Revolutionising Life Insurance Distribution: A Fresh Approach by Elevate Life

In a comprehensive discussion with Tony, Matan Abraham, CEO of Elevate Life, explores the urgent need for innovation in the life insurance industry, particularly in how products are distributed and how wellness rewards are integrated. Highlighting the stagnant nature of traditional life insurance products, Matan explains how Elevate Life is bringing fresh solutions to an industry that has seen little advancement in decades.

South Africa's insurance market, with its unique blend of first-world and developing-world characteristics, serves as an interesting case study. Despite its depth and history, the life insurance sector has lagged in innovation, often adding superficial enhancements to outdated products. Elevate Life addresses this gap by focusing on the fully underwritten, comprehensive cover space, targeting middle to affluent clients.

A significant part of their strategy is leveraging intermediaries for distribution. Matan emphasizes the crucial role of financial advisors in helping clients determine their coverage needs. Elevate Life simplifies this process with a fully digital onboarding system, which utilizes existing health and financial data to streamline underwriting. This not only speeds up the process but also reduces costs, resulting in more competitive premiums.

Central to Elevate Life’s innovation is the "Elevate me" application. This app encourages clients to share wellness data from various sources, including wearable devices and medical records, to create a holistic view of their health. Clients receive personalized feedback and set wellness goals, earning rewards for positive behaviors. This approach aligns the interests of the insurer and the insured, promoting long-term health and potentially lowering premiums.

Matan highlights that this strategy turns the often antagonistic relationship between insurers and clients into a collaborative one. By incentivising healthy lifestyles and using technology to improve service delivery, Elevate Life aims to revolutionise the life insurance industry, making it more client-centric, efficient, and aligned with modern technological advancements.

Key Takeaways

Unique Market Dynamics in South Africa:

• South Africa has a deep, historically rich insurance market.
• The country features two economies: a small, high-income first-world sector and a larger, low-income mass market.

Lack of Innovation in Life Insurance:

• The fully underwritten life insurance space has seen minimal innovation, mainly adding minor updates to outdated products.
• Other financial services like banking and short-term insurance have advanced significantly more in terms of digitization and innovation.

Elevate Life’s Product Strategy:

• Focus on fully underwritten, comprehensive cover targeting middle to affluent clients.
• Emphasis on building products that help financial advisors efficiently sell and onboard clients using technology.

Integration of Wellness Programs:

• Developed the 'Elevate me' application to collect and sync wellness data from clients.
• Clients earn rewards for healthy behaviors, promoting long-term health and reducing premiums.

Improving Client-Insurer Relationships:

• Aim to create a positive data-sharing relationship, where clients trust that their information will be used to benefit them.
• The insurer and client share aligned goals, promoting longevity and lower morbidity.

Streamlined Underwriting Process:

• Utilizes existing health and financial data to simplify and accelerate the underwriting process.
• Achieves immediate decisions for about 75% of clients, significantly reducing the traditional onboarding time.

Role of Financial Advisors:

• Elevate Life simplifies the advisor’s role, allowing them to focus on client needs rather than administrative tasks.
• Provides advisors with a streamlined, fully digital onboarding system, enhancing service delivery.

Overall Goal of Elevate Life:

• Revolutionize the life insurance industry by making it more client-centric and efficient.
• Leverage technology to improve both the onboarding and servicing processes, benefiting both clients and advisors.