Where life insurance can evolve operations in 2024

Until recently, we as life insurance agents have spent the bulk of our days traveling to in-person meetings, filling and refilling out time-consuming paper applications and communicating with clients via fax machine. 

Fast forward to today and companies at the frontlines of life insurance innovation are building tech-forward products to reconstruct the industry — turning antiquated processes into a thing of the past.

As I reflect on the past few years, for myself and my company, I’m left feeling grateful for the strides we’ve made on behalf of both agents and policyholders. There’s no denying the difficulties that came with working in the life insurance space during one of history’s largest healthcare crises. But as we settle into 2024, equipped with learnings from our most recent operational challenges, key areas of opportunity are emerging — and life insurance providers are evolving in reaction.

Where life insurance companies stand to grow in 2024

A great deal of technology-driven change is happening throughout life insurance engagements at every point of sale – from acquisition to client follow-up to initial marketing efforts. While the life insurance industry may have digitized at a slower rate than other insurance verticals, we now have technical innovation on our side, powering us to keep up with evolving customer demands.

Two key areas of growth I see most directly shaping the future of life insurance sales and client engagement are:

1. Expanding the scope of who we can cover. Pre-pandemic, the majority of an agent’s week was spent filling up their calendar with leads and hunting down prospective clients across multiple counties, cities and even states. In my earliest days selling life insurance, it was not unusual for me to drive three to four hours, or even hop on a plane, to meet with clients. 

Today, selling policies virtually is a heck of a lot simpler — you can be an agent working in North Carolina doing business with customers in Alaska and Hawaii. Geographical boundaries are no longer a top consideration for agents looking to fill up their pipeline, which means we can service more customers in more locations.

With the potential to support a wider pool of clients, growing an insurance business now requires ever-evolving technology and modes of communication, targeted marketing strategies and the data to drive accuracy and efficiency across all advancements.

2. Expediting the speed of sale. Pre-pandemic, technological support existed in the life insurance space, but in a much more limited (and still largely manual) fashion.
Even as e-applications rose in popularity, technology could still only get agents so far. Whether filed manually or online, it might take two to three weeks to hear back on a policy decision — or potentially several months in the case of a fully underwritten product.

With the introduction of recent, more sophisticated technologies, however, prospective clients can now complete an application in as little as 10 minutes and receive instant approval for a policy worth upward of $2 million. Additionally, the time we used to spend managing pending business can now be used to service a higher volume of current and potential customers at scale.

Today, the average insurance agent can handle between eight to 10 meaningful customer engagements per week, with a top-performing agent managing as many as 30 clients at once.

As we continue to remove friction from the sales process, the question becomes: How do we make the most of these reduced operational burdens? With more business conducted in less time and with less effort, a new degree of freedom is created – one that pushes agents closer to the lifestyle they want, while allowing them to support and service more clients and their loved ones.

A digitally driven life insurance experience still requires intention

While the rate and potential of technological development in the life insurance industry show no signs of slowing, I continue to revisit this sentiment: While our transactions are growing in efficiency, our relationship-building efforts with current and future clients must remain intentional.

Naturally, it’s easier to connect and build a relationship with someone when you’re sitting face-to-face. It’s easier to build trust. It’s easier to look someone in the eye and have them feel confident that you have their best interests — and the best interests of their loved ones — at heart. 

For what technology offers in terms of efficiency gains and productivity improvements, we have a deep responsibility to use technology wisely and to ensure it creates the types and quality of experiences our customers need. We must develop new strategies for moving engagements beyond an initial sale and ask ourselves how we’re building client relationships for life.

For example, while the introduction of more sophisticated technologies into the life insurance experience necessitates that agents get in touch with prospects quickly, that can’t come at the cost of acting authentically when working with those in need. As insurance agents, we must find new ways to increase our responsiveness via newer communication tactics (such as text and email) without sacrificing the level of care and attention we’ve always offered our customers. 

Ideally, advancements in technology free us up to do just that. With digital solutions increasing our reach and speed of sales, we as insurance agents can focus our resources on relationship building and nurturing, instead of dealing with operational red tape. No longer are our clients subject to complicated applications and lengthy underwriting processes that stall coverage. Today, we can offer improved product-client pairing, an expanded capacity to update policies in accordance with our clients’ evolving needs and so much more.

But doing so takes ongoing intention, and that’s something we can never lose sight of.