Humania speeds up life insurance purchasing with streamlined digital platform

Technology has let the company achieve quality, quick delivery, and affordability

Humania speeds up life insurance purchasing with streamlined digital platform
The process of purchasing insurance is notoriously cumbersome, with the application process traditionally taking as long as 21 days to be completed. But one mutual insurance company is using technology to issue life insurance policies to applicants in a matter of hours.

In 2015, Humania Assurance developed a business rule engine (BRE) to speed up insurance processing on its online life insurance purchasing platform HuGO, reports IT Business Canada. With the BRE, complex decision-making process could be automated, allowing life insurance policies to be issued within hours of the initial application.

In an interview with IT World Canada, Vice President of IT and Digital Strategy Eric Levac said that the system “asks the right questions and interprets the answers in real time.” HuGO, which was written in Java using a Liferay portal, takes information from applicants and passes it on to the BRE, which then processes each application.

According to Levac, the goal was for Humania to become “the first Canadian life insurance provider to develop a solution that cut out the underwriting process and delay for about 60% of complex life insurance contracts.” The platform is reportedly able to issue decisions in just 15 to 45 minutes for up to 65% of submitted applications.

With the BRE-enabled HuGO platform, Humania has moved toward its goal of using tech to offer quality, quick delivery, and affordability. Aside from reducing the number of underwriting requirements such as those involving lab tests, the platform has also improved productivity within the company’s independent advisor network.

The company invested $4 million and 22 months to develop and deliver the HuGO platform; $3 million was spent on IT alone. It has led to impressive commercial success, with almost 800 independent brokers across Canada opting to use it since November. As of March 6, it has processed more than 2,500 transactions. “We reached $1 billion of face amount coverage by mid-April,” Levac said.

Based in Quebec, Humania Assurance has 142 employees and more than 7,800 independent distributors.


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