The Latest Trends in Life Insurance
Life insurance is like a parachute. If you don’t have it when you need it, you probably will never need it again. In the unpredictable journey of life, surprises come in different sizes and flavors, much like Forrest Gump’s infamous box of chocolates.
This blog takes a big bite out of each piece, to identify the top trends in life insurance, and the tools insurers need to engage customers – for life. We examine the full spectrum of the life insurance evolution: customer-first, enterprise management, and intelligence.
Customer-first
One-size does not fit all
In today’s dynamic landscape, insurers must perform the ironic task of nurturing human relationships through artificial intelligence. Generative AI (GenAI) is the new era of AI that is revolutionizing customer-centricity, by enhancing operational efficiency and making users co-pilots in control of their own journey. Technology with a human touch plays a critical role in a digitized world where one size does not fit all. By automating tasks and accurately assessing risk and fraud detection, GenAI boosts efficiency and risk mitigation, and ensures compliance and data security.
Age with grace
The rise in the elderly population is driving demand for aging-well insurance solutions and wealth-transfer options. By providing dedicated elder-care solutions with flexible payouts, insurers foster cross-generational trust and customer awareness. Insurers must be empowered to offer personalized financial planning advice, with a distinctly human touch. This data could be the foundation to build for the next generation of customers to meet their digital insurance needs.
According to Capgemini Research Institute, by 2050 an estimated 33% of the world population is projected to be represented by the over-50 population, doubling from 1990. Considering that 60% of people aged 65 or older have not sought professional retirement advice, this creates enormous potential for insurers.
Value-added innovation
Studies show that 74% of customers are actively seeking personalized, value-added services. Forward-thinking insurers must leverage innovative services to target multiple generations and gain deeper insights by engaging with ecosystems and analyzing customer behavior data.
Insurers can also provide customer training to help policyholders understand and use products effectively. By earning consumer trust, insurers boost engagement with services such as wellness initiatives, estate planning, and assisted living.
Wellness-as-a-Service partnerships
Only 8% of insurers are focused on wellness-centric value offerings, even though more than 67% of customers have expressed interest in wellness solutions. Partnering with wellness providers enables insurers to scale faster and offer additional services for monetization. Wellness-as-a-Service transforms life insurers into life partners by driving innovation and promoting healthy lifestyles.
Enterprise Management
Automation, accelerated
Predictive analytics and smart devices speed up automation and improve underwriting accuracy and efficiency by leveraging real-time data. Accelerated underwriting precision delivers many benefits, including more accurate risk assessment and pricing, cost-savings from reduced operational expenses, and faster, more efficient customer onboarding. Identifying risk with accuracy empowers insurers to address and prevent risk.
Industry of Intelligence
Low-code/no-code (LCNC)
This little acronym goes a long way in the acceleration of digital transformation. LCNC takes a starring role in core system transformations, enabling rapid implementation, streamlining the claims process, and improving beneficiary experiences. LCNC fosters faster product innovation through accelerated application development, enabling customers to see value from the new system very early in the process.
Research shows that 82% of insurance organizations have experienced improved efficiency with LCNC technology. One-third of insurers estimate a 21-40% speed increase in their operations due to LCNC implementation.
Read here about low-code/no-code for insurance.
Power up with APIs
Amp up the customer experience with APIs that enable data exchange between different applications. APIs help insurers assess and prioritize existing systems for digital transformation, to monitor progress as they implement at scale.
More than 50% of insurers are substantially increasing investments in APIs and other integration technologies, upgrading legacy systems to meet customer expectations and enhance efficiency.
Empowered by Cloud
Cloud adoption is another key element to boosting customer experience and empowering insurers to achieve operational excellence and cost-efficiency. Drive innovation and enable seamless access to insurance data and operations from any location. Cloud adoption provides robust security measures for fraud monitoring, boosts scalability to meet dynamic business needs, and ensures uninterrupted services. In 2020, cloud adoption stood at 27-32% in the insurance industry and surged to an impressive range of 85-88% in 2023.
SaaS by Sapiens
As a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for the insurance industry, Sapiens accompanies its customers’ digital engagement journey from end-to-end. Sapiens SaaS Platform for Life redefines the life insurance experience by breaking through legacy barriers for faster time to value with Sapiens’ secure, scalable, cloud-based SaaS platform.
Sapiens is keenly aware that a digital engagement model needs to be underpinned by an advanced technology framework. Our continued development of core, digital, data, and advanced analytics provide our customers with more dynamic, personalized engagement.
Sapiens empowers global insurers to meet their customers’ needs, wherever they are, at every stage of life. Our life platform is transforming life insurance with human-centered design, user-friendly platforms and comprehensive options for all of life’s milestones.
