During the life insurance application process, it’s critical for agents to establish a deep understanding of their client so that they can present a comprehensive view of the applicant to the insurer. This practice, better known as field underwriting, involves the initial assessment of the medical and financial aspects of a potential life insurance buyer and is the agent’s responsibility.
Your agents may have found themselves in this same situation:
- They meet a customer looking for life insurance.
- They’ve had a good chat with this potential customer, explaining how their products can help them to better secure their financial future.
- Your agents ask questions, but they’re not sure if they’re asking the right ones.
- Your agents choose a rate class that seems right based on what their customers told them and start quoting.
- After going through the whole application process, your agents learn that the prospect gets a worse class rating with a higher premium, or even worse, they are denied coverage.
It can be incredibly frustrating for both the agent and the customer.
Has this ever happened to them?
If agents knew in advance which rate underwriting class was right for each carrier, or whether their client should be accepted or declined, this common scenario could be avoided. This information, known up-front, helps to better manage client expectations, which leads to a better overall experience for both agents and customers. Thorough and detailed field underwriting will build trust with clients, while simultaneously boosting an agent’s reputation.
To successfully achieve this, you may want to consider a field underwriting tool, which will help your agents to:
- Set Realistic Expectations with Their Clients
Effective field underwriting will help agents to set realistic expectations for their clients. It’s important to be upfront with clients, especially regarding the rates they are most likely to receive. Setting realistic expectations builds trust while avoiding disappointment, should the client get declined.
- Improve Field Underwriting Efficiency with Agent Self-Service
The typical field underwriting process involves a lot of back-and-forth communication between agents and BGA field underwriters or carriers, even for simple or single-impairment situations. When agents can get direct access to both published and unpublished field underwriting rules even for multiple impairments, and message carriers directly — they are seamlessly able to move directly from field underwriting to quoting and applying without any process delays or hiccups along the way.
- Identify an Appropriate Carrier Choice
At times, agents may select a carrier based only on price, without considering if they are the best fit for their client. This practice can lead to higher-than-expected premiums for the client if the chosen carrier isn’t lenient regarding the client’s history. Field underwriting helps the agent identify the right insurance company for their client, which saves time by avoiding reapplications and re-underwriting.
- Increase Revenue
Providing precise data and information from the beginning of the field underwriting process helps to ensure faster processing since it enables underwriters to identify appropriate carriers more quickly and accurately predict rate classes. It also enhances the probable approval at the preferred rate. This positively results in happier clients (and more potential referrals), better overall results, and higher revenue.
- Reduce Human Error Through Data-Driven Decisions
Insurance underwriters are challenged to manage risk, protect against loss, and earn the maximum potential when adding new customers. Field underwriting reduces human error by providing decisions based on data, eliminating personal opinions and mistakes, while allowing underwriters to analyze risks objectively and spot patterns in application responses that humans might miss. This creates a data-driven process where insurers make decisions faster.
A field underwriting solution can guarantee flexibility and responsiveness to the industry’s changing requirements by continuously updating underwriting outcomes and term quotes when working through its flexible questionnaire.
XRAE® from iPipeline is designed for use by agents as well as distributors, offering a seamless and comprehensive underwriting experience that maximizes productivity. And we’ve recently transformed our XRAE solution. This enhancement provides a fresh and modern new look to its UI/UX interface –and we’ve designed it to be more user-friendly while ensuring compliance with WCAG standards for accessibility.
This important upgrade provides many amazing benefits, including the ability to:
- Scout multiple carriers and underwriting guidelines
- View detailed case overviews
- Ensure the client health class is accurate – before application submission
- Easily communicate with carriers, directly from the platform
- Effortlessly access XRAE on agent portals with e-SSENTIALS®
While XRAE’s new interface will continue to be versatile, we’ve designed it to easily adapt to the growing and diverse needs of our customers. We’re confident that these enhancements will make underwriting faster and simpler – to help you secure more business!
I’d love to talk to you more about how XRAE can help your business!
Contact us directly or click here for more information.
About the Author
Laura D’Anna, Senior Director of Product Management at iPipeline, is passionate about her career in software product management. With more than 20 years of experience in the insurance technology industry, she joined iPipeline in 2012 and has held roles of increasing responsibility on the product management team. A Michigan Wolverine (Go Blue!), she relocated to Park City, Utah, in pursuit of the famous Utah powder. Beyond her professional life, Laura is an enthusiastic skier, a dedicated mother, a dog lover, and an avid fan of hiking, camping, film, and live music.
