Canada Life has made several improvements to its New Business Now web site. These changes are in addition to the ones that were made in December to address the dissatisfaction expressed by advisors who had been using the system since its launch in July 2014.

In response to recent comments from advisors, the insurer says it has improved the stability of its New Business Now platform. When completing an online application, the latest Canada Life bulletin says that users will receive messages telling them that the site is temporarily unavailable less frequently.

The company is also extending some of the system's features. The process that facilitates internal replacement of a term policy has been extended to March 31. The maximum period of coverage under provisional coverage or a temporary insurance agreement is increasing from 90 days to 150 days.

As for advisors who share commissions, several have told the insurer that they are unable to enter the percentage of the split into the system if it includes decimals. Canada Life says that, for the moment, advisors may not use decimals when splitting commissions in online applications on New Business Now, even if the system fields allow for their use. The insurer has also asked advisors to refrain from using decimals when splitting commissions on paper applications. The company plans to improve this feature at a later date.

The most recent bulletin from Canada Life includes several other additions and warnings. Among other things, Canada Life is displaying more information on the system screen to make it easier for advisors to choose the right payment option. The insurer says that this change is intended to reduce ambiguity about when the payments will be paid from the client's account.

The insurer has also improved its daily and weekly summary emails, as well as the pending inquiry screens within New Business Now. Underwriting requirements will remain visible even when they have been completed, so that advisors will be better able to track policy progress.

The customer refund process has change, and Canada Life will now send the cheque directly to the client. In addition, the insurer is reminding advisors not to submit their applications both in print and online, since this will cause problems at the time of processing and during the collection of evidence, which will result in further delays.

Advisors have asked what they can do to make sure that applications are handled as efficiently as possible. Canada Life points out how important it is to pay attention to detail when collecting the information required in the application, such as capital letters and hyphenated last names. For example, Canada Life says that advisors should avoid putting a portion of the client's last name into the middle name field, otherwise only the first letter will appear on the contract. Also, illustrations for universal life policies and participating policies must be signed.