What a difference a year like 2020 makes and how the life insurance market has had to pivot to support sales and distribution in a virtual world. Prior to the pandemic consumers and agents were demanding insurance experiences equal advanced digital capabilities in other industries, including self-service capabilities and anytime/anywhere virtual communication. From an insurance standpoint it now looks like they are getting what they wanted, driven by necessity due to the pandemic. As an outcome of 2020 one of the critical issues to address in the 2021 planning process, was to choose which technologies are best aligned with insurers digital business strategy and which are projected to offer the most value for growth and support of their current and/or new distribution channels.

We interviewed and polled a number of insurers at the end of 2020 and found insurers have adjusted investment focus to accelerate the way they do business digitally. In this report we focus on the specific pandemic impacts in life sales and distribution along with how carriers are thinking about direct-to-consumer channels.