Until digital is the norm, there will be NIGOs.

While there’s broad agreement that NIGOs are a significant challenge for the life and annuity industry, opinions often vary on their root causes. Recently, Sureify’s Travis Van Dyke and LIBRA Insurance Partners’ Rick Buteau spoke about why more than a third of life and annuity applications are submitted “not in good order” and the following strategies for minimizing NIGOs and speeding up their resolution.

Drive Digital Adoption

In recent years, digital tools, such as e-applications, drop tickets, and electronic signatures, have helped to reduce the occurrence of NIGOs. Despite this, digitalization has had a limited impact on overall NIGOs. Paper applications continue to make up a large percentage of applications and are the main driver of NIGOs. Rick explained that driving adoption of digital tools is crucial, and both carriers and distributors need to focus on education and communication to encourage their use. As part of this, he stressed the importance of tracking and monitoring digital adoption rates.

Enable Open Communication

Until digital has become the application norm, effective resolution of NIGOs needs to be the focus. Travis and Rick discussed how open communication between carriers and distributors is vital for identifying and resolving NIGO issues. This includes identifying common errors, providing clear status updates, and enabling feedback loops. Webinar attendees agreed that cross-team partnerships are a necessity, but expressed difficulties working together across systems. Many are having to rely on manual intervention to solve NIGOs.

Increase Data Transparency

Data transparency was another identified hurdle. Rick explained that carriers that provide distributors detailed data on NIGO causes and trends perform better in resolving NIGOs. And that to effectively implement targeted interventions and improvements, reporting on NIGO rates at the agency and agent level is needed. To measure effectiveness, he often relies on tracking “submission to commission” time. Data recency was another discussed factor holding up processing. Systems that rely on batch data updates are preventing new business from having the latest information needed to process, adding time and frustration to the process.

When it comes to NIGOs, everyone involved is negatively affected. Customers experience delays, carriers lose potential premiums, and producers face delayed compensation. Collectively we all desire fast resolutions. Unfortunately, we’re also equally inhibited in effectively addressing them. There are gaps in today’s process that make resolution more cumbersome than necessary. Sureify is developing solutions that overcome system barriers to speed up NIGO resolutions and processing.

Interested in the full discussion? Watch the replay now.