In another clear sign of the maturing of insurtech into innovation that fosters collaboration and efficiency rather than just disruption, the commercial insurtech startup, CoverWallet, has announced this morning the debut of a new commercial lines platform for the independent agency system marketing channel: CoverWallet for Agents.
The new dedicated platform open to insurance agents across the nation, is offering access and ease to those looking to sell commercial insurance products in a fast, simple and efficient way to clients.
“Since launching our sleek and intuitive technology platform for small businesses, we have had countless requests from agents to work with CoverWallet,” said Inaki Berenguer, CEO and co-founder of CoverWallet. “Today there are 40,000 insurance agencies in the U.S., and we are making it easy for agents to harness the power of data, design, and technology to serve more clients better and faster than ever before.”
Building off of CoverWallet’s awarding winning direct-to-consumer platform
According to Dr. Berenguer, the idea for CoverWallet for Agents has been in the works since the company’s launch. “This is something that we always had in mind,” explained Dr. Berenguer to Agency Checklists. “When we started CoverWallet more than three years ago, these were internal discussions that we had about whether we should have insurance agents in-house or allow anyone who is an insurance agent to use our platform to make it easier for customers to buy and manage insurance. So while our core model is still direct-to-consumer, we also wanted to give access to our platform to any agent or insurance agency in North America that wants to place commercial insurance faster, simpler and more conveniently.”
How CoverWallet for Agents has done that is through leveraging its proprietary platform to provide agents the ability to access and receive instant commercial lines policy quotes that can be purchased and bound in minutes.
“Our insurance agents at CoverWallet, our employees, are incredibly fast and productive in how they service customers. We are exposing that same functionality to independent agents, not only instant quoting and binding, but predictive analytics, recommendation tools, and DIY solutions,” explains Dr. Berenguer. The CoverWallet co-founder says that the overall build-out of the platform for agents was not a massive undertaking, and was done using approximately 80% of the original CoverWallet platform. The result, however, has created a new tool for agents to sell quickly and effectively and that agents are responding to positively.
Agents will not need an existing agency appointment to CoverWallet’s carriers
It is worth noting as well, that based on the agreements CoverWallet already has entered into with various carriers, agents will not need their own appointment with a carrier in order to access specific products on the CoverWallet for Agents platform.
Presently, CoverWallet has agreement from five A-rated national admitted carriers for CoverWallet for Agents.
CoverWallet for Agents has already been piloted
While CoverWallet for Agents officially launched today, the company noted that it had already quietly launched a pilot program for a select group of agents in early October. Consisting of approximately 25 different agencies, about 50 agents in total were given login credentials to try out the program. In return, they submitted user feedback to help the insurtech start-up perfect its platform before launching nationally.
“We have also been collecting a lot of feedback, not so much about the product, but more about the reconciliations or what happened when there is a cancellation, the billing and so on,” explains Dr. Berenguer. “So we have been learning during the last two months how to streamline the process to optimize it for agent users outside of CoverWallet.”
Agents who are part of the pilot program noted the ease of use
“Being able to quickly get quotes for multiple carriers with competitive premiums is a huge advantage in today’s fast-paced, consumer-driven marketplace,” said Joel Wagner, founder of WHINS Insurance Agency and a member of the pilot program. “CoverWallet’s platform is amazingly easy, and we encourage other independent brokers to take advantage of their unique system.”
Sheri Bongers from Denver Insurance added, “CoverWallet for Agents is user-friendly and has been quickly incorporated into my routine. The application is fast, generating immediate quotes. It’s easy to update, bind, and sign, and payment is done electronically.”
More on how interested agents can join the CoverWallet for Agents platform
Agency Checklists queried how agents can sign up for the platform. Dr. Berenguer explained that any agent will be able to get access to the platform. All they have to do is go to agents.coverwallet.com and click “Request demo.” Then there will be a pop-up there where they will have to put their first name, last name, email, and phone number. After that, the on-boarding process begins.
Continuing, he noted that, “The on-boarding process includes providing the license of the agency, the license of the agents that are going to have access, along with proof that they have E&O. They also sign a very basic agreement, and then they are ready to go.”
As for that agreement, Agency Checklists wanted to know a little bit more about the details of what the agreement entailed as well as who owned the expirations as a result of any policies bound via the CoverWallet for Agents platform. In response, CoverWallet noted that since it is the entity that has the appointments with carriers it is the broker of record. The expirations, however, are owned by the agent.
As for billing, right now the policy payment can be made bank account or debit or credit card. There is no charge for agents to sign-up or use CoverWallet for Agents.
Other details that might be of interest to agents
In discussing other unique features about the CoverWallet for Agents site, Dr. Berenguer noted that, in addition to ease of use and fast quoting times, the platform also offers a lot of other unique details and tools to help agents sell more effectively.
In addition to the technological aspects of the platform, agents who use the platform will have access to two levels of reporting.
“When the user signs in, they see all the accounts, which can be filtered by everything that has been quoted, everything that has been bound, total premium in the book, and other features,” added Dr. Berenguer. And while similar to the typical reports agents receive from the carrier, the platform has two viewing levels. “One is by the agency, and the other is by agent because one agency can have multiple agents. Right? So it is very similar to the dashboards and analytics that we have internally at CoverWallet,” adds Dr. Berenguer. “So again, many of the things that we are offering agents are the same things we use internally here. As a high-tech and very analytics-driven company, we are providing access to our technology to agents for free.”
Adding to that, another unique feature that the platform has is the amount of data and analytics available to agents at their fingertips. “Another thing that is unique about the platform is the appetite guide. Agents can come to the platform, log in, get access to the appetite guide, enter in an industry or state and instantly see whether the business is in low, medium or high appetite, and what the probability is of getting that instant quote from us,” added Dr. Berenguer.
When asked just how fast is the instant quote? “In minutes you can have an instant quote that is bindable.”
Agents interested in visiting the platform, can access it via agents.coverwallet.com. For those interested in learning more about CoverWallet in general, please refer to Agency Checklists July 24, 2018 interview entitled, “Dis’cover’ing All About The New Commercial Lines Insurtech Start-Up CoverWallet with Co-Founder Inaki Berenguer.”
