both retrieve and use health data and expand the utility of EHRs beyond an APS replacement. All the data on Human API’s platform is normalized and feeds a custom reporting engine that creates unique reports tailored to underwriting needs. For example, carriers can triage blind spots with a report that screens for key conditions, or avoid labs and exams with a “Health Check” report. This makes the information within EHRs useful and customizable, reducing the need to manually review all the pages in the records. With the launch of their new platform, they’re making the APS an exception rather than the norm for a lot of their customers.

Additionally, the platform enables distributors and carriers to easily share records with one another for more transparency. Distributors are able to keep their applicants updated on the status of their cases as it moves through underwriting. This single view into the process is not only creating a better experience for customers but also enabling better collaboration between carriers and distributors.

While we looked at medical records, let’s now pivot to labs and the latest in COVID testing. In addition to initial COVID-19 strains, variants such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta, are now creating concerns of resurgence in the U.S. According to a New York Times report, overall deaths from COVID remain around 1.6 percent, which the CDC indicates is a staggering 100 times that of the combined total of influenza and pneumonia.

While even vaccinated individuals are being infected, the CDC indicates that breakthrough infection rates, as well as hospitalization rates for breakthrough infections, are 1/10th that of the infection and hospitalization rate among unvaccinated individuals. This is good news for the vaccinated; however, not all vaccines are created equally, and none are 100 percent effective.

In fact, effectiveness rates among the top three vaccines range from 66 percent to 94.1 percent. This means as many as three out of every 10 vaccinated individuals will not develop the antibodies capable of neutralizing the COVID-19 virus. The only way to really know if a vaccination is effective is to get a test that identifies neutralizing antibodies post vaccination, such as the ImmunoRank Neutralization Assay offered by MediPro Direct.

MediPro Direct also offers a COVID-19 Titer test three to six months post-vaccination, which will identify the number of neutralizing antibodies remaining in an individual’s body. This result indicates whether a booster shot for COVID-19 is necessary for that individual. Results from these tests help individuals and organizations manage risk and better account for mortality rates by identifying the “truly” vaccinated.

I have an Apple Watch, iPhone, Withings Digital Blood Pressure Kit and Scale, plus health and workout Apps. These are all IOT devices capturing health and wellness data. I discovered a White Paper by dacadoo called “Health Scoring and The Personalization of Risk.” It had been developed in conjunction with a Data Science team to bring to life the tangible outcomes of Health Scoring technology. The results can be significant for healthcare expenditure savings. They also explore how new personalization efforts in life or health insurance can combine new technologies and correlative analysis techniques that leverage Big Data to deliver real-time customization of offerings, content, and customer experience at an individual level. There are a lot of important statistics in the report. A simple example is how adding an additional 1,850 steps to your daily activity can translate into hundreds of dollars of healthcare savings, which is especially beneficial today with the spiraling costs of healthcare. The Digital Health Engagement Platform from dacadoo is a mobile app. The platform includes its Health Score and Risk Engine for Life and Health Carriers globally. Click here to download the free White Paper.

It seems in 2021 that every couple of months I learn about a software solution, new process, or new service that innovates, enhances, and accelerates life insurance underwriting. There are now platforms for engaging the life agent, and outsourcing the BGA underwriting tasks that helps accelerate the informal process. Solution providers have created for carriers new innovative outsource underwriting services that result in reduced costs and more efficiencies. And yes I continue to share new information on APIs, specifically impacting the whole underwriting experience from digital point-of-sale to a carrier’s back office.

Automating and Accelerating the Informal Process for Impaired Risk Cases
You don’t often see a fully automated platform for agents for tracking underwriting quotes. BackNine Insurance, a leading BGA, has a software solution called Back Office Support System (BOSS), which helps independent agents and larger agencies alike in cultivating new opportunities while keeping everyone informed 24/7 on current quotes, requests, and case updates. The BOSS platform supports anyone selling life insurance by providing structure to write the type of business that best suits the needs of respective clients—from start to finish. BOSS essentially provides instant access to managing the lifecycle of all agents’ policies. Policy status, values, and beneficiaries for multiple carriers are housed in one location, allowing agents to efficiently service their clients. Agents are also able to optimize all elements of their business as the platform also allows them to view appointments, cases, commissions, quotes, and reporting, and it creates a digital hierarchy for commissions within an agency. And, it integrates seamlessly with the Quote & Apply e-application and quoting system.

Ian Ryan, brokerage director at BackNine Insurance, explained, “Impaired risk quotes (also known as quick quotes) are able to be tracked within the BOSS platform. If an application is submitted and the case isn’t approved, the reasons for the decline are sent, or other quotes are provided that the client was approved for with other carriers. This response time is quite efficient, typically within 24-48 hours. At that point we run quotes for the agent, then input all this information into our BOSS system. The client’s name and information won’t be sent to the carrier—they just require the client’s gender, age, and basic information—and it’s all anonymous. They won’t review documents or attachments at this point; we provide a brief synopsis of the client’s situation and any medical issues. It’s important to note that these are tentative offers based strictly upon the information provided. Once the response is received, we’ll include the impaired risk quote before sending a formal application.”

“These impaired risk quotes are typically used when an agent has a client with various health issues—so why waste their time on a formal application if the carrier isn’t going to be in a rate class they can afford. That being said, if the client has one or more health issues that are identified in the MIB or with prescriptions, the quote can change. It’s not a guaranteed offer; it’s tentative based upon the information we give for review. All of these responses and information are saved, and agents can go back into BOSS wherein they can view the carriers that have and haven’t responded. There’s also an easily accessible impaired risk quote section within BOSS where agents can find their client’s name, see exactly what information was sent to carriers, and what responses have been received.”

Outsource Underwriting Services for Distributors and Carriers
Employee Pooling (EP) is renowned for helping customers transform software platforms into software systems, finding the perfect integration of software and expert human capital to deliver solutions that increase efficiencies. For 10 years, EP has partnered with hundreds of distributors, financial institutions, and software companies to make the shift to working smarter by removing obstacles getting in the way of increasing profits and enhancing the customer experience. EP provides straight through processing solutions from sales support and agent appointments to case management and underwriting through commissions and policy services, and countless other tasks that are guaranteed to increase connectivity with your customers and increase profits.

You can finally stop putting your clients through a blind and seemingly endless, expensive, relationship-killing journey that is the traditional informal process. EP Accelerated Informal (AI) will take a case from darkness to light with just $50, an authorization and 24 hours. EP’s in-house underwriters use a rich medical data retrieval platform that delivers a comprehensive applicant profile using prescription drug and clinical lab history, and prescribing physician and actuarial data. In just one day, you have a professional risk summary that points you in the right direction for shopping a case.

Management Research Services, Inc. (MRS) has introduced its newest capability: Outsource Underwriting Services for insurance carriers. With over 30 years of life and health insurance experience, MRS is adding to its robust insurance automation capabilities by building on its proprietary technology platforms. The benefits gained through MRS’ turn-key underwriting services will provide agencies quicker processing as well as time and money savings. MRS and its insurance automation technologies keep carriers at the vanguard of an auto-code movement, allowing them to take advantage of an evolving insurance industry going through a significant digital transformation. MRS’ Outsource Underwriting Services will provide a variety of opportunities, including platform underwriting referrals, fulfillment of the chief underwriting role, audits, APS review/summary by the underwriter, MIB maintenance, MRS AutoCode model inclusion and contestable claim review.

MRS assists with insurance cases referred to underwriting for a decision in which the automated platforms could not make a determination or when additional information is required with intervention by an underwriter. MRS can provide a complete underwriting review and interpretation of attending physician records in conjunction with client acceptance guidelines as well as do periodic audits to remain compliant. For carriers that require underwriters to assist with short-term overflow, handle unanticipated fluctuations in business volumes, or are looking for a strategic outsourcing underwriting partner to support on a long-term basis.

Standardizing Part 2 Medical Questions for Speed-to-Market
The fulfillment process behind the scenes takes quite a bit of money, time and effort to implement from Part 1 questions and forms in a drop ticket, to Part 2 reflexive questions for a call center or digital Paramed. ApplicInt has just launched their “FAST Complete Suite.” It’s a low code, user customizable at a low cost which only takes two to three weeks to implement. The secret sauce is in the best of breed reflexive questions for impairments or positive responses. “FAST U*Complete” is the consumer facing quoting and eApp; “FAST CallComplete” is the reflexive scripted interviews for call centers; and “FAST ExamComplete” is reflexive interview for examiners to accurately collect carrier compliant questions. Top level Part 1 questions are easily customizable and mapped to state-filed forms; and data flows seamlessly from the consumer, call center, paramedical provider to the carrier.

APIs Supporting Underwriting for Carrier Policy Admin Systems
Everyone is building new technology based on APIs. I reached out to EIS whose platform is considered cutting edge. EIS is a global insurance software company and industry leader for carrier policy administration. Their EIS SuiteTM is an open, flexible platform of core systems and digital solutions that liberate carriers to accelerate and scale innovation, launch products faster, deliver new revenue channels, and create powerful customer experiences. Digital point of sales solutions, call centers for life insurance fulfillment, and other third party trading partners can create a personalized underwriting experience at the individual consumer level as well as at the product level through APIs from a carrier policy admin system and underwriting workbench. A flexible-configurable platform that uses cloud-based technology is able to trigger the API calls that are necessary through a solid rules engine and the right reflexive questioning. This is ideal for the industry for multiple reasons. 1) It allows carriers to reduce underwriting costs per applicant by only calling out to the additional data that is needed based on individual rules; 2) It speeds up the underwriting process, regardless of being fully underwritten or straight-through processing (STP); and, 3) It provides customers with a personalized experience based on who they are, the products they are applying for, and their own health rather than having a one-size-fits-all approach.

EIS’ Cloud-native, microservices, API-based platform gives carriers the ability to be underwriting agnostic. To personalize underwriting at the individual and product levels. Through its extensive API library it enables quick and easy integrations with not only established third-party sources that support underwriting such as Aura, Magnum, MIB, Milliman, ExamOne, etc., but also those third party sources. In addition, the Underwriting Workbench provides all of the collected information in one, easy-to-use system rather than having to go out to multiple systems (such as internal legacy solutions or external web-based applications) to pull in information for human-based underwriting. It keeps all of the external third-party data within the policy admin solution so that data is never lost and can be used down the line for claims.

The EIS Suite sends real-time notifications and updates to the distributor and agent keeping them informed through the underwriting process. At any time, an agent/broker can monitor the status of their clients, see where they are in the process, and get notifications from the underwriter (or third-party call center) if additional information is needed. It can trigger the agent into action to reach out to the applicant to ask for more info or to give them a nudge if they are taking too long to get their APS documentation or paramedical exam. With the EIS Suite persona-based applications, agents are kept in the loop at every stage in the policy lifecycle, from underwriting and service to claims.
Is it advances in technology, COVID, or just coincidence that we have recently seen a flood of innovations in the life insurance underwriting process? Whichever way, from Electronic Health Records (EHR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Predictive Analytics, underwriting automation continues to flourish. Don’t be surprised that I make more discoveries and share them in a future Tech-Tock article.