The life insurance industry continues to struggle to increase policy counts, however, improving retention and deepening customer relationships can help reverse this trend along with new sales growth, according to a new study by Conning.
“Life-Annuity insurers have the basic building blocks to develop omnichannel marketing and distribution capabilities, but it is still a work in progress,” said Scott Hawkins, a Director, Insurance Research at Conning. “Fully developing omnichannel strategies requires further integration across platforms, investing in data analytics, and identifying opportunities to deepen the relationship with their customers.”
The Conning study, “Life-Annuity Distribution & Marketing Annual: Moving Towards Omnichannel” analyzes individual life and annuity sales trends by channel and product. Further, it explores the digitization of life industry marketing and distribution, insurer advertising spends, and the challenges facing the sector, such as regulation and expense pressures.
“Facing negative in-force policy counts and declining individual life sales, insurers will need to continue to invest in distribution channels,” said Steve Webersen, Head of Insurance Research at Conning.
“We found that certain channels are doing a better job in limiting lapses and reinstating policies. However, as the insurance buying age population increases in size, industry level in-force policy counts are not keeping pace. By enhancing the development of omnichannel competencies, life insurers can meet the evolving customer’s expectations both in product and service experiences.”
ABOUT CONNING
Conning (www.conning.com) is a leading investment management firm with a long history of serving the insurance industry. Conning supports institutional investors, including pension plans, with investment solutions and asset management offerings, risk modeling software, and industry research. Founded in 1912, Conning has investment centers in Asia, Europe and North America.