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ORBiT speakers tout advantages of voice and electronic signatures


May 28, 2014   by Greg Meckbach, Associate Editor


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Using electronic and voice signatures instead of having customers put pen to paper have allowed some brokers to avoid errors and omissions exposures and cut out steps in their workflow, though some insurance transactions still require signed paper, speakers suggested Wednesday during Real Time Days.

Beth Sigurdson, a partner with Efficient Broker, said her firm uses voice recordings as audio signatures for some of its business. She added one benefit was improving workflow with processing insurance applications.

“The application did not need to be sent to the client,” Sigurdson said during the panel discussion. “You still create the application digitally while you upload to portals or whatever …. but there is none of that back and forth with the client. You could literally talk to a client today and the document is in the mail tomorrow.”

Real Time Days, held by ORBiT Canada

Real Time Days, organized by the Organization of Real-Time Brokers Implementing Technology (ORBiT) is taking place in Toronto Wednesday and in London, Ont. on Thursday. ORBiT, whose members include nine carriers, 101 brokerages and 13 information technology vendors, is a non-profit organization whose activities include developing workflows to help improve the efficiency of brokers.

One of Sigurdson’s co-panelists was Dianna George, information technology site manager for Totten Insurance Group and personal lines insurance advisor for HUB Ontario.

George told ORBiT members that her firm started using electronic signatures four years ago.

“The turnaround time with signatures is cut at least in half because customers have that ability to sign electronically and click a button and it’s sent back to you,” she said.

Voice signatures can also reduce brokerages’ E&O exposure, Sigurdson suggested. 

“It relates to, ‘I didn’t want collision on my car’ and then months later they have an accident and (they say), ‘I wanted collision,'” she said, suggesting a voice recording can prove a customer did in fact decline collision coverage.

Listening to recordings of producers’ conversations also provides “an awesome training tool,” Sigurdson added.

Audio signatures can be legally binding, said John McDonald, chief technology officer for blueC 802 Inc., a Kitchener, Ont,-based technology vendor, during Wednesday’s panel.

He noted blueC 802’s technology lets brokers tap into their own phone lines and record the conversations so they can store them on a server. The wiretapping law in the Criminal Code of Canada essentially allows the recording of phone conversations in cases where at least one of the parties consents to the recording.

So brokerage employees would have to agree to have their work phone conversations recorded, McDonald suggested, noting the Privacy Act also applies.

“At some point if you are collecting personal information and you share it with a third party, you have to get consent from the person you are talking to,” he said.

Though some firms may enable workers to pause recording during phone conversations, McDonald suggested insurance brokers who use audio signatures should record all conversations in their entirety on phone lines used for conversations with customers.

“For legal purposes, you are in a stronger position if you say your corporate practice is that you just record every phone call regardless and the way you handle personal calls, which is always an issue, is people are usually asked to use their personal cellphone or those calls are not recorded,” McDonald said. Another method is to dedicate a separate phone line, which is not tapped, for personal calls, he suggested.

Some electronic signatures are also legally binding in Canada, said Yazan Alwaid, regional sales manager for Silanis, a Montreal-based electronic signature vendor.

“The judicial system has not had any problems recognizing documents that are electronically signed,” Alwaid said during the panel. “Believe it or not, writing your name at the bottom of an e-mail message constitutes an electronic signature by the definition of the law. If I say, ‘Yes I agree, change my insurance carrier’ … that e-mail can constitute an electronically signed document.”

But he gave some examples of documents which require paper-based signatures, including notice of cancellation, alteration of a policy by an insurer, trustee appointments, beneficiary designations and a nomination of a person as having rights/interests of an insured on an insured’s death.

With audio signatures, McDonald noted, there is “really no case law” in Canada because most cases involving such signatures are settled out of court. 

McDonald added some documents – such as a last will and testament – cannot be done through an audio signature.

Real Time Days was held Wednesday at the Novotel North York. The London, Ont. event is scheduled Thursday at the Four Points Hotel & Suites on Wellington Rd., opposite White Oaks Mall.


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