TECHNOLOGY
Given Millennials ’ smartphone-centric lives , expect more demand for servicing their own life and annuity illustration and submission transactions , online .
Hybrid BGA from page 38
The rise of financial planning & insurance platforms : The financial advisor space has already moved to the financial planning FinTech platform . Whether it is EnvestNet ’ s MoneyGuidePro™ , eMoney™ , RightCapital™ , Orion™ or any of the other digital planning platforms , the shift is complete . The life and annuity insurance advisor is next .
Expect your producers ( especially the growing ranks of Millennials ) to demand access to products through a platform experience — provided by the BGA . Whether for illustrating common designs , transacting an instant issue Term policy or learning more about the living benefits of a carrier ’ s policy . Moreover , expect that producers will require service in their platform of choice . Email is on the retreat . New life and annuity sales and servicing platforms will be the medium of transaction .
The shift to remote working & client engagement : The work-life balance trend has been underway for a decade now . COVID-19 permanently altered the model of the “ corporate office ” being virtual ; and the financial advisor and life / annuity agent being “ Zoom-empowered ”.
Producers today are already engaging with their clients in an omni-channel manner ( face to face , phone , Zoom , email ). Your wholesaling and back-office service operations will need to meet this new service expectation and fast .
Transformation of the traditional Life & Annuity “ illustration experience ”: For decades , the complexity of the illustration workflow for permanent life and annuity products has ensured the value of a BGA ’ s back-office case design operation . Certainly , the role of “ case design ” and servicing producer illustration requests has been core to the very architecture of the BGA . Yet , the emergence of an advisor-centric digital illustration experience will be a positive catalyst for the BGA in a number of ways :
Enhanced service focus on expertise — eliminating time spent on basic case designs Unleashing a “ front-office focus ” — refocusing on sales generating efforts ( vs service ) Greater scalability & revenue growth — driven by the extension of advisor-centric quoting Increased producer “ stickiness ” and retention — as advisors digitally self-service Enhanced auditability — to support the growing Best-Interest ( BI ) environment
Term life insurance will shift direct , online & self-service : The future of term life insurance in many ways is quite similar to the evolution of direct-to-consumer ( D2C ) car insurance distribution . Today we are bombarded by TV and online advertisements by carriers and new digital “ aggregators ” to purchase car insurance . The experience is quick , simple , and an instant issue ( bind ). Term life insurance is rapidly heading in the same direction .
Every BGA should be thinking about where they need to be in the next 3-5 years . Permanent life insurance , annuities and LTC products will remain advised sales well into the future . The future of term life insurance , however , will most likely be a consumergenerated digital sale , online or via an “ app ”, sold direct , via your bank or even retail chains .
What does the new “ Hybrid BGA ” look like then ? Tomorrow ’ s winners will straddle several hybrid dimensions : Digitally teaching “ how to sell ”, while focusing the back-office on complex cases Servicing producers via people ( relationship ) & in their FinTech platform of choice Providing both a B2B model experience & “ D2C ” sales enablement for producers Ramping up self-service education resources online , while offering “ virtual live ” training Supporting traditional policy analytics , while shifting to more “ visual ” and intuitive storytelling sales approach
No doubt this is a limited list . But today ’ s pace of change is only quickening . And every BGA should be preparing for tomorrow ’ s reality .
40 Perspectives Q2 2021