Digital life insurance distribution is the software through which a life insurance policy is bought online and looked after over its life. It is the digital front end of a life insurer. It covers three things: the online application, the order system through which financial advisers sell policies and annuities, and policy servicing. Policy servicing means handling the customer's requests after the sale.
A life policy can run for thirty years. Over that time, the customer may change their address, or change the nominee, the person who receives the money. They may also ask for a copy of the policy. Each of these requests used to need a paper form at a branch. Digital distribution software lets the customer do them in an app or on a website.
Consider a 29-year-old in Coimbatore who wants ₹75 lakh of term cover. Term life insurance pays a fixed amount to the family if the insured person dies within a set number of years. She fills in the application on the insurer's website in about 20 minutes. The software checks her identity through identity verification, as KYC rules require. It sends her answers to the insurer's underwriting rules, which decide whether to accept her and at what price. Once she pays, the policy is created in the insurer's life and annuity policy administration system. Two years later, she marries and changes her nominee to her husband in the app. The change takes a few minutes.
In America, many annuities are sold through financial advisers. The adviser places the order on a wealth management platform. Digital distribution software then sends the order to the insurer, with the right forms for each state.
This software sits in front of the insurance core system, not inside it. The core holds the official policy record. The front end collects the customer's information and shows the policy back to them. Many life insurers run cores that are decades old, so a modern front end is often the quickest way to improve what customers see.