Underwriting as marketing: quicker but still-accurate underwriting can give agents and insurers a sales advantage.What if insurance companies could lilt the administrative burden of selling life insurance off the shoulders of agents? What if insurers could shave shave (shav) 1. to cut at or parallel to the surface of the skin. 2. to remove the beard or other body hair by such a process. 3. to cut thin slices from or to cut into thin slices. two hours off the time it takes to fill out paperwork and administer the application process? What if agents had more time to do what they do best: selling products and nurturing customer relationships? Not only is it possible, forward-looking underwriting Underwriting 1. The process by which investment bankers raise investment capital from investors on behalf of corporations and governments that are issuing securities (both equity and debt). 2. The process of issuing insurance policies. departments have made it happen. Right now it's possible to go online to get a quote, apply for and bind a life insurance policy in 10 minutes or less, with some restrictions. Underwriting has become one of the hottest marketing tools today, because insurance companies have come to understand that creating an easy-to-sell (and easy-to-purchase) experience translates into more sales for both the agent and the insurer An individual or company who, through a contractual agreement, undertakes to compensate specified losses, liability, or damages incurred by another individual. An insurer is frequently an insurance company and is also known as an underwriter. . This truism is borne out in industry statistics. While MIB (1) (Management Information Base) The hierarchical database used by the simple network management protocol (SNMP) to describe the particular device being monitored. MIB objects are identified using ASN.1 syntax. See SNMP, RMON, OID and ASN.1. Group reported that U.S. term life applications were down 6% for the first seven months of 2003 compared with the previous year, at least one company has bucked the downward trend with its quote-apply-and-bind Web tool. Its term life applications are up more than 15% this year. Key to this success story is teleunderwriting. No one would argue that the best value for an agent's time is in selling, not in going over a detailed medical questionnaire with his or her client. Many agents are eager to avoid creating this potentially uncomfortable and embarrassing experience. Today, about half of life insurers offer agents the teleunderwriting option. The advantage is that applicants can schedule a follow-up phone interview in the comfort and privacy of their own home. A friendly voice on the phone and the feeling of privacy allows clients to be more forthcoming with information. The result is that insurers receive more consistent, thorough and accurate data, thus reducing orders of the widely dreaded dread v. dread·ed, dread·ing, dreads v.tr. 1. To be in terror of. 2. To anticipate with alarm, distaste, or reluctance: dreaded the long drive home. attending physician statement. In some companies that offer teleunderwriting, agents opt to use the tool for up to 95% of applications. These companies report a significant drop in the number of APSs they order. This is good news, because agents who sell life insurance know that ordering doctors' records is the kind of red tape that can add up to a month to the application process. Anything that can eliminate the need for an APS makes the application process quicker and easier for everyone. While insurance companies have eliminated the need for agents to schedule follow-up interviews, medical appointments and laboratory tests, they recognize agents' desire to track the application's progress from start to finish, so many companies also provide online pending reports or tracking systems. Other ways insurance companies have used underwriting to improve the life insurance application process--and to boost the sales completion Sales completion In the context of project financing, the state in which the project has reached physical completion and has delivered product or generated revenues in satisfaction of a sales completion test. rate--is to provide tools that allow agents to deliver more accurate quotes and complete the sale on the spot. A decade ago, more than 90% of applicants typically fell into the "standard" rate class. In recent years, more sophisticated underwriting tools have allowed companies to gather more detailed, accurate data. The result is that insurers now offer many more rate classes, including several tiers of "preferred" and "preferred best" pricing. To help agents find the right rate class, some insurers have added optional "underwriting rating calculators" to their Web tools. This allows agents to painlessly pain·less adj. Free from complication or pain: a painless operation. pain  less·ly adv. add just enough additional information
to help ensure the accuracy of the quote. After all, no agent likes to
surprise clients with higher-than-expected rates when it comes time to
deliver the policy and close the sale.
Finally, because the life insurance application process can take weeks to complete, it's not uncommon to spend considerable time and resources on the sale only to watch it go up in smoke or-ice it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to close. The ability to collect payment at the point of sale and to give the client a certificate of temporary insurance is a powerful tool for capturing and completing the sale. At the peak of the high-tech bubble A bit in bubble memory or a symbol in a bubble chart. , the hype hype 1 Slang n. 1. Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion: the hype surrounding the murder trial. 2. was that technology would replace agent/adviser services in life insurance. While there are some direct sales to consumers via the Internet, that market remains limited. By and large, it's still true that "life insurance is sold, not bought." By aligning a·lign v. a·ligned, a·lign·ing, a·ligns v.tr. 1. To arrange in a line or so as to be parallel: align the tops of a row of pictures; aligned the car with the curb. online solutions, teleunderwriting, underwriting and communications, companies are working to make it easier than ever for agents and advisers to sell. Mike Madden Mike Madden (born January 13, 1958 in Denver, Colorado), is a former professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues primarily in relief from 1983-1986. Madden played college ball at University of Northern Colorado. is assistant vice president of Individual New Business for Safeco Life & Investments, based in Seattle. He can be reached at insight@bestreview.com. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion