We would love to hear from you. Click on the ‘Contact Us’ link to the right and choose your favorite way to reach-out!

wscdsdc

media/speaking contact

Jamie Johnson

business contact

Victoria Peterson

Contact Us

855.ask.wink

Close [x]
pattern

Industry News

Categories

  • Industry Articles (21,155)
  • Industry Conferences (2)
  • Industry Job Openings (35)
  • Moore on the Market (414)
  • Negative Media (144)
  • Positive Media (73)
  • Sheryl's Articles (800)
  • Wink's Articles (353)
  • Wink's Inside Story (274)
  • Wink's Press Releases (123)
  • Blog Archives

  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • August 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • November 2008
  • September 2008
  • May 2008
  • February 2008
  • August 2006
  • What’s keeping millennials out of the life insurance market? SE2 explores industry future

    November 11, 2018 by Morgan Chilson

    Millennial families aren’t buying life insurance at the same rates as previous generations, and that shift affects the industry.

    SE2, a Topeka-based tech company working in that field, wanted to know why. What it discovered through a survey, said chief information officer Vinod Kachroo, was that in some ways, the industry is tackling that market in the wrong way.

    The survey found that millennial families — identified in the survey as people ages 22 to 37 — were interested in life insurance but cited financial challenges as reasons for not purchasing it. Thirty percent pointed to student loan debt as the issue, while 29 percent said they were saving for a home, 19 percent highlighted mortgage payments and 30 percent said they just couldn’t afford it.

    But one thing that stood out for Kachroo was that fewer than 10 percent said they weren’t interested in life insurance at all and, beyond financial problems, many said they weren’t educated enough about life insurance.

    “There was a myth in the industry that millennials and also mid-market people do not really care about life insurance,” he said. “I think this survey for us helped us basically get some more details around that myth. So millennials very much are interested in both mortality risk as well as their income risk. They very much care about the guarantees and comfort levels they get by buying life insurance and annuities.”

    But the industry doesn’t have a strong approach for reaching millennials and the mid-market families about their products, Kachroo said. Products are often sold through distribution channels, which have no motivation to go after the lower mid-market customer, but instead focus on the high mid-market or higher-end customers, he said. Those markets are what Kachroo called “high-touch service models,” meaning one-on-one contact and customer care.

    But that isn’t what millennials want, he said.

    “They’re looking for more self-service, self-research, and they’re looking for a better engagement model,” he said. “Their benchmarks are Facebooks, Amazon and Googles of the world, and saying that you’re gong to get a paper document in the mail at some point, and saying it is going to take four to six weeks to get a policy turns them completely off the product.”

    SE2 has heavily invested in a digital platform for life and annuity insurers, Kachroo said, that allows them to launch new products targeting specifically mid-market and millennial clients.

    “Working with one of our large insurance company clients, we were able to launch a new product in less than four months,” he said. “It asks you a bunch of simplified questions and can help you issue a policy, take a payment and be able to print a policy between five and 10 minutes. We have taken the process of four to six weeks to literally 10 minutes.”

    Such market adaptations are necessary to meet the needs of the millennial age group, but that doesn’t mean life and annuity insurance is going to go away.

    “When you look at life and annuity insurance, it’s not something people are excited about and wake up every morning and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to buy a life policy today,’ ” he said. “It is something which is not bought, but it is sold. That’s not going to necessarily change. The mode in which it is sold is going to change.”

    The survey, Kachroo said, confirmed what will need to happen to capture the millennial market.

    “It confirms that millennials do care about life insurance, they just don’t know about how to buy it, who to buy it from, and also what is the best way to buy it,” he said. “Our goal is to move from a high-tech, high-priced service model to a low-tech to no-tech service model where the pricing for the model can also be much lower than what it is today.”

    Kachroo said SE2 is positioned in the marketplace to help that movement occur as it has based growth on looking forward and anticipating needs.

    “We are thinking the next step. We are thinking the next generation. We are helping the industry, which is so much bogged down by their legacy, to help them get into the next generation,” he said. “A lot of these shifts which are happening, whether it is getting into the mid market, enabling millennials to buy these products, are moving from a commission-based model to a fee-based model. SE2 is in the middle of enabling a lot of these journeys.”

    Among Kachroo’s takeaways from the survey results was that the industry has been based on paper and face-to-face interactions. As it moves to a technological, low-touch environment, SE2 is positioned to help the industry make that shift.

    “We are very focused on leveraging the data in the industry,” he said. “Whether it is artificial intelligence or machine loading algorithm, there is a huge opportunity to leverage the data which is already out there.”

    Originally Posted at The Topeka Capital-Journal on November 10, 2018 by Morgan Chilson.

    Categories: Industry Articles
    currency