Cake Expands Reach of End-of-Life Planning Platform with GYST.com Acquisition
Boston-based end-of-life planning platform, Cake recently announced its acquisition of the GYST website (gyst.com), another online end-of-life planning resource.
“Since we began Cake, we have been talking with the team at GYST to collaborate and help people across the US tackle end-of-life planning,” said Suelin Chen, CEO of Cake. “Cake aims to empower people to live in accordance with their values all the way to the end of life. This can only happen if we document and share our end-of-life decisions with our loved ones. This acquisition will provide an even stronger base of services for our combined set of users.”
Founded in 2015, GYST’s mission is helping people address end-of-life planning by securing wills, living wills, and life insurance. The acquisition of GYST.com will bring additional content and a set of engaged users to Cake, reaching more people actively looking for comprehensive planning solutions.
“As a result of this acquisition, we feel GYST users can have their cake and eat it, too,” said Phil Shigo, CEO of GYST, adding that “ Our mission is aligned with Cake — by joining resources, we can better help people get these important documents completed.”
Cake offers a free, comprehensive end-of-life planning platform that guides users to document and share their wishes for healthcare, estate, funeral, and legacy decisions. Users can create, store, and organize critical documents, then grant 24/7 digital access to their family members and loved ones.
By acquiring these resources, Cake strengthens its position as the leading disruptor of the end-of-life planning industry by supporting consumers with free digital planning solutions. Learn more at joincake.com.
Bankers Insurance launches Homeowners Self-Inspection Program using Hi Marley
Florida-based Bankers Insurance announced the formal launch of its Homeowners Self-Inspection program, powered by Hi Marley. After compelling results with the Marley platform in Claims, Bankers worked with Hi Marley as a design partner to pilot the platform in Underwriting. With Hi Marley, Bankers’ customers can complete their own property inspection entirely via SMS text messaging, providing frictionless coordination for the customer and accelerated cycle times for the carrier.
Throughout the pilot, Bankers and Hi Marley worked closely with agents, underwriters, and customers to refine the experience. With the Marley platform entirely focused on the insurance ecosystem, the close working relationship allowed the Hi Marley team to hone the platform for use in Underwriting, testing both complex and non-complex use cases. As a result, Bankers saw dramatic shifts in its inspection timeliness (inspections completed within 15 days). Perimeter inspections completed improved from 46% to 88%, and four-point inspections completed improved from 33% to 83%.
As additional validation, customers utilizing Hi Marley for the self-inspection process have given an average customer satisfaction rating of 4.5 stars.
“Our aim is to deliver a modern end-to-end insurance experience for our policyholders. Working with Hi Marley to pilot new use cases for the Marley platform is an obvious win-win.” said Steve Messina, SVP of Insurance Operations at Bankers. “We are improving our bottom line, but even more, improving the customer experience. And the Hi Marley team is deeply knowledgeable of – and focused on – the insurance ecosystem, which streamlines every conversation.”
Michael Greene, CEO of Hi Marley, followed: “We’re thrilled to have an innovative partner in Bankers to work with us as we design and implement new use cases for the Marley platform. The expansion of Hi Marley across the Bankers enterprise highlights the unique opportunity to deliver an exceptional experience across the entire insurance ecosystem.”
Insurify Gets Top Marks From Consumers Via The Shopper Approved Platform
According to Tod Kiryazov, Head of Product at Insurify, the Cambridge-based insurtech is now the highest ranked insurance comparison platform in the U.S. on ShopperApproved.com. Here is what he wrote in an update on his Linkedin profile.
BIG NEWS! With an average user rating of 4.8/5 from 2,000+ reviews, Insurify is now the #1 highest-ranked insurance comparison platform in the U.S. 🚗 💰 🧡 Since 2016, we’ve resolved to transform the insurance industry by making insurance transparent and empowering people across America to make their own financial decisions.
This is a clarion call: we’re helping change lives, one policy at a time, and making a space for EVERYONE in the world of insurance. Here are just some of the 2,000+ testimonials we’ve received:
“Lowered my insurance 1000$ per year for the same coverage!” – Janelle
“It was great! I got the insurance I needed got about $400 less than anywhere else! The process was so fast and easy I was able to order my registration the next day!” – Mika
“Quick, easy, affordable, superb customer service!!” – Stephanie
And that’s just from this week.
Agency Checklists was one of the first sites to profile the Cambridge-based insurtech when it first launched in 2016. To revisit that profile and to see how far they have come, please refer to our March 2016 interview,”A Q&A With Cambridge Start-Up Insurify- The Site Aiming To Be The Virtual Insurance Agent of the Internet.”
A Cornucopia of Insurtechs Coming Together This Week in Cambridge
Innovation Underwriters, an insurance collaborative will be holding an insurtech get-together this week at the Cambridge Innovation Center. The non-profit is holding the event as a sort of introduction into what the collaborative is about. In addition, various Mass-based insurtechs will be speaking at the event including Bindable, Wunderite,
The Event is free with food and drinks also being provided and will be held from 3PM to 8PM. While an RSVP is not required, it is strongly encouraged. Here is a screenshot with all the details. Here is a snapshot of the event timeline and is linked to the actual page.
