Closing the sale: an app for the iPad

February 24, 2015 at 05:21 AM
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If you're in the market for a turnkey mobile app that can help you sell more cash value life insurance, a recently launched product might just fit the bill: the Voya Life Journey mobile selling system.

Debuted by Voya Financial (formerly ING U.S.) and designed in its first iteration for the Apple iPad, the tablet software aims to help consumers understand the different benefits of life insurance and the solutions available to them to meet financial objectives. Given a target retirement date, the app produces a life insurance needs assessment based on factors that can impact a customer's retirement security.

"People often don't think of life insurance as an asset class to help fund retirement needs," says Kurt Fasen, a senior vice president and head of insurance sales marketing at Voya Financial. "This new app helps educate the consumers about life insurance and meaningfully ties the product to a retirement plan."

Availing producers of scripts and charts, the software illustrates not only the value of permanent life insurance as a protection product; it also shows how life insurance can be used to accumulate wealth and distribute retirement income in a tax-efficient manner.

The app boasts a resource library segmented according to the individual's life stage. An online calculator accessed through the app can display how much life insurance the individual needs to replace lost income. And it can provide a premium quote based on a prospect's age, gender, health risks, etc.

What distinguishes the tablet software from the competition, says Fasen, is a third component: a sales track with graphics to help illustrate life insurance's place in a holistic retirement plan; and to convey the impact that factors like Social Security, healthcare costs and inflation have on the retirement objective.

Need talking points to help the conversation along? Just touch on an icon and up pops a prepared script.

"You, of course, wouldn't do this in front of the customer," says Fasen. "But the script helps instruct the advisor in what to say at different points in the conversation.

"We've also organized the track to accommodate different selling styles," he adds. "Advisors can jump from one point to another in the presentation using a built-in navigation bar."

What's more, the app doesn't focus solely on life insurance as a wealth accumulation product. Other savings vehicles — taxable accounts and tax-favored IRAs and qualified plans — can also be explored. Thus the software can suggest different solutions for building the desired nest egg and compare the pros and cons of each.

If the prospect decides to buy a life policy, the software automatically generates the forms and paperwork need to move an application through underwriting. The policy app can then be printed out or e-mailed to the prospect. 

Fasen says the Apple iOS software is available to producers for free through Voya-approved wholesalers. The app cannot be downloaded from Apple's iTunes store; it installs natively on the iPad using Apple's enterprise deployment framework. 

What are advisors saying about the software?

"Before rolling out the app nationally, we initiated a pilot program in October 2014 with 40 advisors," says Fasen. "The software really helped them incorporate indexed universal life and other cash value life insurance into a sales conversation. The app is enlightening customers and giving comfort to advisors because of its turnkey approach."

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