{"id":18476,"date":"2020-04-13T10:02:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T14:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/?post_type=innarticle&p=5369674"},"modified":"2020-04-13T10:02:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T14:02:15","slug":"life-insurers-covid-19-changing-how-consumers-apply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/04\/13\/life-insurers-covid-19-changing-how-consumers-apply\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Insurers: COVID-19 Changing How Consumers Apply"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A LIMRA survey found changes in life insurance application methods.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Consumers are turning to online life insurance applications as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a new LIMRA survey found.<\/p>\n

A third of companies reported a decline in face-to-face applications while a quarter reported an increase in online applications in March.<\/p>\n

LIMRA surveyed 47 U.S. life insurers and 12 Canadian life insurers to learn what, if any, changes they were making due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal and state social distancing guidelines.<\/p>\n

Based on the survey results, the most common response was that there was no significant change in overall applications in March. That said, there was a shift in how consumers applied for life insurance.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four percent of U.S. companies that accept online\/mobile applications experienced an increase, while half saw no change. The majority of companies saw no change in call center\/mail applications during the month of March.<\/p>\n

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In Canada for the same month, the majority of life insurers reported a decline in face-to-face applications. Five in 10 companies that accept online\/mobile applications experienced no change; 3 in 10 experienced increases. Of the 1 in 4 Canadian companies accepting applications through call centers\/mail, none saw any significant change in applications.<\/p>\n

Altering Practices<\/h2>\n

To make it easier for consumers to apply for a policy under these unusual circumstances, more than a quarter of U.S. life insurers have expanded their automated underwriting practices. One in five U.S. companies have postponed or waived paramedical requirements.<\/p>\n

Some companies reported they have added questions on COVID-19 exposure and travel to the underwriting process, are now requiring good health statements, accepting electronic health records, and are allowing historical exam and lab data in place of an exam. A small percentage of carriers are implementing face amount and premium limits for new coverage.<\/p>\n

In Canada, many companies have made\u2014or are planning to make\u2014changes to their underwriting practices. Most are waiving paramedical requirements for some cases, and half are postponing exams until they can be conducted.<\/p>\n

Canadian life insurers are also extending grace periods, but few are providing other types of relief for customers that have been financially impacted by COVID-19. This may change as several companies say that they are still reviewing possible changes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the original article at insurancenewsnet.com <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A LIMRA survey found changes in life insurance application methods. Consumers are turning to online life insurance applications as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a new LIMRA survey found. A third of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}