South Africa-based insurtech company AllLife Group is making its technology available to Royal London, the UK’s largest mutual life, pensions and investment company.
Leveraging AllLife’s pioneering technology platform, Royal London hopes to transform life insurance for many of the 4,5-million people in the UK living with diabetes, providing cover to clients previously considered ‘uninsurable’.
AllLife has a track record of opening access to affordable life cover to people living with chronic conditions, and became the first company in the world to offer whole life cover to HIV-positive individuals.
AllLife’s services are underpinned by Kalibre, an insurtech platform that uses an innovative risk assessment approach, supported by continuous underwriting. The platform improves the process of buying life insurance for people living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes by reducing the time taken to accept an application from weeks to less than an hour.
The Kalibre Platform uses advanced robo-underwriting and algorithmic pricing to be able to accept and price applications in realtime. This approach significantly mitigates the risk of providing cover to Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics.
Currently, there are about 415-million people living with diabetes, accounting for roughly one in 11 of the world’s adult population. This figure is set to rise dramatically in the next 20 years.
“Since founding AllLife 13 years ago, we’ve been on a mission to deliver innovative, specialised products to people who are typically excluded from purchasing traditional life insurance,” says Ross Beerman, CEO of AllLife Group. “We back people to live by providing them with affordable life insurance, and actively supporting the improvement of their health and well-being.
“Our relationship with Royal London marks the start of an exciting journey to open up access to life insurance for people living with chronic diseases across the globe, transforming the way in which life insurance is delivered.”
The announcement marks the first tie the Kalibre Platform is being used internationally.
“AllLife is a testament to how technology innovation in insurance can open up new markets in the West, where growth has slowed,” says Gary Herbert, partner at LeapFrog Investments. “The announcement with Royal London is a demonstration of the opportunity to deliver better insurance models driven by technology, to marginalised groups globally. Kalibre is unique to the market, and delivers a competitive advantage for insurance partners, previously unseen.”
With Kalibre, Royal London will be able to offer UK diabetics the most advanced life cover available in the market, with an approach that integrates a good upfront customer experience with on-going health management.
According to the World Health Organisation, a series of cost-effective interventions including blood glucose control, exercise, diet and medication can improve outcomes for diabetics. Using Kalibre, when Royal London clients demonstrate they have adhered to their health treatment plans, they may be eligible to receive a reduction in premiums of up to 40% over the life of the policy. The original premium level will never increase.
AllLife pioneered the delivery of life insurance products to HIV-positive customers in South Africa. The company plays an important role in a market where 19,2% of the country’s adult population are living with the HIV virus. To-date it has served more than 100 000 customers, providing a safety net to families by preventing a decline back into poverty.
AllLife has improved the health and mortality rates of people living with HIV, with an average of 15% improvement in the health of AllLife clients in their first six months (measured as the improvement in CD4+ count). AllLife first extended its life cover to people living with diabetes in 2014.
Debbie Kennedy, group head of protection strategy at Royal London, comments: “Securing life cover for people who have been diagnosed with a chronic condition can involve detailed medical questionnaires, followed by exclusions, additional premiums or being declined cover, depending on the nature of their condition. At Royal London, we want to provide products and services that help customers with chronic conditions get the cover they need at an affordable premium.”
Jules Constantinou, regional manager: life health for UK and Ireland at Gen Re, says: “Having worked closely with AllLife on the development of its continuous underwriting technologies, we have seen the transformative potential of the Kalibre Platform. The experience and expertise that AllLife has built up through providing affordable, accessible life cover to thousands of people living with diabetes in South Africa will be invaluable when launching the product internationally.”
