NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

By Steven Ehrlich

When a family loses a loved one, it faces a litany of immediate tasks such as planning the funeral and placing an obituary in the local newspaper. All of this must be done while the bereaved is processing the emotional components of the individual’s passing. Amidst all of the raw feelings and deluge of family, it is natural for more mundane tasks such as filing a life insurance claim to fall by the wayside. Sometimes the family may not even know that the deceased has a life insurance policy.

This opaqueness does not serve the claimants or insurers well, and leading global insurer [and Forbes Blockchain 50 member] MetLife is utilizing the live public Ethereum blockchain to add transparency and efficiency to the claims process. In what is believed to be the first pilot program in the world focused on the life insurance industry, MetLife’s Singapore-based incubator LumenLab is collaborating with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and NTUC Income (Income) on a platform of smart contracts known as ‘Lifechain’ to help loved ones quickly determine if the deceased was protected with a policy and automatically file a claim.

Photo courtesy of Mark Tominski.