Directlife launches screening process to improve protection conversion

Quote+ pre-screens applicants and seeks to address the huge fall off between initial application and final conversion which for some products can result in less than half of applicants purchasing a policy.

The universal application process is a free service for insurers and allows them to retain complete in-house control over their underwriting criteria. Ten of the UK’s largest protection insurers will participate in the initial trial which will include term, family protection and critical illness insurance products.

The new universal application process will initially be trialled by one of the UK’s largest aggregators with a likely roll-out to the adviser community later this year.

The new process addresses the fundamental issue of providing a price to a customer without having obtained meaningful data and based on the ‘one size fits all’ assumption.
By adding 14 simple pre-screening questions, not only will the technology be able to provide much more accurate pricing, but it will also direct customers to insurers that are most likely to cover the applicant.

The universal application process will therefore achieve:

•    The missing dimension of acceptance criteria added to illustrations;

•    Clean lives can be fast-tracked with immediate acceptance without application;

•    Vastly improved service for lives that need a full application, tele-underwriting or further advice.

Rob Quayle, managing director, Directlife, comments:

“The ability to provide an immediate indicative price to customers is essential. However, until the launch of Quote+, the new universal application process, the industry has only been able to use limited screening questions, which have often produced quotes that are subsequently changed, as well as a customer journey that is not always conducive to the final purchase of the product. Our new system, which has widespread industry backing, will prove highly beneficial to advisers when we roll it out once we have piloted it with one of the UK’s leading aggregators.”