Page 38 - Insurance Times July 2023

How life insurers

can leverage

digital field

underwriting Sushil Valeja

Vice President,
Product Head - Insurance,
Anand Rathi Insurance Brokers.

Traditionally, Insurance Agents were used for data collection, prospect's profiling,and insurability
before the formal underwriting process began. Insurance Agents would walk in door to door to
compile necessary information about the prospects profile like their Income, Health, Occupation,
House Ownership, Cars etc.

n Today's time where we see everything digital, we do By having access to this data in hand & easily accessible in
I clothes or investing in insurance. The last point bears a the process, Insurance companies can instantly assign
everything online, whether it's ordering food, buying
applicants to appropriate product classes, as well as make a
closer examination as it's only in the last couple of years
that we've seen insurance become an increasingly digitized provisional decision on whether they can offer coverage.This
is known as Digital Field Underwriting.
experience from end to end.This evolution has been long
Insurance companies have two ways in setting up this
overdue!
process. First, they can set up an in-house data collection
Digitization is the need of the hour going forward and any efforts and storage system for processing the enormous amounts
in that direction will not even smoothen the acquisition and of data that is required. This option will give direct control
onboarding process but also help for penetration and retention. and oversight of entire data system. However, during
Traditionally, Insurance Agents were used for data collection, current times, when data needs are growing day by day, this
prospect's profiling,and insurability before the formal can be a huge undertaking that can quickly burden the in-
underwriting process began. Insurance Agents would walk in house team to handle due robust data management
door to door to compile necessary information about the requirements.
prospects profile like their Income, Health, Occupation,
The second option is to partner with a third-party
House Ownership, Cars etc.
intermediary that already has an extensive data storage
Digital Field Underwriting system in place. This will come at a cost, but it will give the
utmost flexibility for expanding the data needs.
Modern business world is completely data-driven &
digitalized, entire industry has sprung up to fulfill all the Even as we look to the future of the life insurance industry,
necessary data points the companies require. For insurance it's also worth looking back to see how it has changed and
companies, the most critical data for underwriting an evolved over the years. The disappearance of door-to-door
applicant remains the same. Example: Personal sales agents may have been a history, but there's no reason
Information(where they live, the occupants of the house, to think we can't reimagine some age old practices for the
their ages), Financial Information (salaries, occupations, new era. Field underwriting is one such example of an industry
household income, mortgage data) and Medical Information. practice that needs to come back in a new format.
34 July 2023 The Insurance Times