Conning Report: Underwriting Could Be Simpler

Roughly 80% of the prospects who are still in the market for death benefits are lower-income and middle-income consumers "who are transactional purchasers," the analysts write. "These are individuals seeking an easy-to-understand, hassle-free, do-it-yourself approach to the acquisition of life insurance and other financial products and services."

The "transactional purchasers" buy an average of less than $250,000 in coverage, and the "high-net-worth, advice-and-counsel" purchasers buy an average of more than $750,000 in coverage. But developing systems to please the transactional purchasers could also improve the quality of the service given to the high-end purchasers, the analysts write.

The Conning analysts give the Web-based underwriting service developed by e-Nable.com Corp., a unit of the MIB Group Inc., Westwood, Mass., as an example of the kind of technology that could help all applicants.

Life underwriters can use the e-Nable system to look up credit reports, motor vehicle reports and MIB's own detailed individual health records.

"The ultimate technology objective is for life insurers to be able to issue well-underwritten policies on a point-of-sale basis, either through direct customer contact or agents' laptops linked to various databases," the Conning analysts write.