New Business and Underwriting Systems: North America Life Insurance Edition

Since the onset of COVID-19, the life insurance industry had to make some dramatic changes. The pandemic forced life insurers to digitize rapidly, particularly in the new business and underwriting processes. As insurers competed for business, they looked for ways to remove the need for face-to-face sales, simplify their application process, and offer competitively priced, fluidless, and fully underwritten products. Automated underwriting became a key part of these changes.

Implementing technology that automates new business and underwriting functions helps insurers digitize their new business and underwriting, reduce unit costs, and improve margins. Automated underwriting processes significantly improve the client experience because they enable a faster, digital purchase experience—an expectation that grew exponentially during the pandemic.

This report marks the sixth time that Celent has reviewed new business and automated underwriting (NBUW) systems available to life insurers in North America. Celent believes this report is extremely timely as insurers reevaluate their underwriting processes post COVID-19 pandemic.

Underwriting System Conceptual Diagram

Source: Celent