Beyond The Horizon

How LGA took the long view into digital systems-management

by Brooke Vemuri

In 2019, the U.S. life insurance industry was at a crossroads where the discussion surrounding a move from the pen and paper application to a digitized process was starting to take shape. Despite already being a norm in the U.K., the industry in the states was holding onto its traditional roots even with the acceleration of digital in other industries across the country. Stakeholders in life insurance were concerned with the idea of a digital application as it was unclear how the industry would respond. Risk can be scary to organizations but taking them is also what can propel a company or industry forward. The risk of being the first to try digitizing end-to-end processes loomed, but someone had to take it.

Legal & General America (LGA) decided to take a risk and start the digitalization process in 2019 with a platform called Horizon. Since the product was launched, it has enabled 35% of applications to receive instant decisions¹ and allowed 78% of applications to proceed without lab work². In the first four years, the platform provided 50,000 instant decisions and, in June 2024, it reached 100,000, doubling its instant decisions compared to 2019 – 2023. Seeing that kind of growth in just 12 months exemplifies the opportunity that Horizon has across the industry and allows access to more people who want life insurance. The goal is to see 200,000 instant decisions by early next year.

But Horizon is also responsible for solving many of the challenges previously experienced in the industry such as elongated cycle times and incomplete information needed for underwriting (not-in-good-order). Prior to Horizon, it was common to see applications with missing information (more than 60% had missing information) and the need for analog underwriting requirements. The digital application and underwriting process opened a world of opportunity to leverage real-time evidence while ensuring the application wasn’t completed until all information was received, ultimately shifting underwriting cycle times from more than 45 days to 15 days. Ultimately, the ease of obtaining life insurance created through Horizon creates a better customer experience and helps with LGA’s mission of insuring more American families.

Proper reflection of risks involves thinking about the lessons learned through those experiences. It’s how an industry can continue to evolve. Below are six key learnings following Horizon’s first five years in the market, and recommendations for how to integrate these strategies into new products across the industry.

Change Takes Time

When evaluating what kind of response you may receive with your innovations, don’t be caught up in the short-term. Understand that these kinds of projects take time to become the norm – which is OK. In the case of Horizon, the pandemic shutdown provided a great opportunity to showcase why the digitized application was a long-needed solution for the industry. The creation of Horizon and digital adjustment was a monumental shift for an industry rooted in tradition, as the platform took almost two years for partners to try, appreciate and experience the value of it. Initial feedback was like all technological advancements – fear of being replaced by machines. The platform does the opposite, as at its core Horizon was founded with the idea of creating an easier experience for agents to sell policies – especially during COVID. Cycle times were greatly shortened giving agents more time to find and secure new customers and get their commissions faster, quickly turning trepidation into rave reviews.

Your Business Can Be Reimagined

Creative thinking is paramount when trying to reimagine any product. It is a long and tiring process that requires you to do blue sky thinking, take a test-and-learn approach, and bring your stakeholders along on the journey. But the result leads to a much stronger product when time and effort has been put in. Most times, the best ideas come from SMEs’ experience spanning multiple departments who have been dedicated to the program. Horizon’s ideation sessions relied heavily on this approach – key SMEs from several departments came together with the passion to reimagine the way life insurance was bought and sold, built a roadmap for the product that became Horizon, and began the tireless job of bringing it to life.

Be Adaptive

When it comes to taking risks on new technologies, it’s not always a straight path forward. There will be unexpected challenges that present roadblocks to the original plan or industry standard, requiring stakeholders to think on their feet. The COVID-19 pandemic was the peak example of this, showcasing why there needed to be another solution in selling life insurance – a method that required a reimagined version of human contact and interaction. Prior to the shutdown, testing of Horizon involved a selective approach in identifying the correct partners. However, when the pandemic hit, the internal strategy needed to be altered. Rather than being selective, the testing process ballooned to a larger group of people which produced greater sensitivity toward the platform.

Identify Trends That Can Make The Product Better

AI has a huge opportunity to be integrated into the life insurance space, as it is being adopted more broadly by consumers in their day-to-day lives. It is a fascinating trend to examine given how fast it has grown. AI’s integration can be seen in places like the application process, making it even easier for applicants to complete their application for life insurance. Also in places where employees are sifting through large amounts of information to make key decisions, such as in underwriting. We are also seeing AI assist in company’s responsiveness to their customers either in email or chat engagement. Again, the catalyst is a digital-first offering that easily facilitates AI capability to make buying life insurance as easy and quick as possible.

Everyone Needs To Buy In

From dedicated staffing to blue sky thinking, getting budget approvals and stakeholder alignment, working behind the scenes can sometimes be more complicated than the project delivery itself. The key to success is having buy-in across the board, but most importantly at the very top. Horizon has been successful because executive leadership bought into the vision which resulted in a shared goal that made the execution and delivery successful. Change management can be credited for employee and distribution adoption success as the teams worked together to educate and roll-out system capabilities. Training and keeping everyone informed in an agile, iterative delivery model of two-week releases was no small feat!

Data Is A Friend

Data and insights will always provide valuable evidence when presenting feedback on the product to stakeholders. Informed decisions are best made with data, which helps with the continuous, iterative improvement of the product’s features as well as the company’s bottom line. There won’t be focused progress or an innovation roadmap if those elements aren’t considered. Notably for Horizon, 90% of applicants finish their application, 35% of them receive instant decisions, and application volumes have grown over 50% since the full adoption of Horizon – these are tangible proof points that tell leadership that the digital application process they invested in works and works well. Our distribution partners are providing their votes of confidence by trusting us with more of their business. This data is also being used to convince new partners that a digital application process can save them and their customers hours of time and frustration – a true win-win.

Looking back over the last five years, the risk of setting sights on Horizon has been an amazing accomplishment. There is still a lot more work that needs to be done in terms of normalizing the digitized application process across the industry but how it is currently being used is encouraging. It will only continue to evolve in the years to come, leading to even more opportunities to expand the digital footprint of the life insurance industry and creating brighter tomorrows for our customers and those they love.

¹ Metric reported for full month July 2024. “Instant decision” is defined as total instant decisions as a percentage of total decisions from all business submitted through Horizon in June 2024.

² Metrics reported YTD through July 2024. “Lab-free Decisions” is defined as total lab-free decisions as a percentage of total decisions from all business submitted through Horizon through July 2024. “Lab-free Decisions” percentage includes instant decisions.