The staged rollout of the long-awaited life insurance technology platform, LifeBid, is just around the corner.
Founded by NSW adviser Brett Wright, LifeBid is an end-to-end system designed to connect advisers, licensees and insurers across the full advice lifecycle, including new business, renewals, policy administration and claims. It has been in development for four years.
Speaking at Riskinfocus 26 events across the country in March, Wright said the platform was built in response to structural pressures that intensified following the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
“Compliance increased significantly while revenues declined, creating a situation where the industry’s ability to sustainably grow has been constrained,” he said.
Wright said a working group formed in 2021 had sought to redesign how risk advice is delivered. Participants included major insurers such as TAL, Zurich, AIA Australia, Acenda, PPS Mutual and NEOS.
…LifeBid system is a standalone platform with open architecture…
The result is a platform intended to streamline workflows and reduce duplication, with Wright claiming it could save time and cost through automation and integration.
Wright said that unlike many existing advice tools, the LifeBid system is a standalone platform with open architecture, allowing integration with external systems while not relying on widely used software such as Xplan or Salesforce.
Initial rollout will focus on policy servicing and retention, including data reconciliation, renewal tracking and automated alerts where client information differs between adviser and insurer records. Additional functionality covering renewals, reviews and new business processing is expected to follow.
Wright said the platform uses “true integration” rather than screen scraping, enabling deeper and more accurate data flows than traditional feeds, which he said have seen limited adoption in the industry.
The pricing model is based on a per-policy subscription, with no limit on user numbers, and costs declining as scale increases.
LifeBid is expected to begin deployment to shareholder firms and aligned licensees during April, before a broader market release.
Wright said lapse rates continue to exceed new business inflows, with around $9bn in retail premiums offset by lapse rates of about 15%, compared with significantly lower levels of new business written each year.
“That gap highlights the need for the industry to improve efficiency and scale,” he said.
Click here to see our other Riskinfocus 26 reports, and click here to see previous reports on LifeBid.
