A move by leading insurance company could be a sign of things to come in the way advisors and insurers get paid.
There’s new coin on the block for insurers and advisors.
In a bid to make life insurance products more accessible and easier to buy and maintain, American Century Life Insurance Company of Texas became the latest insurer to announce it is now accepting premium payments from clients in bitcoin block chains.
"Life insurance policies are important products to our clients and can help them in the most stressful and challenging situation. We want to make sure they can pay for their policy in any way they prefer," explained Raz Silberman, the company president and owner.
Clients can now pay their premiums with bitcoins along with cash, checks, bank draft or any type of credit card.
The company thinks that new technologies, such as mobile and wearables, will change the way insurance is sold, policies are serviced, and capital is pooled to manage risk.
A report by Long Finance published in January, said block chain technology like Bitcoin could relegate advisors to a bit part role in the insurance industry.
“Emerging applications, such as smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations, might in future also permit block chains to act as automated agents,” the report’s authors Michael Mainelli and Chiara von Gunten wrote.
“If faith in the technology’s integrity continues to grow, then block chain technology might largely displace two roles of a trusted third party, i.e. preventing duplicate transactions and providing a verifiable public record of all transactions.”
In a bid to make life insurance products more accessible and easier to buy and maintain, American Century Life Insurance Company of Texas became the latest insurer to announce it is now accepting premium payments from clients in bitcoin block chains.
"Life insurance policies are important products to our clients and can help them in the most stressful and challenging situation. We want to make sure they can pay for their policy in any way they prefer," explained Raz Silberman, the company president and owner.
Clients can now pay their premiums with bitcoins along with cash, checks, bank draft or any type of credit card.
The company thinks that new technologies, such as mobile and wearables, will change the way insurance is sold, policies are serviced, and capital is pooled to manage risk.
A report by Long Finance published in January, said block chain technology like Bitcoin could relegate advisors to a bit part role in the insurance industry.
“Emerging applications, such as smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations, might in future also permit block chains to act as automated agents,” the report’s authors Michael Mainelli and Chiara von Gunten wrote.
“If faith in the technology’s integrity continues to grow, then block chain technology might largely displace two roles of a trusted third party, i.e. preventing duplicate transactions and providing a verifiable public record of all transactions.”
