Choice Mutual launches platform to prevent life insurance scams

Choice Mutual announced the launch of a mobile app that assists older adults in shopping for life insurance, while also avoiding scams and deceptive marketing. The app gives its users free access to an online platform that provides transparent policy prices and conditions for final expense life insurance products, which cover end-of-life expenses such as funeral arrangements or remaining medical or legal expenses. 

Older people are frequently targeted by financial scams; according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in 2022, adults over the age of 60 reported over 88,000 complaints to the FBI's Crime Complaint Center. The average loss per victim was about $35,000, and the overall total loss was just over $3 billion. 

"First, it's important to remember that the app eliminates all the common friction points that usually prevent people from obtaining the detailed  information they're looking for when investigating final expense insurance products," said Anthony Martin, CEO of Choice Mutual, in an email to Digital Insurance. "Most seniors know that sharing their personal information with insurance companies or lead aggregators will result in an onslaught of unwanted marketing attempts via phone and email. We intentionally designed the app to alleviate these concerns so they could obtain the necessary information, which affords them the proper context to make an informed buying decision."

The mobile app does not access data from the user's device, allowing users to remain anonymous and protect their privacy, and users do not have to create an account that requires personal information or contact information. 

Martin explained that the app receives price data by contacting insurers directly and asking for pricing and product limitations, such as state availability, age requirements and coverage limits. For carriers that do not provide this information, Choice Mutual uses its technology to extract the data from the providers' websites. This information includes prices, the type and duration of the coverage, whether the premium will increase over time, qualifications, age limitations, death benefit limitations and details on whether a policyholder is insured immediately or must wait before coverage begins. 

"Regarding transparency in product pricing and policy conditions, we have taken great care to display in a user-friendly format all the necessary context (pricing and policy conditions) users would need. Sadly, some insurers in this market have intentionally designed their products, websites, and advertising to be confusing or lacking conspicuous context, so the buyer doesn't fully understand the pricing structure or the conditions of the policy," said Martin.

Choice Mutual's mobile app currently presents over 25 insurers, and plans to add more in the future as carriers release final expense life insurance products.