Research Outline

Online Life Insurance Companies Research

Goals

To have a broad understanding of who the top online life insurance companies are. An ideal response would include One: the number/percentage of life insurance applications that were submitted online in the past 2 years, Two: the number/percentage of brick & mortar insurance companies that offer an online quote/application process, Three: the percentage of life insurance applications processed through InsureTech companies like PolicyGenius, SelectQuote, Haven, and Bestow.

Early Findings

  • We were not provided a geographic focus for this research, so we assumed a United States view. If a more broad approach is desired, for example, a global focus, or a different country, this would have to be clearly communicated to us in any reply.
  • Business Insider, in a May 23rd, 2020 article, identified the top 30 life insurance companies in the United States. They selected the twenty based on the following metrics: "customer service, financial stability, and asset size rankings, along with premium prices where available." These 30 life insurance companies were placed in this Google spreadsheet. We added a column titled "Do they offer an online quote/application process?" We have noted that these are not purely online life insurance companies, but this may aid in helping answer the brick and mortar part of the question.
  • Wallethacks curated a list of the top 11 (they state 10, but there are 11 on the list) of the top online life insurance companies. They were selected based on the following metric: "the A.M. Best Rating". "A.M. Best has 15 categories for its ratings and issues them based on the company's financial strength, operating performance, and ability to meet obligations to its policyholders. The highest categories are A++ and A+ and anything above B+ is considered a secure rating. Anything B and below is considered “vulnerable.” We placed this information in another tab of the Google spreadsheet referenced above.
  • About sixty percent of all people in the United States were covered by some type of life insurance in 2018, according to LIMRA’s 2018 Insurance Barometer Study. (Download is required to read the report). According to this report, half of all adults visited a life company website and/or sought life insurance information online in 2018. Almost 1 in 3 purchased or attempted to purchase life insurance online — about the same as in 2017.
  • In 2018 there were 5,965 insurance companies in the U.S. (including territories). According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, those were comprised of the following: P/C (2,507); life/annuity (841); health (931); fraternal (82); title (60); risk retention groups (239) and other companies (1,305).
  • Almost half of Americans (47 percent) say they are more likely to buy life insurance using simplified underwriting, which generally means getting coverage more quickly and without a medical exam, versus traditional underwriting approaches, according to new findings from the 2019 Insurance Barometer Study.
  • In addition to this public search, we scanned our proprietary research database of over 1 million sources and were unable to find any specific research reports that address your goals.

Summary Of Our Early Findings Relevant To The Goals

  • Our initial hour of research was spent searching and then providing credible lists of the top online as well as brick and mortar life insurance companies which were placed in a Google spreadsheet for ease of viewing.
  • In our initial hour of research we were not able to locate any credible source that provides the number/percentage of life insurance applications that were submitted online in the past 2 years, the number/percentage of brick & mortar insurance companies that offer an online quote/application process, and the percentage of life insurance applications processed through InsureTech companies like PolicyGenius, SelectQuote, Haven, and Bestow. This is likely because it does not exist in the public domain, however, we did only have one hour for the initial research, and further research may reveal sources that do contain this data. We will note this in the scopings below.
  • As indicated at the top of this document, we were not provided a geographic focus for this research, so we assumed a United States view. If a more broad approach is desired, for example, a global focus, or a different country, this would have to be clearly communicated to us in any reply.