COVER STORY
Distribution
Manufacturing
Technology
TECH INSIGHTS:
Where is the
insurance industry
on the learning
curve?
John C. Ziambras,
President & CEO,
AIMCOR Group Ashe Manandhar, Head
of Product Management,
Legal & General America Carsten Nielsen, Marketing
Director, Broker Business,
GetInsured
Reid Tattersall,
Vice President,
BackNine Insurance Nagesh Prabhu, Assistant
Vice President, Pacific Life
Broad Market Technology Tim Wallace, CEO, iPipeline
Lagging or picking up the pace?
Coming from different vantage points, the group offered varying
views on the current usage of technology, and how it can be best
utilized within the life, health, and annuities markets.
Distribution perspective
In comparison to other industries, life, health and annuities
have been seen as slow to embrace technology. Is this a fair
assessment of the business and its willingness to use the
software and technology advancements available in the
market? 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.
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Perspectives
Q3 2019
Ziambras, AIMCOR Group: The processing of an annuity sale is clearly
more transactional than a life insurance one so, naturally, we have
seen significantly more technological strides in the annuity than the
life space. Annuities have also become much more of a mainstream
product in the greater retail financial institution space, driven
by compliance, standardization and automation requirements.
Life insurance continues to be the laggard but, at the same time,
presents the greatest opportunity in the financial services industry
from a technology adoption standpoint.
I am absolutely convinced that the use of technology in
identifying, engaging and generating the sale the life insurance
consumer of tomorrow is what will ultimately allow our industry
to reach its exponential growth potential. At the same time,
and when it comes to the processing and servicing components
of the product life cycle, technology will deem irrelevant and
obsolete those who continue to view it as an existential threat
rather than a business imperative and a transformation enabler.
Tattersall, BackNine: The industry has come a long way. There are
so many areas to still improve on, however. Find your niche and
get after it!
Manufacturing perspective
Manandhar, Legal & General America: I think the life insurance
industry has made significant strides over the past few years.
If you look at the life insurance buyer’s journey today, many
aspects of the purchasing process are simpler and more digital
than they used to be. However, if you compare how far other
industries have come, we still have a long way to go.
As an example, look at the e-commerce industry and the way
Amazon has transformed its customer journey, not only for the
end user but also for online sellers. The AWS Digital Customer
Experience (DCX) Competency gives sellers the ability to nurture
customer relationships throughout the buyer lifecycle and
improve retention by leveraging tools for content management,
marketing automation, commerce solutions and data analytics.
The result is a seamless and customized buying experience. This
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