Customer expectations are shaped by the immediacy, convenience, and simplicity that come when we bank, shop, and even file our taxes digitally. TurboTax may have made the process of filing taxes easier, but the same can’t be said for buying life insurance. The underwriting process just takes too long and is too hard to complete. The result? Many shoppers abandon the process. For insurers, all the data, medical exams, and manual processes of underwriting end up being a big cost. That’s why life insurers are implementing automated underwriting capabilities. These platforms deliver better, faster customer experiences while improving the efficiency and costs for the insurer.

We evaluated 13 providers — Accenture, Appian, EXL, Hannover Re, iPipeline, Munich Re, Newgen, Oracle, Pegasystems, RGA, Sapiens, SCOR, and Swiss Re — and detailed our findings in our just-published “The Forrester Wave™: Automated Life Insurance Underwriting Systems, Q4 2019.”

What did we learn? That insurers have to look for solutions providers that:

  • Bring greater intelligence to underwriting with AI capabilities. Rules are the brains of automated underwriting. But it’s now no longer enough for the decisioning engine to be rule-based.
  • Prioritize underwriter actions by automating exception handling. The job of the underwriter is all about identifying the exceptions. When applications fall outside the insurer’s rules, a way to automatically triage exceptions needs to step in.
  • Deliver business impact with an intelligent workbench. Optimizing what human underwriters do requires a console that helps them work efficiently.

If automating your life insurance underwriting is on your roadmap for 2020, now’s a good time to talk. Or join our December 12 webinar, where we’ll dive a little deeper into what we learned as well as take your questions.