2021 Tech 25: Insuritas’ white-label insurance products give financial institutions cross-sell opportunities
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Insuritas has struck partnerships with more than 200 financial institutions to provide a white label insurance product that banks and credit unions can market as their own.
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Sometimes the best route to business success is connecting existing dots.
That’s the strategy employed by Insuritas, an insurance marketing firm based in East Windsor.
Matt Chesky, president and chief operating officer, explains that while insurance is a major, important purchase, it is unique in that both buyer and seller don’t want to interact with each other again. Neither side wants there to be a claim. It’s a “set-it-and-forget-it” transaction.
So, the best way to sell insurance, Chesky says, is to be present at the moment the customer needs to buy it. In the case of homes and cars, that means being at the site of the loan transaction.
Often, that’s at a bank or credit union, so that’s where Insuritas wants to be.
It has struck partnerships with more than 200 financial institutions to provide a white label insurance product that banks and credit unions can market as their own. That’s a network that provides about 10 million potential customers.
Insuritas handles the deal and shops the market for the individual client, delivering the best deal from among its wide set of insurance partners, including most of the industry giants. Insurers pay commissions of 15% to brokers, including Insuritas.
The financial institution gets to extend its relationship with the customer and picks up a 4% fee from Insuritas on every sale.
For Insuritas, it gets to leverage the financial institution’s knowledge of when a transaction is happening and when insurance is needed. It gets Insuritas to the scene of the deal without having to spend the billions in advertising dollars spent on keeping the gecko, Flo and Jaime, Jake and his pro athlete clients in front of the public.
Other forms of insurance — from life to small business coverage — are also available.
The result is $100 million in written premium annually — “in insurance, that’s the equivalent of gross sales,” Chesky says. He declined to share revenue figures.
If the idea seems too good to be true, credit Chesky’s father, Jeff, who designed the concept when he was president of Banc Insurance Services. That firm was sold in 2004. Jeff Chesky, who had senior-level positions at MassMutual and Fleet Bank, led a group of private investors who bought the firm back in 2008 and relaunched it as Insuritas.
One of the few stumbles occurred when Insuritas struck a deal with Overstock. It quickly became apparent the connection between buying a couch and buying insurance just wasn’t there.
The next frontier is the digital insurance platform, the younger Chesky says. The firm’s first digital brokerage deals were signed in the fall with more to come.
Much of the sales work was handled by a call center before the pandemic. Now working in a remote environment, Chesky says he’s constantly looking to hire sales and customer service associates.
The firm also has expanded its management team recently to include both corporate sales and client relationship executives.
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