Life insurance is evolving, and companies like Elevate are at the forefront of this transformation, rethinking the way insurance is designed, priced, and delivered.
In a recent conversation with Matan Abraham, Zane Heyl, and Judith Ndaba of Elevate Life, we explored how the company has reinvented its approach to life insurance, focusing on a seamless customer and advisor journey, operational efficiencies, and an optimised approach to pricing.
A new look at the insurance value chain
The life insurance industry in South Africa is mature, and with a multitude of providers offering comparable products, differentiation is crucial. As Matan Abraham, Elevate’s chief executive, explained, “For us to come in as a new player, we needed to make sure we were solving existing problems to differentiate ourselves. Not just from a marketing perspective, but also through efficiencies and pricing.” The goal was to rethink every step of the insurance value chain, from the customer onboarding process to claims handling, creating a more streamlined and cost-effective experience for both clients and their financial advisors.
Elevate started by identifying pain points in the insurance process. Customers often faced long, complex, and uncertain journeys to get coverage, while advisors were frustrated by cumbersome systems that added unnecessary delays. The solution? A digital-first approach that leverages technology to simplify underwriting and decision-making in real-time.
Matan highlighted the importance of making the customer onboarding process faster and less burdensome. “We built a digital journey, using third-party data sources and codified much of the underwriting process, so decisions can be made in real-time.” This not only reduced the time to get coverage but also cut costs, resulting in lower premiums for customers.
Designing products with flexibility and clarity
When it came to designing life insurance products, Elevate wanted to ensure they were not only comprehensive but also flexible and easy to understand. Matan noted, “We wanted to provide a product that was comprehensive enough to meet customer needs, flexible enough to adapt, and easy to understand.” By removing unnecessary complexity and costs from their offerings, Elevate focused on delivering benefits that customers genuinely need, without the “fat” that often inflates premiums.
This approach also extended to the claims process, with Elevate prioritising clarity in customer expectations and responsibilities. The insurance products are designed to evolve with the customer’s circumstances, allowing them to add or remove components as needed, providing greater control over their coverage.
The key to competitive pricing
In an industry where pricing is often the deciding factor, Elevate’s ability to offer competitive and sustainable pricing was crucial. Judith Ndaba, who played a significant role in optimising Elevate’s operational model, emphasised that the company’s lean, tech-driven approach was instrumental in achieving these efficiencies. “Our approach was to see what available data was out there and connect to it using tech, so that humans didn’t have to go out and have nurses conduct medicals with clients. We could simply link to their medical aid or previous test results.”
By using artificial intelligence and automation to handle tasks that would traditionally require human interaction, Elevate has been able to keep its team small while maximising its impact. Judith further explained, “It’s about finding opportunities where tasks can be done through AI or tech, minimising the need for human interaction.”
One of the biggest challenges, however, has been dealing with healthcare data, as not all healthcare providers are forthcoming in sharing data through their APIs. Judith noted that while some providers were cooperative, others have been more difficult, but the company continues to push for greater access to healthcare data to streamline the underwriting process further.
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Elevate Life is an authorised FSP 50555. Underwritten by Centriq Life Insurance, a licensed life insurer and authorised FSP 7370.
Challenging the traditional underwriting process
The life insurance industry has long relied on traditional underwriting methods but Elevate is working to break that mold. Matan pointed out that the industry’s inertia has been one of the biggest obstacles. “The challenge for me was to appreciate the inertia that pushes us to do things the way they’ve always been done. We are always asking, ‘Why is this done this way? Can’t we use a different data source? Can’t we absorb that risk in another way?'”
By embracing automation and leveraging alternative data sources, Elevate has been able to simplify the underwriting process and build trust with clients by giving them the benefit of the doubt. The company’s goal is to treat every journey as humanly as possible, despite relying heavily on technology to manage scale and efficiency.
A Forward-Thinking Pricing Strategy
Zane Heyl, who oversees Elevate’s pricing strategy, discussed how the company manages to offer competitive pricing while maintaining sustainability. “Despite the change in model, the technical fundamentals largely remain unchanged,” he explained. In the early stages, Elevate relied heavily on its reinsurer’s expertise to help build its pricing engine. As the business grows, they continuously reassess the appropriateness of their pricing model based on real-time data and experience.
A key aspect of Elevate’s success is its rigorous feedback loops, which help the company monitor acquisition costs, reinsurance structures, and other financial metrics in real-time. “We monitor interactions to ensure they stay within the confines of what we initially intended. If someone does not get an automatic underwriting decision, we need to understand why,” Zane said.
The company’s real-time pricing engine has allowed it to adjust quickly, which would have taken weeks or months in traditional pricing models. This agility gives Elevate a competitive edge, enabling it to respond to market changes and customer needs much faster.
The role of advisors in the feedback loop
Elevate’s interaction with advisors plays a crucial role in refining its processes and pricing models. Judith highlighted that advisors are an essential part of their feedback loop, often suggesting ways to streamline the process or raise questions about underwriting decisions. “Our advisors are quite vocal, which we love. They generate a lot of dialogue and contribute ideas for improving things.”
Over time, both clients and advisors have come to trust Elevate’s automated underwriting decisions, recognising that the system can be as reliable as human intervention when it comes to assessing risk and making accurate decisions.
Continuous improvement and future plans
Looking ahead, Elevate is focused on refining its model even further. Judith emphasised that the goal is to push the efficiency of their real-time decisions from 75% to 85% and beyond, incorporating more nuanced data sources to make their underwriting process even more precise.
Matan also spoke about Elevate’s long-term vision, which includes deeper engagement with customers through their reward programme and embedding their products more seamlessly into clients’ lives. “Our unique selling point is how we embed our journey into the lives of advisors in a way that makes the most sense for them, giving them the speed and efficiency to focus on why they entered the industry—fulfilling the needs of their clients.”
As Elevate continues to refine its approach, the future looks promising for a life insurance model built on efficiency, personalisation, and technological innovation.