A survey of insurance advisors on electronic application submission and processing indicates that advisors believe an e-transaction system for the life and health industry would be good for their own businesses, according to a recent survey.

The survey results were released following a summit meeting on an initiative that aims to develop a common e-transaction solution for the Canadian life and health industry. The meeting was organized by CLIEDIS (the Canadian Life Insurance Electronic Data Interchange Standards association) and held in late January.

“Advisors see this change as resulting in a more satisfied customer…as well as greater professionalism," stated Byren Innes, Senior Vice President & Director with NewLink Group Inc., a consultancy firm to the life insurance industry. Mr. Innes is also a member of the CLIEDIS board.

Among other findings, the survey concluded that advisors believe e-transactions would increase their productivity and revenue; improve client service due to time savings and reallocation of existing administrative resources; speed up the application-to-issue cycle; improve accuracy; and improved client satisfaction and perception of the industry.

“Advisors are uniform in saying that this is the single most-important change that can happen and should have been implemented years ago!” stated Mr. Innes.