industry insights
Hey Life Insurance Industry . . . nobody cares!
Why “ecosystems” may be a way to get people to “give a damn” about life insurance.
I
CHRIS BEHLING
HEAD OF US LIFE & HEALTH
STRATEGY, SwissRe
Chris Behling is Head of
US Life & Health Strategy
for SwissRe. In this role,
Chris oversees current
and future partnerships
intended to help insurance
clients penetrate new
markets and demographics
with the goal of closing the
$26 trillion coverage gap in
the US.
Prior to joining Swiss Re,
Chris worked at AXA where
he led National Accounts,
Business Development,
Specialty Markets and Sales
Operations for AXA’s US life
business. This was a return
to AXA, the company where
he started his career in
insurance.
Prior to returning to AXA,
Chris was the President
of Mollen, a healthcare
services company
employing 25,000 nurses to
deliver healthcare services
nationwide. Chris received
his Bachelor of Arts degree
from Albion College,
and a Masters degree in
Theological Studies from
Harvard Divinity School.
10 perspectives WINTER 2019
read recently that
millennials rank life
insurance as number two
on the list of things that they
don’t need – right behind dryer
sheets. Now I personally love
dryer sheets, but I also own life
insurance (and I’m also not a
millennial).
We are kidding ourselves if
we think that the $26 trillion-
dollar protection gap in the
United States is solely the
result of life insurance being
too expensive or hard to buy.
Perhaps it’s time for us to
realize that maybe people just
don’t want what we are selling.
I’ve long felt that the
insurance industry builds
products that agents want
to sell instead of products
consumers want to buy. But
unfortunately, the problem is
bigger than that.
A wise man once said, “we
would worry a lot less about
what other people thought of us
if we realized how rarely they do
it.” This is especially true about
life insurance. Not many people
wake-up thinking about our
industry or our products.
For over 150 years, our
industry has asked consumers
to interact how we want to
interact. We either send
someone to go talk to them at
home or, hope that they come to
our website, looking for what we
have to offer.
Most recently, we have tried
to link protection to other
things that consumers do care
about. There are myriad start-
ups linking life insurance to
things like travel, adventure
sports, races, or fitness. This
is certainly a step in the right
direction... but it isn’t enough!
Point solutions that tie life
insurance to another purchase
is a first step in engaging
consumers around things they
care about. But point solutions
alone won’t win in the long run.
In the future, there aren’t
going to be more apps on our
phone...there are going to be
less. Soon gone are the days
when we have 10 travel apps, 10
finance apps, 10 fitness tracking
apps, etc. Rather, I see a future
with one app that integrates
each “ecosystem,” creating
interoperability and synergies
between various companies,
products and solutions.
Because of this trend toward
integration and interoperability,
the winning formula will go
beyond point solutions and
instead will imbed life insurance
into connected ecosystems that
people care about. Playing in
these ecosystems will allow
insurers to engage consumers
in a space familiar to them and
around issues that affect them
personally.
Through Swiss Re’s
partnership with Sharecare, for
example, we are integrating
financial wellbeing into
Sharecare’s physical and
emotional wellbeing ecosystem.
Participating in ecosystems
like Sharecare will allow life
insurance (and DI, LTC, CI, etc.)
to go where consumers are,
instead of making consumers
come to us.
Succeeding in ecosystems
requires three things: (1)
knowing your customer really,
really, well; (2) digitizing your
product and processes to be
able to play in the world of data
and; (3) partnering with other
companies that provide the
products, services and solutions
that round out the ecosystem.
It’s by doing these three
things that we can meet
consumers where they are,
provide them solutions they will
value, and begin to close the
protection gap.
“[Most people
don’t] wake-up
thinking about
our industry or
our products. ”