10 Benefits Of Digital Signatures For Insurance Agents

Many industries have been taking digitalization by storm recently, and this goes the same for the insurance sector. With the existing challenges pertaining to the pandemic, many people prefer to transact digitally.

This is where insurance agents can maximize the use of electronic signatures when working with their policyholder clients.

If you’re an insurance agent finding some ways to elevate yourself against other competing agents, you can use this tool to gain momentum in the insurance market.

Electronic signatures are modernizing processes for what once was conventional; electronic signatures actually offer better security than physical signatures.

You can save many operational and transportation expenses when sending out documents over email or online.

In a world where everyone desires to make transactions more convenient and practical, electric signatures are a great solution to these preferences. Allow your insurance clients to sign documents online.

10 Benefits Of Digital Signatures For Agents

digital signature

If you’re still on the fence about using digital signatures for your insurance deals, take a look at more of its benefits below:

#1. Digitalizes Documents

Since many businesses started to understand the benefits of digitalization, many are gradually shifting to these systems.

Your insurance company can switch to paperless systems by using an electronic signature. Businesses used to have to print out countless pieces of paperwork and snail-mail them to the recipient to get signed and mail it back to the sender again.

This will lead to a lot of paper waste and comes with more risks for document losses or stolen files. Documents can be kept fully digital with electronic signatures.

Electronic signatures are very convenient since you can create the digital copy in just a few minutes, have them electronically signed by your client, and have it emailed back to you.

All these digitalized efforts make the entire insurance filing process more accessible and convenient, reducing efforts for both your clients and colleagues.

#2. Offers Security

One of the most imperative concerns for insurance agents is to ensure that their insurance files and documents are fully secure.

They provide to protect customer data and all the information included in the insurance contracts. Fortunately, public-key cryptography is used for digital signatures. Private and public keys are used as part of this cryptographic method.

This simply means the data can only be viewed by the recipient of the file or your client who needs to sign it.

The signer and the signature can only be linked together if both parties have a digital certificate issued by a certificate authority. The document is secure, accurate, and authentic because of public-key cryptography.

Authenticity and security are essential considerations when it comes to sign documents online. Documents signed digitally are less susceptible to duplication or modification.

By encrypting data, the sender can only decode the data received by the recipient. The entire process also includes authentication, in which the sender must validate all information.

Signatures can be authenticated and verified using one-time passwords and pin codes. Some digital signatures also come with a time-stamping feature that allows recording the time when the document was signed. This reduces any chances of fraud and document tampers.

#3. Reduces Operational Expenses

Operating in a physical office can be expensive. With the price tags of stationery materials increasing yearly, your insurance business can accumulate a hefty budget for paper and other office accessories alone.

When going for a printed insurance contract, you need to spend money on paper, ink, print equipment, transportation or logistics cost, and so on. The expenses continue to rise as you include the costs of errors and delays due to manual tasking.

Finally, when such paper documents are no longer needed, you’ll need to get rid of them. This means you need to pay for rubbish removal.

All these tasks and additional efforts contribute to the organization’s operational overhead. You can save a lot of costs when you use digitalized documents and signatures instead.

#4. Simplifies Signing Process For Your Policyholder Clients

Your policyholder client’s time should be respected at all times. Hence, you must consider their availability when transacting with them.

When you use digital signatures, you can make it easier for them to sign their policies and contracts in the comforts of their home or wherever they are.

Make it easy and convenient for them to deal with you to save their time and be happy with your service.

You should navigate them through when using an electronic signature app or software, so they won’t feel stressed or lost on how to go through them.

#5. Saves Time For Everyone Involved

The best advantage of electronic signatures is the elimination of waiting time. That signature no longer needs to be awaited until your manager returns from a conference or vacation. The same thing goes for earning your client’s signature.

Whether the other party is busy on their leisure travel, work obligations, or are miles away from you, they can still easily sign your files and documents.

Businesses can sign documents and contracts instantly, using digital signatures, saving time and money. Mainly if the person required to sign is in a different country, there are considerable savings in cost and time.

Gone are the days when you need to travel and meet them up physically or snail mail the files to their country. With your computer or smartphone, documents can be sent and received with the proper signatures.

#6. Expedites Sale Cycle

Increasing or growing your leads for insurance policies can be pretty challenging. And when you finally are about to close a sale and the client is ready to commit to an insurance policy, you might be on the losing end if you live far from that person.

However, you can still close the sale quickly and successfully, thanks to digital signatures. The company authorities and the client can sign electronically, sealing the deal and contract in a few days. Overall, this shortens the sale cycle.

As a service, the insurance agent offers to complete the customer’s paperwork in a couple of days. You can get all the necessary authorities, approval, and signatures from your insurance company and have them sent to your client in no time.

On the contrary, you could lose a potential sale if you tell your customer that the entire gathering of signatures and documents might take longer than they can afford.

This will simply make them back off from the deal. To avoid this, take advantage of your paperless system and have everything ready in a few days.

In a shorter business cycle, agents can spend more time conversing with existing clients and reaching out to potential clients.

You can free up more time and energy generating leads and marketing your insurance offerings.

#7. Legally Valid

Digital signatures ensure the authenticity of a signature. They’re comparable to any other paper signature in court.

With time stamping and easy archiving, audits and compliance can be improved and more accessible. You and your client won’t have to question whether the legal courts will accept these signatures.

E-signatures are legally valid, so your client can feel more secure with this fact. Documents and data are only available to parties who have been granted access.

And the e-signatures have complied with laws, so they’re legally valid for any transactions in the government.

#8. Improves Customer Experience And Satisfaction

The convenience of digital signatures enables customers or signers to sign important documents wherever they are. Your clients are busy people and are committed to other tasks and work in a day.

It could be tough to meet them physically just to get their signature. Especially if you’re offering life insurance policies for stay-at-home parents, they might feel reluctant to meet you up physically.

With electronic signatures, they don’t have to feel burdened about facing you physically.

With a few taps on their tablet, laptop, or phone, they can sign and close deals with you as their insurance agent. Since you make the process fast and easy, you stay on their good side.

If your client comes from a remote area or town, this is even better for them. They’ll feel satisfied, pleased, and happy with how fast and quick it is to work with you as their agent.

#9. Errors And Mistakes Can Be Prevented

When preparing paper documents, there are high chances for errors of any sort, and when these happen, you need to edit them over again and re-print everything, which equates to more wastage and costs.

Fortunately, using digital signatures can prevent such unnecessary expenses for mistakes. When an error is discovered as it is being made, it is simpler to fix it.

Notifying clients to rectify errors before they enter the system by sending alerts or notifications when there’s incorrect or missing information is an excellent way to prevent mistakes.

Since everything is in digitalized formats, editing and correcting errors are easier done than physical copies. Overall, this improves customer experience too.

#10. Improves Workflows

The digital signature ensures better workflow efficiency since delays are prevented. The workflow is shorter when you don’t have to track the physical documents after snail-mailing them.

There might be chances of loss, uncertainties, and wrong deliveries. With digital signatures, you rest assured that your client will receive a copy of the policies in less than a minute.

This speeds up the entire process. There are also reminder options if your client forgets to sign and send you the policy files.

Conclusion

Insurance documents can be signed very quickly, wherever and whenever, with an electronic signature.

As soon as a client decides to buy an insurance policy, they can complete the process using their gadgets. With all the benefits mentioned above, it’s hard to say no to using digitalized signatures.

Linda Chavez

I'm a burial & senior life insurance expert, independent agent, Founder & CEO of Seniors Life Insurance Finder. I have been working in this sector since 2004 and established my own company in 2014. I have a team of seven members, and we are trying hard to share the knowledge we've gathered. We know how difficult often it is to find an affordable policy. Hence, we are doing our best to help you.