Life insurance’s digital transformation has modernized application, underwriting, claims, and policy servicing. However, despite these advances, the transformation missed something: the post-claim phase.
This is when beneficiaries and families handle probate, estate settlements, and important financial decisions. Yet carrier engagement drops, even though 96% of beneficiaries are open to ongoing contact.
While every other policy stage has seen digitization, this post-claim phase remains untouched. As a result, data now reveals this is where the commercial return on transformation is being lost.
New research from Empathy and LIMRA surveyed 272 U.S. life insurance claimants and conducted 12 in-depth interviews to identify what this transformation needs to look like.
What life insurance digital transformation has actually changed
Look at where investment has gone over the last decade, and the pattern is consistent: every stage of the customer journey that ends with the customer signing something has been digitized. But the stage that comes after has been left mostly as it was.
Get a quote and apply → Instant quoting, accelerated underwriting, automated risk scoring
Issue the policy and onboard policyholder → E-signature, digital policy delivery, mobile servicing portals
Maintaining the policy → Self-service portals, chatbot support, automated billing
Filing a claim → Faster intake, digital document upload, automated workflows
After the claim → Little to no digital transformation or innovation
This omission is not intentional. Even after the claims modernization, systems remained focused on closing files and achieving “operational success” once the payout is issued. Consequently, no team, metric, or system typically extends beyond this point.
Transformation has made things faster and more efficient, but it’s missed what really matters: whether beneficiaries feel supported enough to stay with the carrier and become a policyholder.
This isn't a claims problem. It's a relationship design problem — and it's one the industry finally has the data to solve.
- Ohad Gutman, Chief Business Officer at Empathy
What the research reveals about claims modernization
The Empathy and LIMRA study ran multivariate regressions to isolate the factors that independently predict advocacy, purchase intent, and long-term engagement after a life insurance claim. The strongest predictor wasn’t any of the metrics that life insurance digital transformation has optimized.
It was post-claim perception: how beneficiaries view the carrier after the payout is complete.
Post-claim perception → likelihood to recommend: β = .46 (p < .001)
Post-claim perception → purchase intent: β = .36 (p < .001)
Once that variable is controlled for, the operational metrics carriers have invested in most heavily (ie, payment timeliness, contact frequency, claim complexity, paperwork burden) show no statistically significant effect on whether the beneficiary comes back.
What beneficiaries and families remember is whether they felt informed and cared for in the months that followed.
What beneficiaries are asking for and not getting
The research asked beneficiaries what kinds of post-claim support would have helped, and what they actually received. The gaps are wide and consistent across categories.
Help with probate: 81% wanted, 17% received
Emotional wellness support: 81% wanted, 24% received
Help closing accounts: 83% wanted, 31% received
The widest gap is that which represents the actual work that comes with loss, work that beneficiaries either do alone or pay lawyers, financial advisors, and consultants to handle on their behalf.
The full list of what beneficiaries want is available for download here, with the largest gaps being help with probate (64-point gap) and emotional wellness (57-point gap).
What the next phase of innovation looks like
Carriers who are rethinking the post-claim experience are focusing on a few key principles. None of these requires starting from scratch; they build on what’s already in place.
1. Treat post-claim as a stage, not an afterthought
Treat the post-claim period as its own stage, with clear resources and goals. The first 30 to 60 days after payout are when beneficiaries and families are most open to support. Carriers who show up during this time keep the relationship strong.
2. Connect the data, not just the systems
Most claims systems track payout dates, but not what happens to beneficiaries after. Closing the last mile means linking beneficiary data, support use, and outcomes, just as underwriting digital transformation did.
3. Pace engagement to match the beneficiary, not the calendar
Generic outreach doesn’t work after a claim because grief isn’t linear. Beneficiaries reject frequent contact but welcome relevance. This distinction must be built into the system, not just in scripts. Matching outreach to where the beneficiary is earns the relationship. Running a generic touch sequence does not.
4. Make the human moments scalable
87% of beneficiaries say they want to keep working with the same agent or representative after the claim. It’s not a feature, it’s a continuity request. The right technology should enable continuity at scale, giving the next person the context they need to avoid starting over.
The commercial case for post-claim digital transformation
The U.S. life insurance industry pays out more than $100 billion in death benefits annually. Each payout reaches a customer who is suddenly thinking about their own planning, and suddenly evaluating whether the institution they just dealt with deserves the next chapter of the relationship. Among beneficiaries who weren’t very satisfied, 71% say a better experience would have made them more likely to buy a policy from the same carrier. Even among the very satisfied, 82% say a better experience would have moved them further toward purchase.
The intent is there, but the infrastructure to capture it isn’t.
That’s the missing return on the last decade of digital transformation in life insurance. Systems and processes set a world-class standard up to the moment a check clears, but after that, the customer experience relies on the same old model. This gap does not reflect a service oversight; it marks the next stage of innovation and claims modernization.
How Empathy moves life insurance innovation forward
The need for post-claim support and digital transformation is clear, but carriers don’t have to do it alone.
Empathy Loss Support™ is the dedicated coordinator 85% of beneficiaries say they want, and only 37% receive it. It's the help with probate that carries a 64-point delivery gap. Every category the research identified as a gap is something the platform was built to close.
Empathy LifeVault™ turns the post-claim moment into the start of the next relationship. When beneficiaries suddenly start thinking about their own planning (wills, trusts, beneficiary designations), LifeVault gives them a place to do it.
The Empathy platform extends the carrier relationship through the months when beneficiaries are doing the hardest work and are most receptive to support.
Research & methodology
Data referenced in this article is drawn from From Claim to Connection: A Blueprint for Generational Loyalty, produced by Empathy in partnership with LIMRA. The study surveyed 272 U.S. life insurance claimants and was supplemented by 12 in-depth interviews.