Accelerated Underwriting and COVID-19

The individual life underwriting landscape continues to evolve rapidly – innovating faster ways of selling and underwriting life insurance for a new generation of prospective buyers. In addition, the COVID-19 global pandemic is driving carriers to adapt even more rapidly Accelerated Underwriting (AUW) Programs. This has been in the form of expanded eligibility limits and fast-tracking the adoption of alternative data sources during a period of time where traditional underwriting requirement were not easily accessible.

Building on the volume of existing research, Munich Re Life US conducted an accelerated underwriting survey to capture new and emerging trends in the U.S. individual life accelerated underwriting market. Many of the findings in this survey were compared against Munich Re Life US’ 2018 accelerated underwriting survey to highlight key trends over the past two years. 

The survey highlights a few high-level survey findings such as how the pandemic has led to even more carriers expanding eligibility limits and fast-tracking the adoption of alternative data sources but the questions remains whether these changes are permanent or temporary. 

Read more about emerging accelerated underwriting trends on the Munich Re Life US website.