Telephone Interviews by Underwriters
IBU introduced its model to use experienced underwriters to conduct telephone interviews more than a decade ago. Since then, the model has proven its worth to the industry as a viable APS alternative.
Dozens of companies order thousands of IBU interviews each month to reduce APSs and combat anti-selection. Some of these innovative companies have actually changed their underwriting guidelines to automatically require an IBU interview. Other companies have embraced Simplified Issue products using an IBU interview as the cornerstone to developing more competitive offerings with very fast turnaround.
The fundamental value of our model is derived because all IBU underwriters are former home office underwriters. For common conditions such as high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes and depression, IBU interviews are proven to improve time service and reduce costs without compromising risk.
IBU underwriters take a conversational and relaxed approach in speaking with proposed insureds. Their experience and “gut instinct” allows them to pick up on nuances in the conversation and probe more deeply into possible areas of concern. The result is reliable, relevant information that enables confident decisions and minimizes anti-selection.
Click here for read about how IBU underwriters complete applications over the telephone and obtain voice signatures.
Client Examples
Working with IBU, the company carved out certain impairments where they previously used an APS and began ordering an IBU by an underwriter instead. They successfully reduced their APS count from 28% to 20%. A thorough audit of 200 cases conducted by the company further increased its comfort level in replacing these APSs with IBU interviews.
The company was concerned by the number of claims they were experiencing on a particular block of business. To find out why, they started using an IBU interview on every case. The relaxed conversational approach and underwriting knowledge of IBU underwriters elicited far more information about the proposed insureds. This allowed the company to weed out adverse selection, reduce APS expense and get good business on the books more quickly.
One of the largest term insurance writers in the United States was finding that most APSs obtained for applicants with anxiety and depression were not detailed enough to allow for sounds underwriting decisions. This company now uses an IBU interview instead of an APS for these cases and gets better information from the IBU interview. In addition to better information, using IBU has resulted in lower acquisition costs as well as improved turnaround time.
