Product, New Business, and Underwriting News – Life Insurance

Life Insurance:::

03/07/2024

Additional enhancements to GI Term onboarding 

We’re continuing to enhance the onboarding experience for both employee – and employer – owned Principal® Guaranteed Issue Term II plans.

Employee-owned plans: What’s new?

After upgrading the digital employee enrollment process last year, we’re excited to let you know we now have a digital process to collect information from clients to start the plan set up.

Once an organization says ‘yes’ to a plan, we start gathering basic information from them. In the past, this was handled with paper forms sent back and forth via email. Now, your clients can provide this information through our business plan onboarding portal – a fast, convenient, and secure process.

• The onboarding specialist has the organization establish portal log in credentials. 
• Then, the organization logs in and provides information about their structure, billing preferences, and who their key decision maker is. 
• Required forms previously in paper format can now be completed online. 
• After the plan is implemented, your client is able to use the same portal and log in information to manage their plan using self-service features, such as autopay enrollment, viewing the plan census, accessing service forms, and viewing/paying bills. 
• This latest enhancement lays a foundation to expand on. Additional digital onboarding capabilities are on the way, including financial professional access and integrated e-signature. These new features will provide a better customer experience and a seamless transition from onboarding to servicing. 

Employer-owned plans: What’s new?

Improvements have been made to the process that helps enhance the experience for employers by reducing the time they’ll spend filling out paperwork and eliminating the need to meet with employees to collect documents. This can result in a faster plan implementation. Other improvements to the process include: 

• The onboarding coordinator prefills documents based on presale information. And conducts onboarding calls with the employer and financial professional to review the digital experience, next steps, and timing.
• Paperwork is sent to the employer electronically for review and eSignatures.
• Insureds receive the Consent to be Insured form via email link. They are able to eSign it within the online system and will no longer receive a separate email with links to sign.

North Carolina, Louisiana, and New Hampshire Drop Ticket reminder 

In North Carolina, Louisiana, and New Hampshire , financial professionals must sign all forms in the application packet, as the state doesn't accept attestation as a valid form of signature. Be sure to provide a valid email address and phone number when submitting a drop ticket. This allows the financial professional to receive the code for e-signature authentication without delays.

 

Part B eSignature and Principal Accelerated Underwriting℠ reminder

In order for an application to go through our accelerated underwriting program, the insured must sign the application Part B within our electronic signature process. If signed differently, we’re not able to access the data needed for this underwriting process. And as result, your client will be required to complete the underwriting requirements based on our routine requirements.

 

New experience for individual life policies

Beginning in later March, when clients with individual life insurance policies log in to their account, they may notice some improvements. We’ve enhanced our online experience where users can see a holistic view of their life policy, along with any other Principal accounts they may have. Through this new web experience, clients can easily manage their policies and make meaningful financial decisions.

 

Reminder: Updates to the Online App process for replacement in IN and WA

When there is a life insurance application written in IN or WA that involves a replacement, we need to collect additional information from the financial professional. In this situation, once the insured has submitted their online application, an email will be sent to the financial professional with a link that will allow them to click and answer questions regarding the replacement.