Unlocking the Future: How Innovation at Acenda will Empower Australia’s Life Insurance Advisers

Australian advisers have borne significant challenges in recent years, with stricter regulations, escalating operating costs and commission caps, introduced under the Life Insurance Framework (LIF), prompting an exodus from the industry in the early 2020’s.

Of those who remain, many have opted to abandon offering risk advice altogether, as onerous compliance demands erode profits, and inefficient underwriting processes delay or prevent new business growth. A commonly referenced 2023 survey by Adviser Ratings revealed that just under 500 advisers of the more than 6,000 advisers that write risk, are responsible for half of all new policies.

This would suggest that as many as 90% of advisers writing risk continue to face challenges in servicing clients, even amid significant unmet consumer demand.

Opportunities abound for those willing to adapt, innovate and partner right. Deloitte projects that annual life premiums in Australia could more than double – from $18 billion to over $40 billion – if insurers can effectively engage the underserved demand.

Michael Downey, Acenda’s General Manager of Individual Distribution and a former financial adviser himself, says advisers are consistently plagued by underwriting bottlenecks.

This initial underwriting process, according to adviser feedback, is “their biggest pain point”.

Policy underwriting has remained stubbornly unchanged in decades, Downey says, saddled with manual processes that frequently result in months-long delays in policy approval times – a sore point for both advisers and their clients.

“Advisers excel at client acquisition and building that rapport, but when it comes to dealing with life insurance, this is the point where they lose control,” Downey explains.

“As underwriters, the sooner we can get back to clients with a decision, the better their experience, and, in turn, a much greater degree of confidence in the adviser.”

For Acenda, offering a seamless adviser journey, underpinned by cutting-edge digital solutions, is a business imperative.

“As a life insurance business, one of the best ways to win the trust and confidence of advisers and their support staff is through your technology,” Downey says.

“Technology is key to helping advisers reduce their cost to serve, get the business on the books quicker, and, ultimately, get paid quicker.”

Acenda has invested heavily in modernising its policy onboarding infrastructure, debuting an industry-first automated underwriting engine and integrated digital medical reports, tapping expertise from technology partners EQ Pathology and UnderwriteMe.

Around half of all incoming life insurance policy applications – those less complex cases – will be processed in near real-time through the new underwriting engine developed by UnderwriteMe.

Applications requiring medical evidence will also see processing times cut significantly, with the newly digitised Personal Medical Attendant Reports (PMARs) set to slash submission times by two-thirds – from around a month to just 10 days.

“In digitising this whole underwriting process, including the PMAR, we’re helping to reduce that time to get that client on the books. They’re getting a far better customer experience simply because they’re getting accepted quicker,” Downey says.

Phase One of the revamped underwriting process – started with the launch in early June of the industry-first digital PMARs – is receiving “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from advisers.

“It’s early days but seeing that big reduction in the time to complete and return a PMAR is a huge win. Advisers say they’re finding it so much quicker to be working with us now!”

With the rollout of Phase Two, which fully integrates these digital reports into our underwriting rules engine, advisers can expect instant end-to-end decisioning, dramatically reducing application acceptance times.

This is a game-changer for advisers, Downey says, allowing them focus on client acquisition rather than chasing up existing policies.

“This gives advisers more time to see clients without getting bogged down in underwriting processes as it works its way through the underwriting process or PMARs process with doctors,” he explains.

A springboard for innovation

This market-leading solution marks a major step forward in Acenda’s vision as both a progressive digital innovator and a trusted partner to Australia’s advisers.

Downey sees the new solution as a catalyst for continued innovation in and refinement of the underwriting process.

By digitising PMARs, Acenda is able to unlock risk data once buried and forgotten in paperwork.

“The more data that you can build up around a typical customer profile – whether it’s our data or the reinsurers data – the more we’re able to refine our onboarding process, from reducing blood and medical tests to the type and number of questions we ask [applicants].”

“So, instead of asking those standard 40 questions, we can use these [deidentified] customer metrics to create better risk profiles and potentially cut this series of questions down to, say, just eight.”

The opportunity to also combine this dataset with health data collected from wearable devices – including from smartwatches and fitness apps – could significantly cut policy assessment times, and reduce, or even eliminate, the need for medical exams, often regarded as an invasive procedure.

“That health data is, ultimately, going to tell us more than a blood or a urine sample,” Downey says.

This, he adds, will support more informed decision making while simplifying the application process to ensure faster customer approvals.

“That, for me, is the next evolution of underwriting.”

Innovation, grounded in legacy

With a proud 135+-year heritage and a member of the Nippon Life Group,  Acenda (formerly MLC Life Insurance) has positioned itself at the forefront of innovation in life insurance.

Building on this heritage, Acenda is adopting an innovation-first approach as it doubles down on its commitment to empower and support its adviser network.

“Advisers remain central to our mission of helping more Australians secure coverage and protect their families.

“We’re focused on making things easier for advisers and eliminating their pain points – that’s what our new underwriting engine is all about,” Downey explains.

“This ambition aligns perfectly with our rebirth as Acenda: an innovative, efficient life insurer, determined to lead the market.”

Content Partnership sponsored by Acenda