New Term Products Target Millennials, Miss Agents

[Brian Anderson]

Just posted a piece (link below) profiling some spanking new term life offerings from SoFi (partnering with Protective Life), Haven Life (backed by MassMutual) and Ladder that have lots in common – they promise easy online applications with quick quotes and approval without medical exams – and not just for minimal amounts. They also are being marketed toward millennials, and independent agents are completely out of their loop.

Does a wave like this pose a legitimate threat to independent agents at some point, or will these upstarts have minimal impact on the typical indy agency that sells a lot of term?

Insurance Forums | New term market entrants target younger consumers with easy online applications and no exams

 

[AboutThatLife]

Of course. Most young people look at the insurance agent as unnecessary and untrustworthy. A lot of them are. I think we are at a unique time in insurance and within the next 10 years this way of life may be in steep decline.

Right now the money is here and there's a lot of it. Grow fast and invest wisely.

 

[LIDONLINE]

Hi Brian:
I reviewed your article on EAPP platforms offered now by
Protective and other carriers. Will any of them be available to use by Independent Brokers, and particularly Protective?

Do you know if the pricing for this product will be the same or more than the Custom Choice product they have?
Are any of the carriers you mentioned available now?

If so, which carrier has best rates and get I access platform?
Richard

 

[LostDollar]

Just posted a piece (link below) profiling some spanking new term life offerings from SoFi (partnering with Protective Life), Haven Life (backed by MassMutual) and Ladder that have lots in common – they promise easy online applications with quick quotes and approval without medical exams – and not just for minimal amounts. They also are being marketed toward millennials, and independent agents are completely out of their loop.

Does a wave like this pose a legitimate threat to independent agents at some point, or will these upstarts have minimal impact on the typical indy agency that sells a lot of term?

Insurance Forums | New term market entrants target younger consumers with easy online applications and no exams

It seems like I saw an article somewhere over the past 12-24 months that indicated rather than refilling previously cleared out positions, companies were increasing the efficiency (ie workload) of remaining employees.

I would think that in insurance parts of the economy, that would take the form of flattening the vertical distance between the insuror and the insured, so I would take your example as an experimental/developmental foreshadowing of many things to come.

 

[Brian Anderson]

Haven Life CEO Yaron Ben-Zvi – one of the companies featured in the article – wrote an interesting blog post last Thursday about the ethics of big data and privacy concerns.

His comments provide some insight into the potential of big data, how it is changing the underwriting landscape for life insurers, and why he thinks privacy concerns in the collection and utilization of big data are overblown when it comes to the industry.

Ben-Zvi says analyzing data in real time is the “secret sauce” for Haven Life. For anyone interested in the topic, his post (link below) is worth a few minutes of your time. Here are a few thoughts from it:

• “…in the life insurance space we are always cognizant of the fact that ultimately, someone needs to be able to tell a life insurance applicant why they were declined coverage or why they got the price they did. There’s even a legal structure for this requirement: The Adverse Underwriting Decision letter, where we are legally bound to inform customers about ‘adverse’ decisions we make and also need to ensure they understand they have the right to an explanation for the decision.”

• “Do some digging on the future of life insurance, and you will see a vision of game-changing data sets. In this perfect picture, insurers will use electronic medical records in real time; health trackers and Apple Watches will provide a deluge of daily, health-related information that will improve customer engagement and ultimately, lead to better premium prices for healthier individuals or those who have improved their health. The practical reality is that few insurers effectively use the information already available to them. Your typical insurer already has (or could have) access to tons of data: prescription histories, motor vehicle records, background checks, website visitor data, and more. How many insurers make a concerted effort to bring all this data together to make sense of it? And how many think about how to create different experiences or products based on it?”

• “Few companies are good at letting you understand what data they collect about you and even fewer are good at letting you take action based on it.”

https://medium.com/haven-life/the-ethics-of-data-and-privacy-take-a-page-from-the-life-insurance-industry-ac855966b8fa#.r21hw9qst

 

[Mattschmidt]

Wow. Using data from an apple watch that you didn't realize would be shared others or any insurance comapny.

Don't think stuff like is going to fly with majority of the general public

 

[AfroPope]

Interesting read for me as both a millenial who's been denied term coverage and as an agent.

 

[AgencyAdvantage]

This will never replace the agent. Geico exists, but are they competitive in every market? NO.

Sure, you can get a mortgage almost entirely online today, but will it be the best one for you? NO.

I can even go online and buy a car today, but is it the same as seeing it in person, having a salesperson describe things i may not know about it? NO.

The day that this online stuff completely replaces the agent is the same day where the man is replaced with the singularity.

 

[KenP]

This will never replace the agent. Geico exists, but are they competitive in every market? NO.

Sure, you can get a mortgage almost entirely online today, but will it be the best one for you? NO.

I can even go online and buy a car today, but is it the same as seeing it in person, having a salesperson describe things i may not know about it? NO.

The day that this online stuff completely replaces the agent is the same day where the man is replaced with the singularity.

Along these lines, it'll certainly lean out the business and eliminate some overhead, fungible support staff, etc., but it won't replace the need for knowledge and expertise. The information gap between the consumer and the product still demands that a professional counsel them on what to do