Seems having an online presence is always important—even for life insurance companies.
In a study of life insurance policy owners, LIMRA finds 1 in 2 people have visited their life insurer's website. Of those who did, 70 percent used services found on the site.
"Not surprisingly, the majority of Generation X and Y policy owners and almost half of boomer policy owners who have visited their life company's website sought online services from their insurers—citing convenience and ease of use as reasons they visited the sites," says Mary Art, LIMRA research director, technology in marketing and distribution research. "With Internet usage growing almost 150 percent in the last decade, it is vital that companies understand who their online audience is and what their expectations are and develop a website that offers the important services that these customers say they want."
Recommended For You
The report, Connecting for Service Online: Customer Service for Life Insurance, reveals customers are interested in obtaining a wide variety of online services, with billing information, email and mailing address updates, forms access and policy information high on their list. Also a good idea for insurer sites? Offering information on managing finances and planning relevant to clients' financial concerns, such as saving for college, building an emergency fund, saving for retirement and saving for a home.
Policy owners say a search box and price and product comparisons are important features for a life insurance website. Consumers also want to be able to make beneficiary changes, loan requests and fund withdrawals online, the LIMRA report finds.
Of those who visit their life insurance website, 7 in 10 register. But registrations are generally higher for Generations X and Y than for older generations. LIMRA research suggests that reaching out to these registered customers, as well as those who do not currently use the website, can help build brand loyalty and identify ways to increase web traffic.
Half of life policy owners who obtained services online found the service experience "very satisfactory" in the case of 18 of the 19 services. The single exception was using a calculator or worksheet, and even for this service 44 percent were very satisfied. For some services (fund transfer, e-delivery setup, policy loan requests, auto payment set-up, and policy information access), 3 in 4 policy owners say they had a positive online experience.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
