Sleep, Wearables and The Future of Underwriting

Insurers worldwide are grappling with the ever increasing pace and volume of data available in many markets. This includes both the availability of new data fields and the potential use of a wider variety of data sources leading to changes and enhancements to both underwriting and how insurance products are constructed, sold and managed. Automated underwriting and using different (better) rating factors with the potential to accurately track risk and improve mortality and morbidity if optimised, are at the forefront of many of these emerging changes.

This presentation considers the impact and implications of sleep patterns as a new rating factor for life insurance products. Recent developments in sleep science have highlighted that sleep may not only be one of the three pillars of health but the foundation on which the other two pillars, exercise and healthy eating are built. Ultimately impacting all causes of mortality and linkages to dread diseases.

Historically, accurate and independent data on sleep patterns were not available. But sleep data is now readily available and reliable with the improvements to the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of modern wearables. This offers insurers access to consistent and reliable data which provides an accurate view on the sleeping patterns of policyholders over time.

Sleep is also one of the easier patterns to improve and could yield significant value in both absolute longevity and the quality of the last years of life if optimised. This combination of biological importance, availability, trackability of data, general scientific consensus on the impact and importance of sleep and the potential benefit to consumers make it one of the most interesting and exciting potential new rating factors to be considered.

As part of our presentation, we will also showcase the software platform, that ElevateLife uses, to provide insight  regarding the information captured from wearables to guide their underwriting decisions. We consider the impact that this could have on the underwriter’s role and potentially move from a moderator and risk manager to a mentor who simultaneously improves policyholders’ health and reduces the cost of claims for the insurer.