Heres The Whats-In-It-For-Me When Agents Confront Teleunderwriting
By
"Describe the impact teleunderwriting has had on your company."
That was a question posed at a recent meeting in Boston. In response, a vice president of underwriting at a prominent life insurer shot back: "Wonderful! Wonderful!"
He is one of a dozen industry leaders who serve on an issue-focused discussion group known as The Underwriting Vision Group.
There is another question related to teleunderwriting that needs attention, too: What are the implications of teleunderwriting for producers? Well examine both sides here.
Teleunderwriting means using a telephone interview to complete a life insurance application. It is buttressed by drilldown amplification of all "yes" answers to risk-relevant Part I and II questions. The advantages for insurers are recognized and applauded across North America and around the world. As the executive said, they are wonderful. These advantages include:
Cutting application-to-issue cycle time by 50% or more.
Reducing new business acquisition costs dramatically.
Diminishing dependence on customer-unfriendly risk appraisal tools.
Enhancing the value of information on which insurability is determined.
But whats in it for the beleaguered producer? Teleunderwriting advocates encounter a paradoxical "buzz saw" of suspiciousness and even hostility over this question.
Why "paradoxical?" Because teleunderwriting serves no interests more completely than those of the producer!
A recent survey from LIMRA International, Windsor, Conn., determined that the second most pressing issue on the minds of producers is nerve-wracking delays in getting business issued. This comes into focus as the business integrates life insurance with other financial service products, which are typically acquired transactionally.
Teleunderwriting is the only way to make inroads here. Thus, it comes as no surprise that companies that have converted to teleunderwriting have reported dramatic reductions in new business cycle time. See the box for the advantages this process creates for carriers and producers.
In speaking to and with producers, I have heard ruminations over the impact teleunderwriting has on "control" of their business. Some perceive teleunderwriting as intruding on this, to the point of making it all but impossible even to ascertain if the client is "preferred."
