How Quickly Can We Get This Set Up?

This is something that's not discussed, and generally not handled at all – but always seems to be an issue. Once the decision for the loan is agreed to, it's always a big rush to get the insurance in place so that the loan can be implemented. We know this and are prepared for it – and have processes in place to minimize any delays.

Left to standard practice, life insurance policies take about 3 weeks to get put in place. The application needs to be filled out and signed, it gets put into the life insurance company's systems in a queue, medical requirements get booked which takes some time. Then there may be requests for doctors reports which can delay things. And with corporate owned life insurance the underwriters ask for a bunch of non-standard corporate information. Getting that information together often delays the policy issue.

Here's how we expedite policy issue – it's mostly through reduction in any delays. And in the end, it's also about our expert administrator working closely with your expert administrator.

Rather than booking a telephone call for your medical history questions, we will step you through them during the application process. The medical information is immediately available to the underwriters to start work because it's entered into the life insurance company's systems with the application. This saves often 3–4 days. Further, some companies have automated underwriting so if everything aligns perfectly this alone can result in a policy being issued in 2–3 days.

We will immediately provide your admin person a list of corporate documents that we know the underwriter is going to request. We don't wait for the underwriter to review and then ask us – which can delay for days. We're proactive. Generally administrators can get us this information next business day so it's pretty much presented to the underwriter as soon as they start their review of your application.

If there are any in person requirements (i.e. a blood and urine sample) we will contact the medical company and ask that they expedite contacting you to setup an appointment.

If a doctor's report is required we will immediately contact you and request that you contact your doctor and ask that they expedite. Doctors reports are the biggest slow down in the process so our staying on top of this shortens timeframes substantially.

And if there is urgency above and beyond this, we can ask that the life company make an exception for your application and bump us to the top of the queue. Results of this are mixed; some companies actually place us at the top of the queue automatically because of our volume. Others will do it for us if we ask specifically, and for a valid reason. Others may not accept a request like that – it varies by company.

Ultimately, if you have the need to get life insurance in place in an expedited fashion, we don't do this on an adhoc basis – we actually have a defined process to make sure this happens.