Ceylinco Life first to launch Tele-underwriting in Sri Lanka
View(s):Ceylinco Life has launched tele-underwriting in Sri Lanka, adopting an industry practice in developed markets to improve communications between prospective policyholders and the insurer.
Intended to minimise misunderstandings between insured and insurer, and eliminate non-disclosure related issues at the claims stage, tele-underwriting is carried out by a team of 25 trained professional underwriters, the company said.
Ceylinco Life is the first life insurer in Sri Lanka to use tele-underwriting, a practice that can also lead to reduced lapsing of policies. The process begins after an applicant for life cover completes a proposal form, usually with the assistance of a sales agent. Once the application is received at Ceylinco Life’s head office, tele-underwriters begin calling applicants at random to ensure that questions in the form have been accurately answered and that the prospective policyholders clearly understand the benefits provided by the products being purchased.
“This is an important step in promoting better customer relations and improving persistency ratios,” said Jagath Abhayaratne, Senior Assistant General Manager – Operations at Ceylinco Life. “We are already checking about 25 per cent of the proposal forms through tele-underwriting, and hope to increase this figure to 50 per cent by the end of the year.”
He said more than 45 per cent of life insurance business in the USA is tele-underwritten. In the United Kingdom, non-disclosure rates pertaining to life insurance products had reduced from 11 per cent to 4 per cent following the introduction of tele-underwriting.
Tele-underwriters take the applicants through the questions and the answers covering their basic information and health-related disclosures, resulting in a ‘fine-tuning’ of the proposal forms in a process that benefits both the customer and the company. It also encourages insurance sales people to be more accurate in the completion of these forms.
Follow @timesonlinelk
Related Posts:
AVIVA NDB revenue down in first half 2012Consolidated revenues at AVIVA NDB Insurance in the first half of the year to 30th June 2012 fell to Rs ...
AVIVA NDB revenue down in first half 2012Consolidated revenues at AVIVA NDB Insurance in the first half of the year to 30th June 2012 fell to Rs ...
Ceylinco Life conducts 1st draw of ‘Family Savari 6′The first draw for Ceylinco Life's 'Family Savari 6' conducted last week has identified 460 people who have won a ...
Ceylinco Insurance posts impressive half yearly resultsCeylinco Insurance said this week that it “has declared imposing results for the first half of 2012”. In a media ...
Ceylinco Life’s Saroja qualifies as an FIAA Sri Lankan insurance professional has achieved a personal and corporate milestone by qualifying as a Fellow of the Institute ...