Erin Ardleigh says one of her new duties is to know who will do
what virtually.
Erin Ardleigh is helping her insurance clients
replace the brick-and-mortar infrastructure that was with something virtual.
Today, she’s providing about 100% of her
services through the web, or through the telephone.
“We find that clients are perfectly happy with
that,” Ardleigh said in a recent interview.
Ardleigh is the president of Dynama Insurance,
a life and health agency with offices near the corner of 57th Street and
Madison Avenue in New York City.
New York City and COVID-19
New York City and New Yorkers have used
rigorous social distancing measures to get the city’s COVID-19 outbreak well
under control. On Saturday, only 229 people, or about 1% of the 21,272 people
tested for the virus that causes COVID-19, actually had the virus, according to
the New York State Department of Health.
But, in April, because of COVID-19, New York
City recorded more than 20,000 deaths, or about five times as many deaths as it
usually records in a month.
New Yorkers continue to take the pandemic
seriously. Most wear masks when they’re out in public. They’re careful to
stay six feet away from other people. And about 75% of the residents of many of
the city’s residential buildings have left for summer homes, parents’ homes,
AirBnB units, or other places outside of New York City.
Dynama
Ardleigh is helping some of those New Yorkers
buy and manage life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance,
health insurance, and related products and services.
Ardleigh has a bachelor’s degree in
communication and culture from the City University of New York.
She started out as marketing specialist, and
she entered the insurance brokerage business through marketing. She has been
out on her own since 2013, and the started Dynama in 2014.
Ardleigh is also a member of the board of the
Estate Planning Council of New York City.
Her typical client is someone who, when buying
life insurance, needs more than $1 million in coverage.
What’s Changed
Ardleigh said that she can still finds the
kinds of products her clients need.
But prices and details have changed.
Many carriers offer some kind of virtual
purchasing process. But only a few let consumers apply for large amounts of
coverage through virtual processes.
“People may not be familiar with all of the
choices,” Ardleigh said.
Ardleigh said one of her roles now is to know
exactly which carriers will let people apply for more than $1 million in
coverage through virtual processes.
Ardleigh said she also has to keep tabs on
changes, and stability, in underwriting rules.
No carriers have penalized New Yorkers for
being from New York, for example, but some want to wait until applicants have
completed planned travel to other countries before processing applications, Ardleigh
said.
Ardleigh thinks the COVID-19 application
process shifts have contributed to soft life sales to people ages 60 and older.
“I think that younger people maybe had a
wake-up call,” Ardleigh said. “They made buying life insurance a priority.”
And life insurers’ efforts to reduce use of
in-person exams helped increase sales to younger applicants, Ardleigh said.
“No one wants to have an in-person exam,” she
said.
But most life insurers restrict older
consumers’ ability to use the virtual sales systems, especially for purchases
of large amounts of coverage, Ardleigh said.
Going forward, Ardleigh said, one thing she
wants to do, and encourage clients to do, is to watch for reductions in mutual
life insurers’ dividend payments to holders of participating policies, in
response to low returns on life insurers’ bond portfolios.
She also wants to help clients think harder
about long-term care planning.
“That’s something for people to keep in mind,”
Ardleigh said. “It’s more important than ever to have a long-term care plan.”
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