The Road Ahead: Life & Annuities Insurance 2026

Calvin Zhai: Hello! Welcome to the Sapiens Insurance 360 podcast. I’m your host, Calvin Zhai, Product Marketing Strategy Manager at Sapiens. I’m so glad that you’re out there listening; this is where we discuss the latest news, trends, and issues from across the insurance solutions and technology spectrum. And our latest episode, “The Road Ahead: Life & Annuities Insurance 2026,” starts now!

Well, here we are in Q4 of 2025, with a little more than one month left in the calendar year. For life and annuity insurers, it was a year that saw record net income approaching roughly $51.1 billion, and faster transfer of wealth from Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers to younger generations. AI technology remained a monkey on many insurers’ backs, as they know they need to eventually adopt it.

But for now, we remain risk averse. With interest rates shifting, demographic trends, unprecedented demand, and technology shaping how we serve customers, 2026 might be a year that tests our industrious agility and vision. With us today to help navigate this uncertainty is Ken Leibow, founder and CEO of InsurTech Express. Ken has over 38 years of insurance industrial experience, with an extensive background in insurance technology, for distribution and back-office systems. Prior to founding InsurTech Express, Ken worked for Genworth Financial, Mutual of Omaha, and was vice president of operations at Diversified Underwriters Services Inc. While he was COO of Integrated Insurance Technologies, then-owned by SelectQuote, Ken built the largest life insurance data exchange hub in the industry, processing over one million policies per year and $30 billion of annuities. Ken, welcome to the show and thanks for joining us today!

Ken Leibow: My pleasure, Kevin. Happy to be here and provide some insight!

Calvin Zhai: Great. So to start, AI has been the buzzword of 2025. While some carriers have completed their digital transformation, others are just starting. But what does real technology adoption look like for carriers heading into 2026? What separates a company that [is] generally transforming from those that are just experimenting?

Ken Leibow: Yeah, that’s a great question. What I’m seeing across the industry is a big difference between digital projects and true digital transformation. I mean, carriers that are really moving forward, not just layering new tech on top of legacy systems or legacy processes, but they’re really re-engineering the workflow from the ground up. For example, the most innovative companies are embedding agentic AI into their new business and policy admin systems. I mean, these tools, they don’t just automate, they think and act dynamically, and they guide underwriters, distribution partners, and service teams through data-driven decisions. So heading into 2026, I would say the winners will be those who align technology with business outcomes, not just those who experiment with AI just because it’s trendy.

Calvin Zhai: Awesome. Interesting. Thanks for sharing your take though, Ken. So next question. After years of exceptional growth, projections suggest that 2026 would be more about normalization and sustainable performance. From your perspective, how should companies balance the need to maintain profitability while still investing in innovation and growth for the long term?

Ken Leibow: Well, sustainability really is the theme, I would say, for 2026. I mean, after several years of aggressive investments, you know, most carriers are now asking, how do we maintain margin while still innovating? And the answer, in my opinion, is strategic prioritization. Not every innovation delivers equal ROI, but the focus needs to be on technologies that create measurable, lasting impact like automated underwriting and straight-through processing. We always defined straight-through processing as submission to commission. Anyway, at the same time, partnerships are key. I mean, I’m seeing more carriers collaborate with insurtechs and distributors instead of building everything internally. So that reduces cost, speeds deployment, which means speed to market, right? And keeps innovation flowing even during tighter budget cycles. So my advice is innovate smart, not too big, focus on initiatives that strengthen both the balance sheet and the customer experience.

Calvin Zhai: Thanks, Ken. Thanks for sharing what you see in the industry. So moving on, it’s obvious that the way consumers purchase life and annuity products is rapidly evolving. How do you see the distribution landscape changing in 2026 — whether it’s the role of independent agents or advisors, direct-to-consumer channels, or hybrid models? And how should carriers be thinking about their distribution strategies?

Ken Leibow:Well, you know, I hate to use the old cliche, but, you know, most life insurance is still, sold and not bought, right? So, you need to have an advisor in the picture, who can really help consumers.But as we move toward a digital experience, what we’re seeing on the wholesale side with these distributors is they’re providing platforms to recruit agents that allow an agent to put on their website, quoting tools, e-App tools, [and] content for consumers. Then the agent can run, let’s say, a targeted marketing campaign on social media and a client goes to the website.They may run a quote, submit [an] application, put their, contact information and that generates a lead for the agent to either follow up or help the consumer. And then we see some hybrid approaches where if the agent already has a relationship with their customer, they could start the application filling out the part one, and then they could hit a button and send the link to the client to answer more of the invasive medical questions, right? And then also have a cost center, available for the whole fulfillment process. So what I’m seeing is, bottom line is, the carriers that succeed will combine high-tech and high-touch experiences seamlessly. And those that stay siloed, they risk losing market share to more digitally fluent distributors.

Calvin Zhai: Excellent take there, Ken, thanks for sharing! Now, with over 4 million Americans turning 65 each year through 2027 and trillions in wealth transferring between generations, we’re seeing this unprecedented demographic opportunity. But are carriers truly prepared to serve this market?

Ken Leibow: Well, yeah, that is the trillion-dollar question. I mean, we’re watching the largest transfer of wealth in history. I mean, from Boomers to Gen X, from Boomers and Gen X, to Millennials and Gen Z’ers right? So but many carriers still communicate as if they’re selling in the 1990s! I mean, the next generation really expect simplicity, transparency, and speed. You know, they want to have that kind of Amazon experience, buy life insurance like they would shop for everything else right on their smartphone in minutes, with clear value and digital servicing. I mean, a few carriers are adapting, offering instant issue products, mobile engagement and personalized journeys, but many are still catching up. So this is also an opportunity to diversify distribution. I mean, bringing in more young, tech-savvy agents who understand how to reach the new audience. I mean, the carriers that reimagine their brand voice and modernize engagement will capture this generational opportunity.

Calvin Zhai: I believe, you know, keeping the customer in the center of all your sales processes will be important. So we’re running a little short on time, and here’s my final question for you. Underwriting has traditionally been one of the most labor-intensive and time-consuming aspects of our new insurance. With AI and predictive analytics advancing rapidly, how do you see underwriting evolving in 2026?

Ken Leibow: Yeah, I mean, underwriting is where AI is making one of the biggest impacts. We’re shifting from a rules-based to intelligence-based underwriting instead of hundreds of static rules, AI models can now evaluate data from electronic health records, from Rx prescription data, lab results, lifestyle data, and even the part with the part two questions in their life application. And they can do all this in real time. So what’s emerging is predictive, agentic underwriting. I mean, systems that can orchestrate data sources and learn from outcomes. And what that means is that fewer manual reviews, faster decisions, and better risk selection, right? So I would say by late 2026, I expect like 70% or more of simplified issue cases to use some of this automation, you know, and some may be completely, fully automated. Even traditionally, traditional underwriters, underwritten cases, will use AI for triage and decision support. The next evolution is about trust and transparency, building models that are explainable and compliant.

Calvin Zhai: Thank you so much Ken for sharing your insights and perspective on the market. As we look toward 2026, the L&A insurance industry needs to balance the need to adapt to changing market conditions and capitalizing on this unprecedented demographic opportunity and technological capabilities. Your perspective on how carriers can navigate this landscape, from AI implementation to product innovation to distribution evolution, gave us so much to think about as we plan for the year ahead.

For those of you who want learn more about Ken’s work and stay updated on insurtech trends, you can find InsurTech Express online and follow Ken’s insights on the latest developments that are shaping insurance. And as always, thanks for joining us. We have so much exciting content planned and we’d love to hear from you. Connect with us on social media, share your feedback, and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you can never miss an exciting, insightful episode. Until next time, this is Sapiens Insurance 360. Thanks for listening!