COVID-19 Favors Digital Life Sales Over Call Center Sales: LIMRA

Face-to-face meetings came in last.

By Allison Bell | April 14, 2020 at 07:24 AM

Consumers who are sheltering in place could buy life insurance over the telephone just as easily as through digital systems.

But U.S. life insurers are more likely to say they increased sales through online systems and mobile devices than through call centers, or through direct-mail-based sales processes.

Analysts at LIMRA have reported that finding in a summary of results from a survey of 47 U.S. life insurers.

Resources

·        A copy of the LIMRA survey summary is available here.

·        An article about March life insurance application activity is available here.

About 24% of the insurers said the number of applications coming in through digital channels increased in March.

Only 9% said applications through call centers and mail increased in March.

Just 7% said sales through face-to-face meetings were up.

The percentage of insurers reporting that sales through a particular channel had decreased was 35% for face-to-face meetings, 13% for call centers, and just 7% for online and mobile systems.

Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor's insurance editor, previously was LifeHealthPro's health insurance editor. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached at abell@alm.com or on Twitter at @Think_Allison.

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