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Beyond the Payout: Loyalty That Lasts Generations

Author

Ron Gura
Co-Founder & CEO
Empathy

November 2025

Every year, U.S. life insurers fulfill one of the most important promises in financial services: being there for families when it matters most. Insurers pay some $90 billion in death benefits annually, offering stability at a moment of profound disruption. Yet once the payment is made, the relationship usually ends. Fewer than 1 in 10 beneficiaries ever convert into customers.

This conversion gap is not simply a sales issue. It shows that the industry’s most important moment of truth remains transactional — a missed opportunity to build trust and loyalty across generations.

Claims Satisfaction

This is not the first time the industry has reflected on the claims experience. LIMRA’s 2013 The Moment of Truth: Individual Life Insurance Claimant Satisfaction research found that while claims satisfaction rates were overwhelmingly high at 95 percent, the difference between a satisfied claimant and an extremely satisfied one is significant. Compared to those who were merely satisfied, extremely satisfied claimants were four times more likely to be interested in doing additional business, three times more likely to recommend their carrier, and twice as likely to strongly believe in the value of life insurance after a loved one’s death.

The study also revealed what drives an exceptional claims experience. Beneficiaries wanted claim decisions to feel seamless and speedy compared to other burdens they were facing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, human connection was a meaningful part of the experience, often mentioned by beneficiaries. Professional, knowledgeable, and compassionate representatives, as well as trusted agent relationships, were consistently linked to higher satisfaction. The lesson was clear: Going beyond the transaction can fundamentally shape loyalty. Yet 10 years later, claims remain optimized for accuracy and speed, not empathy or connection.

Why does this matter? Because a life claim isn’t just a financial transaction; it represents the death of a loved one. That moment of loss brings profound emotional weight alongside immediate logistical and financial burdens. Recent research, including our annual report The Grief Tax, shows that most families spend hundreds of hours on paperwork, coordination, and decision making, alongside facing tens of thousands of dollars in immediate expenses. If the life insurance industry can make the claims experience more compassionate and guided, it becomes a powerful starting point to ease the broader burden families face. It is an intervention that can change not only how families remember the process, but how they see the role of life insurance in their lives going forward.

The world has changed since LIMRA’s 2013 study. Consumers today expect more personalized engagement across every industry. They compare insurers not just to other financial services, but to the best experiences in retail, tech, and healthcare. For life insurers, claims are the most consequential place to deliver on these expectations. It is also the most underutilized engine of trust.

New Research

Over a decade after The Moment of Truth, it is time to revisit the claims experience with fresh eyes. That is why Empathy has partnered with LIMRA’s custom research team, Applied Research Solutions, to design a new study that will dig deeper into how the claims journey shapes trust, satisfaction and future engagement.

The study will explore why beneficiaries disengage, identify unmet needs, and test which support makes the greatest difference. Our goal is to provide actionable insights that can help carriers turn a one-time transaction into the foundation of a long-term relationship that creates value for both families and insurers. We believe this is the next frontier for life insurance, and we want to help the industry seize it.

As we embark on this opportunity, here are questions for senior leaders to consider:

  • Are we designing claims around the beneficiary journey, or around internal workflows?

  • What would it mean to define success as beneficiary confidence 90 days after payout, and how could we measure it?

  • If every beneficiary were treated as a long-term relationship owner, how would the first 30 days look different?

  • Where can partners help close gaps faster than carriers can build internally, without adding friction?

The financial, logistical, and emotional elements of loss are inseparable. We believe structured support can ease burdens, strengthen trust, and create value for both beneficiaries and carriers. Our upcoming research with LIMRA reflects that vision.

The claims experience is still the industry’s most underleveraged trust engine. With modest design changes, informed by both past insights and new research, we can transform a payout into the start of multigenerational loyalty.

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