Note from the Publisher: The concensus in the fintech community at large has been that insurtech is the next hot thing in the industry, other than blockchain, of course, which just keeps rolling. To that end, there have been a lot of really interesting launches and announcements in the insurtech space this past year, but none more interesting than the Bloomberg report that San Francisco-based SoFi is going to begin offering life insurance by the end of the year to its customer base, which skews millennials. Great move!
"Social Finance Inc., a fintech startup that made its name by helping college graduates refinance student loans, is adding a new type of financial product: life insurance. The San Francisco company will soon start selling term life insurance to its base of mostly millennial customers, said people familiar with the matter.
SoFi expects to roll out the product, which pays out a benefit if a customer dies during the period of time covered by the plan, before the end of the year or as soon as next month, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t final. The company hopes to attract customers who haven’t used its existing services, the person said. SoFi declined to comment.
Life insurance could be an important new business for SoFi as established competitors face mounting pressure from digital upstarts that can underwrite much faster. SoFi could take a slice of the $159 billion in U.S. life insurance premium revenue generated last year, according to data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a trade group.
Read Full Article at Bloomberg