The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) is spearheading an initiative that seeks to transform the industry through the use of digital solutions for managing annuities.
IRI’s Digital First initiative calls for the incorporation of a fully digital submission process to the carrier that is governed by either a third party or via the carrier directly. A fully digital application process includes the application order submission and incorporates e-Signatures and relies on data, rather than paper forms to complete the application process. A fully electronic application can seamlessly move through the carrier review and issue process with little to no manual touches.
In contrast, the paper application process requires hard copy signatures and introduces issues related to missing data, paperwork, and signatures. These create manual interventions that lead to delays.
In a recent survey of 800 financial professionals representing full-service and independent broker/dealers, banks, and registered investment advisors, IRI found that only one in four financial professionals submit more than 70 percent of their business fully electronic. Further, it showed that 64 percent of financial professionals expect to be fully digital within the next year, while 23 percent report that they are already digital today.
In another survey, IRI learned that 100 percent of IRI carriers and 85 percent of distributors support fully digital applications. However, when it comes to implementation and utilization, only 40 percent of applications are submitted using a fully digital process. That’s because both the carrier and the distributor must agree to the implementation, which creates situations where individually the carrier and distributor fully support digital processing but not together.
IRIO also looked at the impact of a fully digital experience and learned that 90 percent of the financial professionals they surveyed would sell more annuities if digital solutions such as e-Signatures and e-Delivery were available.
IRI concluded by noting that the industry has made great strides toward a fully digital process for application submission. However, they added that more remains to be done, and that the work toward digital first will continue this year and beyond.