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Why correspondence infrastructure modernization is imperative for life insurers

Life insurers face a unique set of technological challenges that set them apart from their Property & Casualty counterparts. While many P&C carriers have invested heavily in modernization, most life insurers continue to operate with significant technical debt, relying on outdated systems, manual processes, and fragmented technology stacks that create operational headaches across the organization.

These systems aren’t just an IT problem—they’re a business problem. These outdated systems necessitate inefficient, manual processes which slow responsiveness, hinder digital transformation, and prevent life insurers from delivering seamless, personalized experiences customers now expect. JD Power research shows that customer satisfaction in life insurance steadily declines when there’s little to no engagement after the initial sale. Without the infrastructure to support ongoing communication, life insurers miss critical chances to build relationships, maintain trust, and cross-sell additional products in their portfolio.

Patrick then outlined three foundational strategies life insurers should embrace as they look to modernize their correspondence infrastructure:

1) Eliminate tech debt by moving to a modern, cloud-based platform

Moving to the cloud is essential for reducing the high infrastructure and maintenance costs tied to legacy correspondence systems. Cloud-based platforms enable faster updates, lower operational overhead, and provide the scalability insurers need to support evolving business and regulatory demands—without relying on overburdened IT teams.

Equally critical is the need for a centralized content hub that enables communications to be delivered to any channel where it’s required. In these systems, content is managed independently from channel-specific templates and layouts—known as the “presentation layer”. This approach eliminates the need for separate sets of communications for each delivery channel, provides the flexibility to repurpose content to support new channels and experiences as business needs evolve, and ensures consistent messaging and compliance across all channels.

2) Improve the employee experience to drive efficiency

Legacy correspondence systems create significant friction for business teams who must wait weeks or months for IT departments to implement even minor changes. This bottleneck delays time-to-market for new products and communications while adding substantial costs which

Modern CCM platforms enable non-technical personnel to design and update content, set targeting rules, and arrange layouts without having to write code. This enables business and communication teams to take control of the content, rules, and template layout. Built-in approval workflows ensure that legal, compliance, and product teams can review and provide feedback where required, while dramatically accelerating execution. As a result, change cycles can happen in minutes, not months.

Some platforms offer solutions for managing communications sent by customer-facing staff such as claims adjusters and customer service representatives. Whether it’s a customized Welcome Kit, or carefully worded claim denial letter, employees can create accurate, personalized communications without starting from scratch, directly from the customer management systems they are already working in.

3) Use AI to optimize and translate communications at scale

According to Forrester “P&C insurance lags behind pace-setting industries, like entertainment and online retail, by a good five years. And life insurance may be another five years behind that”. One of the core contributors to this trend is unclear communication. Life insurance involves complex products and processes, but the way insurers communicate about them often compounds the confusion. Most correspondence is written by subject matter experts using dense language and industry jargon, leaving everyday policyholders struggling to understand key information.

Forrester’s Customer Experience Index shows that customers who receive clear, easy-to-understand communications are 2.7 times more likely to increase their spending with a company. In a market where customer touchpoints are limited, life insurers need to ensure their communications are clear and accessible to the average customer.

AI can help life insurers optimize their communications for clarity. Modern platforms can analyze an insurer’s full library of correspondence using industry-standard readability metrics like Flesch-Kincaid to pinpoint content that is too dense or technical. Generative AI can then rewrite that content to align with plain language principles—shifting to active voice, simplifying sentence structure, and making the message easier to follow without sacrificing meaning or compliance.

AI also plays a critical role in addressing language accessibility. With more than 20% of U.S. households speaking a language other than English, life insurers must provide communications in preferred languages. AI-based translation tools can complete this work more than 20 times faster than traditional methods, while automatically validating semantic accuracy and formatting. Human review is still essential, but AI ensures teams spend their time reviewing only the exceptions, not every line.

Business impacts of these modernization strategies

• Lower infrastructure and maintenance costs
• Faster change cycles with less reliance on IT
• Streamlined communication management across all channels
• Greater consistency and compliance across touchpoints
• Faster, more accurate responses from frontline teams
• Increased customer satisfaction leading to higher retention and upsell revenue

This is just a preview of the insights shared in this webinar. Complete the form above to watch the full recording.