In this episode of Deal Talk with 7MA, 7 Mile partner Leroy Davis talks with Barry Jacobson, insurance executive with Paradigm Partners who has over 40 years of experience in the insurance industry. Before accepting his current position with Paradigm Partners, Barry spent years in product development and ran the U.S. life insurance business for Travelers. Barry was also the founder and former President of International Life at ACE, which is now Chubb. Barry is also the creator of Math Motivators, a volunteer-driven math tutoring program that pairs high school students in under served communities with tutors.

Barry begins the episode by providing an overview of the current state of the direct-to-consumer market and why the life insurance industry has lagged behind most other industries when it comes to direct-to-consumer sales. (4:41)  Barry goes on to discuss the challenges the life insurance industry has faced in the direct-to-consumer market. (14:28) Barry then details how insurance companies are using technology to administer policies and educate consumers (17:36) Barry also talks about the pitfalls of direct-to-consumer online sales and the difficulties involved with offering insurance at a lower price online. (23:45) 

Barry spends a few minutes examining how new technology and innovation in DNA collection is helping the insurance industry collect more data on applicants. (29:11) Barry then outlines, from a legal perspective, what data insurance companies can utilize when evaluating applicants and setting prices. (33:00) Barry goes on to discuss why lead-generation may be the biggest obstacle facing the direct-to-consumer market and how technology firms cracking the code. (36:40) Finally, Barry talks about his foray into teaching high school math in the middle of his career and what lead him to found Math Motivators. 

Quotes:

On how millennials have changed the way the life insurance market is communicating with consumers: 

“We want to buy our life insurance online, we want to push a button…We're not giving you our blood anymore, we're not giving you a urine sample, we're not requesting our doctors to send you the reports…and we want a good price for it because you have to be saving money by coming direct to me and cutting out the agent." (27:32)

On how buying life insurance online presents a challenge:

“The insurance companies that are trying to figure this out, one of the biggest hurdles, and they're working through this, is 'how do we educate them through the web? How do we get people, how do we get access to the right people, at the right time, and convince them that they need to buy life insurance without an intermediary?' That's not easy.” (6:39)

Links mentioned in this episode:

·      Epigenetics

·      23andMe

·      Math Motivators

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