Western & Southern Announces Two New Digital Life Insurance Products in Collaboration With Afficiency

Western & Southern Financial Group announced the introduction of two new life insurance products designed for Western & Southern’s digital distribution through Afficiency’s platform.

These life insurance products – a whole life product called Simple Whole Life and an income protection product called IncomeSense – are the first Western & Southern products to be released on Afficiency’s all-encompassing digital platform. These products can be purchased through a completely digitized process, allowing applicants to learn about the product quickly and easily online, complete an application and receive instant underwriting, and purchase and receive their new policy within a matter of minutes. They are also available via API to fully embed at a point of relevance for consumers in other digital platforms they already use, including benefit administration platforms, FinTech apps, banks and more.

These products are issued by Western-Southern Life Assurance Company, and are distributed through Gerber Life Agency. All companies are members of Western & Southern.

“Western & Southern strives to offer our customers and potential customers innovative products that meet their life insurance needs when, where and how they choose to meet them,” said Jill T. McGruder, chief marketing officer for Western & Southern. “The world is moving to digital buying behavior, and we are aligning with these fast-growing trends. These two products are the first of several we hope to offer in the future in collaboration with Afficiency.”

Simple Whole Life is an individual life policy that offers real-time underwriting done completely online – digital end-to-end process – without the need for medical exams, offering healthy applicants the potential for less expensive coverage than an equivalent group whole life policy. 

IncomeSense is a declining term life insurance solution that can guarantee a monthly income stream to beneficiaries to help replace a wage earner’s income. It is a simple, fast and fully digital solution that can help ensure the standard of living that a family enjoys remains in reach even if the unthinkable happens with the death of the household’s income provider. Instead of providing a lump sum upon the death of the insured, IncomeSense makes a specified monthly payment for the life of the policy.

“We are excited to offer these two new innovative products,” said Adam Zuckerberg, vice president of Worksite Solutions for Western & Southern. “We have seen lots of interest and demand by a number of employers that are happy to offer these in-demand digital products while limiting their administrative work. It’s a fantastic worksite benefit to offer simple, efficient, and sought-after products to employees that even have convenient individual payment options.”

“In addition to worksite, Western & Southern has many retail distribution platforms working to launch these solutions, including some this month,” said Ben Fotsch, vice president of Digital Strategy & Execution. “Some distributors will use Western & Southern’s digital life insurance platform, www.myLifeApp.com, while others are electing to fully embed the solutions via API into their own UX. This flexibility and support offered by Western & Southern enables digital platforms to offer these solutions in their preferred method.”

The collaboration between Western & Southern and Afficiency is the result of growing demand among consumers for an entirely digital process for buying life insurance and income protection products, particularly amid continued concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.