technology

Lest anyone think the previous exchange is fanciful or seems a bit paranoid, it is already happening. It is known as using accelerated underwriting using external data and over two dozen U.S. insurers are currently using it.

The pressure is on for carriers to provide the best customer experience, while implementing consistent, comprehensive and accurate underwriting policies.  Advanced e-underwriting systems can help insurers respond.

Epigenetics is poised to improve the underwriting process, moving beyond deep venous puncture blood collection and a lengthy approval process that takes months to complete.

Perspectives magazine checked in with several BGAs, carriers and technology vendors to see how we sit on the learning curve, as well as discovering what lies ahead in technology to help you make the grade.

The Life Predictive Analytics Survey Report from Willis Towers Watson

There was a time in the very early days of life-insurance underwriting, somewhere actually in the 1700s, when the only useful and predictive piece of data recognized was age. And using it affected a simple equation: as the certainty of death approached year by year, so was risk duly assessed. It would take another two hundred years or so before we began to understand that gender also directly impacts the science of mortality. We now utilize a wealth of information to analyze and quantify risk, and yet, it appears, we may have still only scratched the surface. Today, we could be standing at the precipice of a quantum leap in how we understand, interpret and eventually underwrite an ever-expanding inventory of exposures.

Historically, insurance premiums were differentiated only by age, with gender (now removed in some markets) and smoking incorporated later. The introduction of a numerical rating system 100 years ago meant underwriters could immediately better differentiate medical risk. This allowed them to broaden their offers of cover beyond “only healthy individuals”, thereby realising the significant economic potential and much greater inclusion by extending cover to so-called substandard risks.

RGA's Marc Sofer, Head of Data and Strategic Analytics, Asian Markets, discusses how the newest data sets, together with existing data and novel analytics, are impacting the industry’s growth and development.

Facial analytics has the potential to streamline the underwriting process. Some insurers are investigating this new technology.

Insurers seem to be chasing appearances, investing eye-watering sums of money into projects to improve the application process, but these sleek, web-based systems can mask a distressing reality: Underwriting technology underpinning the decision process is not attracting the same attention. RGA's Bruce Bosco calls for a greater emphasis on automated underwriting to improve the customer experience and help bridge the protection gap.