Life Insurance Reimagined: How iCover Leverages Technology for Faster, Simpler Coverage

Imagine a young mother of two suddenly loses her husband in a tragic accident. The $10k life insurance policy he had in place for her and their children will be quickly exhausted as costs run out of control — especially expenses related to childcare.Our young mother is now her children’s last remaining parent, so what would happen to them if they were to lose her, too? Understanding how indispensable life insurance is to protect her children, she goes through the arduous process of getting it, but this takes 21 days and involves time-consuming interviews with the insurance provider’s representatives, as well as blood and urine tests. At the end of this difficult process, the representative names a figure for her premiums that are going to be more expensive than she can afford.Now imagine this same single mother taking this tragic background and using it to launch her own life insurance platform. Her innovative solution presents people with a range of coverage options in only five minutes.This is the true story of Nicole Mwesigwa, co-founder of iCover, a new life insurance platform that is reimagining how Americans protect themselves and their families.

The Problem with conventional life insurance

Americans are currently at heightened risk of falling into financial difficulties due to their lack of life insurance coverage. According to MarketWatch, “About 100 million Americans are either without life insurance or inadequately insured, acknowledging their need for additional coverage.”Part of the problem has been the conventional customer experience for purchasing life insurance, which has been unnecessarily challenging. As NerdWallet reports, “Typically, it takes four to eight weeks for traditionally underwritten policies to be approved and issued.”Mwesigwa’s personal experience inspired her to imagine a fast, intuitive customer experience for obtaining life insurance that presents people with all their options — not just the expensive upsell.

Leveraging technology to revolutionize the life insurance industry

As Srinivasan explains, iCover leverages advanced AI-based technology to assess prospective customers’ medical and health disclosures and deliver a highly accurate, personalized offer in only five minutes. That’s less time than it would take to listen to two pop songs on the radio.One reason iCover generates such accurate offers is its groundbreaking approach to soliciting disclosures from people.“We never use reflexive questioning, which is the kind of questioning in which the user’s answer triggers a cascade of other questions,” says Srinivasan. “People hate it when they give information only to be punished with more questions, so it’s common for them to start withholding information. That’s why surveys that rely on excessive reflexive questioning can actually be self-defeating.”The iCover team designed their intake questionnaire to ask a single multiple-choice question in response to any medical condition the participant flags as relevant. “It can have anywhere from two to five answer options, each designed to indicate how severe the condition is,” Srinivasan explains. “This superior survey design enables us to reduce the amount of time it takes for people to apply. Once the application is complete, iCover’s AI-based system automates the underwriting process.

Delivering life insurance options in only five minutes

Srinivasan and Mwesigwa developed iCover to use sophisticated AI deep-learning algorithms to process applicants’ answers and assess their level of risk. Given AI’s lightning fast processing capability, this automation means people receive a response in a fraction of the amount of time that a traditional life insurance assessment process would take. The iCover platform delivers an instant offer that presents the person with a range of choices.“A five-minute consumer journey was our goal from the very beginning,” Srinivasan says. “That’s because studies show customer engagement can drop off rapidly after that length of time.”According to Srinivasan, iCover’s mission is to get America protected, which is why he and Mwesigwa prioritized meeting today’s consumers where they are.“Everyone is busy,” Srinivasan says, “and the world seems to be spinning faster and faster. The idea that people would be willing to subject themselves to a weeks-long, if not months-long, vetting process is ridiculous in today’s environment. You can order everything else online and get it dropped off at your doorstep the next day, if not in just a few hours. Now, you can get life insurance with that same ease.”To protect insurers, iCover’s system then checks the applicants’ details against industry-approved third-party data.

A Simple, streamlined, intuitive, and fast customer experience with iCover

Anyone who is interested in protecting their family should have a robust life insurance policy. Anyone who wants to acquire one without having to endure an unnecessarily arduous and invasive process should consider using iCover.“Life insurance customers deserve a simple, streamlined, intuitive, and fast customer experience,” Srinivasan says. “With iCover, now they can have one.”About the Author: As featured on the Price of Business radio show, PR News, Communications Intelligence Magazine, and SheVentures, Elizabeth Galewski is a professional writer and media relations expert. In her previous career, she taught English composition at the college level for more than twelve years. She earned her B.A. from Wellesley and her M.A. from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as completed doctoral coursework in Rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Elizabeth Galewski, Special to California Business Journal