As part of Life Insurance Monitor‘s ongoing research into the life insurance space, we track key trends to keep our clients better informed about where other firms are allocating resources. LIMRA predicts life insurance premiums to continue to grow in 2025, after reaching a new high of $15.9 billion in 2024. Below, we’ll quickly highlight two important areas where the industry has enhanced its digital experience in the past year and explore some of the most prominent trends shaping the future of life insurance in 2025.
Prospect experiences get a boost
Life insurance issuers addressed their digital offerings last year by bolstering in their in-house prospect experience. Of all digital efforts noted amongst our coverage set, prospect experiences led the way, making up 51% of the tracked changes to insurer’s sites. Ensuring a strong and straightforward prospect experience makes it easier for potential customers to understand information and prove why they should choose a firm over a competitor.
This year, two firms exemplified this by overhauling major public site pages with large amounts of helpful information. MassMutual launched a new promotional push for its Apex VUL product, creating a dedicated microsite providing prospects with:
- A detailed product description and explanatory video
- A breakdown of a hypothetical case study
- PDF marketing resources, including guides, FAQs, and case studies
- A Table of Contents button that enables easy navigation via a sliding menu
Essentially, this new microsite houses a centralized hub accomplishing the task of creating a streamlined experience for prospects seeking out the Apex VUL product.
Next, Prudential also contributed significantly to its prospect-facing experience by transforming its public site Newsroom to a dedicated microsite, including the following:
- A redesigned navigation structure
- An Overview page with a rotating banner highlighting four key news items
- Sections for Latest News, Featured Research, and Media Resources
- A darker header and improved contrast in the main navigation for better readability
- A search bar now tucked behind a magnifying glass icon for a cleaner design
The refreshed Newsroom provides greater access to key information and uses an organized structure for prospects to navigate through. Through these examples from MassMutual and Prudential, we can see that the life insurance industry is aiming to make the prospect journey much more informative.
Insurers embrace a mobile-first world
In today’s fast-paced world where virtually everyone owns a smartphone, it is paramount for any business to fully optimize its mobile phone experiences. The life insurance industry is no stranger to this practice as multiple firms underwent upgrades to their mobile apps. Notably, three firms in our coverage set—Lincoln Financial, MassMutual and New York Life—accounted for nearly 75% of all mobile changes in the past year. MassMutual and New York specifically get a spotlight here for their top-to-bottom mobile app overhauls.
MassMutual overhauled its mobile app with a double-edged approach focusing on ease of use and depth of information. One of the biggest changes is the introduction of a new Payments tab, now housed in the main bottom navigation. This feature allows users to easily pay bills, set up autopay, manage bank accounts, and track payment frequency—all in one place. Wisely, the rollout was done in stages to not overwhelm or confuse the MassMutual customer base with a totally new interface. Another significant update is the addition of a Featured Article section on the home screen, highlighting select content and providing ample amounts of financial guidance. These updates showcase MassMutual’s commitment to a more informative, and simultaneously seamless experience—ensuring policyholders have easy access to tools and resources without wasting time on scrolling and typing.
In June, New York Life officially launched its mobile app for life insurance customers. The app ranks among the best in our coverage group for its straightforward layout and robust offering of features. Notably, the app allows policyholders to manage their accounts with ease including viewing policy details, making premium payments, checking transaction history, and accessing important documents.
The app also allows account owners to access important desktop features such as updating personal information, adjusting communication preferences, managing biometrics and contacting their advisor all from their fingertips. Helpfully, New York Life also eases first-time users in with a four-part onboarding experience, highlighting the previously mentioned features.
As we look ahead to 2025, we’ll wait and see whether life insurance firms continue to double down on enhancing these two digital experience trends or if a new area of innovation will emerge, pushing the industry in unexpected directions. While consumer expectations are constantly evolving, one thing is for certain: This year is sure to bring even more opportunities for life insurance firms to stand out.
Christopher Iannaccone
Christopher Iannaccone is an analyst on CI's annuity and life insurance research teams.