New Underwriting Platform Halving Approval Times

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    MLC Life Insurance reports its new digital underwriting platform has delivered ‘…a dramatic reduction in the time it takes for its customers to receive cover.’

    MLC Life Insurance’s Chief Underwriter, Mick Jones …the new underwriting platform helping to reduce the cost of advice

    Launched in April 2018 (see: MLC Life Goes Live…), the insurer says that in the twelve months since its new underwriting package was launched, it has resulted in:

    • A reduction in the average time it takes to assess and admit a customer’s life insurance application from 15 days to just seven
    • More than 7,200 policies accepted automatically via the new platform, without the need for any manual underwriting
    • Underwriting decisions being made on 53 percent of all benefits applied for, including Life, TPD, Critical Illness and Income Protection

    In related news, MLC Life Insurance reports that because of the modifications made within its underwriting rules, there has also been a 20 percent reduction in the amount of medical information requested to support an application, thereby enhancing the application process and helping to make it easier to obtain insurance. The insurer cited the raising of its BMI limits – at which higher premiums start to be imposed – as an example of the modification to its underwriting rules.

    Mick Jones, Chief Underwriter at MLC Life Insurance, says the new platform “…is quick, easy and efficient, and it supports a more engaging application process between the adviser and the customer.” Jones added the platform is also reducing the cost of advice by removing unnecessary time spent on what have traditionally been manual processes.

    …its online platform is the only one in Australia that fully integrates a pre-assessment decision into the full application

    The insurer emphasised that its platform includes an online pre-assessment facility intended to provide advisers with an indicative underwriting opinion in as little as two-to-three minutes, which it says provides more flexibility in the formulation of advice for the customer. It added that its online platform is the only one in Australia that fully integrates a pre-assessment decision into the full application.

    MLC Life Insurance said these enhancements to its underwriting services are a key pillar in its $500 million transformation program, ‘…which is focused on delivering the most advanced digital infrastructure in the industry to better serve customers.’