Future of Brokerage - Nailba

needs to be Fast, Seamless and Easy.
eTicket and Fulfillment
Process
The next step is to easily turn a
quote or illustration into a life
insurance application. There are
three electronic roads you can
drive down: fillable forms, eApplications,
and drop tickets (eTickets).
Fillable forms (with business
rules via a smart-form) are more
widely used with other distribution
channels at point of sale. “eApplication”—completing
a Part 1 Life
app electronically at the point of
sale—has not gained much adoption
in the BGA channel, although
it is being offered. Some BGAs
have stated that agents get confused
on the process. The trend
on eTickets has grown significantly
in the last three years. Dex Umekubo,
CLU, ChFC, Senior Managing
Partner of Producers XL said, "The
adoption rate of the e-ticket (drop
ticket) applications we have had in
our agency was astounding in our
estimation. Last quarter over 30%
of our term applications arrived by
way of e-methods. The benefit to
the producer is tremendous. Using
e-ticket transmissions for transactional
business benefits today’s
producer in many ways, especially
considering our current economic
position."
Many carriers offer eTicket platforms
like Genworth’s “Life Quick
Request SM ” and American General’s
“AG QuickTicket.” Carriers also
put their products on multi-carrier
eTicket platforms such as Aplifi AF-
FIRM TM , Ebix’s LifeSpeed and iPipeline’s
iGO. The quoting integration
with eTicket platforms provides a
similar experience for agents across
systems; however, the secret sauce
is in the fulfillment process and workflow.
Service providers differentiate
themselves in how they use their call
centers for fulfillment. Other workflow
models include eSignature, Voice
Signature, Mobile Parameds, and In-
House fulfillment. Kristen Kennedy,
Term Team Manager at Diversified
Brokerage Services, Inc. said, “For
our FASTerm drop ticket process,
we really like that all carriers are
so similar when dropping the ticket.”
Regarding scheduling the exam,
Kristen added, “We like when carriers
are able to schedule the exam
at the end of the call (use schedule
now) rather than having another
call placed later to schedule the
exam.” Term life insurance products
represent most eTickets, however,
guaranteed universal life (UL) insurance
adoption is growing quickly.
Genworth recently launched its
Index UL product available in “Life
Quick Request SM ”. The drop ticket
process can result in more “in good
order” applications, shorter cycle
times (up to 50% shorter) and
higher placement ratios. Agents can
spend less than 15 minutes on completing
an eTicket, which frees them
to focus on selling more business.
Growing Adoption
Straight through processing starts
with quoting but ultimately finishes
with ePolicy delivery. LIDMA’s 2012
Process Improvement Survey shows
that eDelivery decreases cycle-time
by up to 70%. The article on ePolicy
Delivery in the last issue of Perspectives
discusses the features and
benefits of ePolicy Delivery. The entire
package of integrating quoting
with a drop ticket and then delivering
the policy electronically Fast,
Seamless and Easy are drivers for
growing adoption.
Growing adoption for electronic
straight through processing from
Sales ➡ Submitting a Case ➡ Policy
Delivery hinges on these 6
components:
■■
Training and Promotion
■■
Standard platform experience
■■
Flexible Workflow
■■
Notifications and real time status
■■
Single sign-on
■■
Mobile
There are several industry technology
organizations working on
initiatives to simplify, standardize,
and grow adoption. In the last
18 months, these groups have collaborated
on initiatives with volunteers
from carriers, NAILBA member
agencies, other distributions,
and vendors. They include ACORD,
DTCC, Life Brokerage Technology
Committee (LBTC), LIDMA Process
Improvement Team, and LTCi Business
Technology Committee. These
are open forums to solve issues involving
technology that impact operational
efficiencies from point
of sale to back offices. New business
distribution workflow, imaging,
mobile solutions, ePolicy Delivery,
commissions, and standard
data transactions are just some current
and past initiatives. These initiatives
result in lower costs, faster
cycle times, more placed business,
and increased adoption rates.
Innovation has to be a constant
in the future of brokerage technology.
Leveraging current technologies
like cloud computing, mobile devices,
social media, and real time data
exchange, as well as keeping an eye
out for new technologies that are
just around the corner, helps drive
improvement in service automation.
Better service should result in generating
repeat business from your
agents. Always stay the course—
Fast, Seamless, and Easy.
Ken Leibow is a
Director of Operations
at Genworth for service
marketing and
development. He previously was
a VP of Operations at Diversified
Underwriters and Chief Operating
Officer at IIT. Ken has more than 26
years of insurance industry experience,
along with an extensive technology
background of back office
systems. He has been a leader and
contributor to insurance technology
standards for NAILBA and ACORD.
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