Munich Re backs title startup

In 2014, Costco chose Protective to be its exclusive life insurance partner, and began providing a universal life product offering to its then-80 million members.

Between December 2014 and October 2015, Protective said 255,560 Costco members requested quotes and 10,165 completed and submitted applications. To date, Costco says Protective has provided more than $7B in coverage to its members.

Protective was also the previous life insurance partner of SoFi. This week, SoFi changed partners and instead integrated access to Palo Alto-based digital term life insurance startup Ladder, which works with Fidelity Security and Hannover Re. Ladder has also started to integrate with other popular fintech touch points such as micro-investing app Stash, which claims 2M registered users.

We’ve seen this elsewhere as well. Visitors to benefits startup Stride Health or online health insurance marketplace eHealth seeking life insurance are referred to Ethos.

In small business insurance, one of the top referring sites to Next Insurance, which raised $83M last week, is the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). NASM is one of several professional associations Next has partnered with.

Earlier this week, Conning put out research that says while the life insurance industry continues to generate steady sales, those steady sales have not translated into a growth in the number of in-force policies — especially compared to the growth in the insurance buying age population.

As more integrations across relevant digital touch points take place, it will be interesting to see how the role of the online affinity channel evolves for life insurance distribution (and if startups can service those partners better than incumbents can).

Get up to speed on Amazon

We’ve put together two presentations on Amazon’s efforts in financial services and in healthcare.

Bookmark both of the slide decks here and here.

Munich Re backs title insurance startup

Two weeks ago, a Manhattan Supreme Court justice struck down a NY state regulation that barred title insurers from passing along marketing and client-relations expenses to customers.

Despite the ruling, more startups are seeking to simplify the title and escrow process. This week, our trackers picked up a $15.6M filing by New York-based Spruce, which integrates with lenders to provide digital title insurance and escrow services. Munich Re/HSB Ventures is a new investor.

Have a great weekend,

Matt
@mlcwong

P.S. Our global fintech investment report launched this week, get a copy below.