Ceylinco Life introduces tele-underwriting

Ceylinco Life has launched tele-underwriting, adopting an industry practice in developed markets to improve communications between prospective policyholders and the insurer.

Intended to dispel doubts between the insured and the insurer and eliminate non-disclosure related issues at the claims stage, tele-underwriting is carried out by a team of 25 trained professional underwriters.

Ceylinco Life was 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 Senior Assistant General Manager, Operations at Ceylinco Life, Jagath Abhayaratne.

"We are already checking about 25 percent of the proposal forms through tele-underwriting, and hope to increase this figure to 50 percent by the end of the year."

He said more than 45 percent 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 percent to four percent following the introduction of tele-underwriting.

Tele-underwriters take the applicants through the questions and answers covering basic information and health-related disclosures, resulting in a 'fine-tuning' of the proposal forms, a process that benefits the customer and the company. It also encourages insurance sales people to be more accurate in the completion of these forms.