The Hartford has announced that it will now be able to offer its customers permanent life insurance in as little as five days, by way of its brand new First Issue process.
As the current average in the industry for permanent life insurance delivery is 48 days, the new Hartford process has reduced that time to a mere fraction. It shows that the insurer has listened to the common complaint that they receive from their customers: that life insurance takes too long to purchase, and that they have done something about it.
Brian Murphy, life insurance head at The Hartford, said that consumers today are accustomed to being able to make their purchases over the internet and have them in their hands within two days. He added that the insurer doesn’t see any reason that a life insurance customer should need to wait longer than a month in order to obtain their policy.
Therefore, by developing a new method of risk factor assessment for an individual, “and reordering the underwriting process, we can now provide consumers with life insurance coverage in a fraction of the time it used to take.”
The response from customers to the First Issue process has been very positive. Earlier this year, a pilot of the process was conducted, and more than 9 out of 10 people who used it to apply for a policy with Hartford actually purchased the policy. Using the traditional approach to selling, only 68 percent of applicants actually purchased the policy.
