Revolutionizing Insurance: National Life Group's "Process as a Product"

Speaker 1 (00:00):

We are here with, uh, Lindsay Morway and Jake Peck from National Life. And what we're talking about, guys, we were, we were just talking about this before we started rolling, is like the way that National Life has taken the process and made it the product. So to kind of kick this conversation off, you know, when I started at Alliance Group mm, 11 years ago now, we were still doing oral swabs and like sticking something in the client's mouth and like sealing it up and sending it off somewhere. Um, that, you know, and we were doing paper apps, uh, you know, for goodness sakes back then. So in just a very short period of time, national Life has made huge advances in the process of getting a life insurance policy, making that more painless. Right. So tell us a little bit about, as far as that timeline, just the past 11 years, let's talk more about what has happened over that time at National Life, uh, Lindsay. Yeah. Give us a little insight.

Speaker 2 (00:53):

Yeah, I mean, like you said, we, we really do believe that service is the product. So this is something that we've always put, you know, front and center and really looking at ways that we can make it easier. So, you know, with technology, with additional medical systems that we have, we have insight into clients that we didn't have before. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So we're able to really look at, you know, collectively what we think that risk could be and get them coverage without having to go through exams and labs and all of those invasive things you were just talking about. So it's really as simple as, you know, we have our e-app application mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so you can do it all online. Um, you can meet with clients virtually, um, FaceTime, whatever mechanism you're using, um, and essentially meet with them, get, submit it, and you can potentially get no exams, no labs get, get an offer right then and there instantly. Yep. And then, um, you know, as most recently, we actually rolled out Ascend, which is a really expensive, uh, platform. We, we invested a hundred million dollars in technology in this little

Speaker 1 (01:52):

Chunk of

Speaker 2 (01:52):

Change, just a little, just a little bit <laugh>. Um, it to really wipe out our old new business platform, our internal systems so that we could give more visibility to our field and then also allow, you know, go connect all the dots, right? Cuz we were able to submit electronically, also deliver the policy electronically. And this really connects everything together so that you can get, get that coverage.

Speaker 1 (02:13):

The big thing about Ascend Jake is that, you know, you guys, for a long time, national Life was operating on a a, it's, it was an old system that still kind of relied on, uh, it has to wait to hear from this system. So you would see things like, you know, policy gets placed, but you're not gonna see it till overnight or, you know, uh, there was that, those sort of limitations. Can you kind kind of talk more about that and how Ascend, you know, wiping out that entire legacy system and bringing a new system on board that's, that's quite a lift.

Speaker 3 (02:41):

Yeah. So that system was probably 40 years old, or at least some of them that we were using. So we were living back in the eighties, right? Um, now we're in the 2020s, which is fantastic. And now it's, it truly is a system that can talk to really wherever we need it to go internally in National Life Group, right? So from submission all the way through underwriting to policy delivery, everything works in one space for our internal team. So now they're not hunting pecking for, you know, their email or the portal, right? Or, you know, the generic like requirement emails that you might send in. So they're in that system all day making it more efficient for them to touch more business for you guys.

Speaker 1 (03:16):

And this, this isn't something that was unique to national life by the way. Uh, you know, other life insurance companies, you know, across the industry, they're all kind of struggling with these old systems that are just, you know, you can't really pull the plug cuz it's what everything mm-hmm. <affirmative> is on right now. It's hard to make that transition. It's expensive, as you said, to make that transition. But the benefit isn't only for the clients, uh, and, and the agents that are, that are going through this system. It's also for the national life employees that are at, you know, the people in new business, the people in underwriting, when you make their job easier and more efficient, that makes them more efficient mm-hmm. <affirmative> at their jobs, which means business gets, gets placed quicker, uh, which is what the, the whole point of this is, right, Lindsay?

Speaker 2 (04:00):

Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:02):

So it's, uh, you know, it's, it's been, uh, it's been quite a journey. The journey's not over, right? So if you go back and, and you look at the timeline, it was, you know, first getting e applications and then introducing the easy underwriting system and then increasing those limits gradually as, you know, the a a as as the system kind of improved. Um, now we've implemented Ascend, which is this brand new, uh, platform that everybody's working off of. What are the future plans, uh, to, to kind of continue, um, you know, this, this, this journey to basically make getting life insurance a lot more painless, uh, for clients, Lindsay?

Speaker 2 (04:41):

Yeah, I mean, I would say we have, like you said, the systems in place now, so we can really, the sky is the limit. Um, one of the things that we're constantly doing is looking at our underwriting engine. So again, I talked about, you know, different systems that we have access to, different medical claims data. Um, and we're constantly revamping our underwriting engine so that we can hopefully get increased amount of instant approval. So you're sitting down with a client and getting that instant approval. We really wanna maximize that, um, when you're in front of them. So we're in talks now of kind of looking at that. We're already on, I believe, our second or third underwriting engine. Um, and we're just constantly looking at ways to improve that. So I would say future, that's really the, the goal. Wow. So it's

Speaker 1 (05:21):

Maximize that it's, it's not over national life, still still pushing the envelope. Yeah. Still still wanting to improve more and, and, and researching, you know, what, what the best way forward is to make it just a more efficient system. Absolutely. Um, Jake, as far as what an agent can do, who might be watching this, um, you, you, you know, that Ascend exists. What are, there are certain things that an agent can do to take better advantage of the new system and to, uh, kind of know what the parameters are and know how to work their way through the, the new Ascend system for the best results. What are some of those things that, that agents can do? Yeah,

Speaker 3 (05:55):

I think it starts at the application. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you know, making sure that you're not free forming things inside of there unless it actually requires that, right? For certain, like medications, things like that. Um, but once it's actually submitted, I would say the communication on the backend with your case managers, with your underwriters living in that portal is gonna make it that much faster. Cause it's gonna go directly to that queue for that case manager, whoever's working on that. And they're gonna have it all within the Ascend system, right? So it's all gonna be traceable, all gonna be visible on the portal, so that way when things do come in, it's not sitting in somebody's inbox and it's actually in the new business portal so that they, they can get to it as soon as possible.

Speaker 1 (06:29):

So if you are, you know, ascend is amazing and there is all this potential to speed your business up, but if you really want to take full advantage of it, um, you really need to do a little bit of Ascend training. We have that on the portal at Alliance Group. Um, we, we've also done, we webinars with you guys and I know National Life has done webinars on y'alls end as well. Um, so make sure that you take the time to dedicate yourself to learning how to navigate this system. Uh, it is very simple, it is very intuitive. I can attest to that. But there are those certain little things you can do. Uh, if you're, if you're in there and you're doing everything that you used to do on the old system, it's not gonna be perfectly efficient. Absolutely. Right. So, uh, thank you guys so much. We really appreciate what, what, what National Life is doing. Uh, we know that this is not only something that took a ton of time, uh, you know, with this, this whole, you know, roadmap has been, you know, more than a decade long now. Yeah. And, and as you said, Lindsey, it is continuing, but we do appreciate national life, uh, putting the time, the resources, the money toward, uh, making, you know, getting life insurance. A much easier thing for all of our clients and for all the agents at Alliance Group as well.

Speaker 3 (07:37):

Thanks, Sam. Absolutely. Thanks

Speaker 1 (07:38):

Sam. Thanks guys. Listen to this interview and more on the Alliance Group podcast.

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