New-Age Insurance: What Is It, Why In Demand?

The new age insurance saves time as well as simultaneously is financially savvy. Today, understanding the vicious rivalry protection insurance provisers have a digitalised presence with different online handles and running insurance missions to illuminate, teach and spread awareness in regards to the protection.

With new-age insurance, the contracts are effectively available with different choices. BW Businessworld had a conversation with Mayank Gupta, Co-Founder and COO, Zopper to know new-age insurance in details. Edited excerpts;

What is new-age insurance, and why is it beneficial?

New age insurance marries the benefits of traditional insurance plans with the convenience of latest technology innovations, thereby offering an easy, affordable and relevant insurance offering to the customers. Since new-age insurance is based on digital model, the insurance policies of these businesses are economical as compared to their traditional ones. Even the customer buying journey in case of new-age insurance is less cumbersome, has nominal paperwork and doesn’t involve multi-step process. Additionally, for a new-age insurance, the claim settlement process is no more a hassle and these businesses offer customer-friendly claim settlement process thus resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

Is new-age insurance better than traditional insurance? How?

Traditional insurance had limitations of information, access and affordability. New age insurance solves these problems by providing clearer information in simple words that can be understood by a common man, making insurance available to everyone by way of websites and apps, and giving customers the flexibility of comparing various plans for various providers.

In addition to this, using the innovation in payment solutions, insurers are also creating smaller premium plans so that the affordability increases and more customers take the first step in buying their first insurance plan. With new-age insurance, customers have the facility to reach out to the customer support 24x7 and can even connect with them via calls or over e-mails to solve their queries. Thus buying a new-age insurance is easier, faster and convenient than traditional insurance.

What's leading the rise of new-age insurance?

The digital revolution in India has given a positive spin to almost all industries as well as to consumer empowerment in all walks of life. Insurance is not left untouched, though the wave of technology in insurance sector came a bit later than it hit the other industries. Additionally, the pandemic has led to a significant increase in prioritising technology initiatives with urgent deployment of digital solutions by insurers in India.

The pandemic had a silver lining for the insurance ecosystem at large. Insurance companies have improved their digital platforms by upgrading legacy systems, bringing in virtual assistants and offering superior customer focus, digital readiness, and automated workflows. Moreover, funding in Insurtechs has grown globally and even India has shown very strong momentum over last few years. So, these are some key factors that are leading to the rise of new age insurance.

What impact could be expected if people go for new-age insurance instead of traditional insurance?

India has a low insurance penetration as well as low insurance coverage. Proliferation of new-age insurance plans and distribution techniques will help in improving these metrics, and help more individuals safeguard their future against unforeseen financial risks. With greater adoption of technology, offerings such as embedded insurance can significantly transform the customer insurance buying journey and help to create customised and need-specific insurance products.

In the long run, with easy access to policy details, affordable premiums, hassle-free buying processes, minimal paperwork, and smoother claim settlement process will help to win the trust of customers around different insurance products and in turn boost insurance penetration in India, which accounted for only 4.2 per cent in FY21.