Introducing Haven Technologies

At Haven Life, our guiding principle is to make life less hard. In general, we are talking about insurance when we say this, either term life or disability, and we mean we’re making life less hard for you, the customer of today — or tomorrow.

But as of now, we’re also making life less hard for the insurance industry as a whole. That’s because we’re rolling out Haven Technologies, a new advanced insurtech platform for the life, fixed annuities and disability industries. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), Haven Technologies will leverage a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model to make its solutions available to carriers, who can then leverage new business, in-force management and product development solutions as their own.

We know: That all rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? And it probably requires no further explanation, as you’re undoubtedly up to speed on SaaS solutions and whatnot. But on the off-chance you’re not — it’s a busy time! — we’ve put together a primer to answer any burning questions you might have. Starting with the big one.

What is Haven Technologies?

Imagine Haven Life is a great car — easy driving, good looking, tricked out with the latest and greatest in safety features and high-end audio. (You know, the important stuff.) Haven Technologies, then, is like the engine inside that car — the thing that keeps it running smoothly and efficiently. Now, imagine taking the engine (Haven Technologies) out of the car (Haven Life) and putting it in another car (Insurance Carrier X) — that’s sort of what we’re doing here.

When Haven Life launched in 2015, it revolutionized the life insurance industry (if we do say so ourselves) by adopting a digital-first model. That meant you could get a quote, apply for a policy, get approved for your policy, and then manage that policy, almost entirely online. For an industry as old as life insurance — many big American insurers are at least a century old, and the idea of life insurance dates back a couple of millennia — this was quite a breakthrough.

And more importantly, it meant more people had better access to life insurance—and dependable financial protection makes the world a better place. So guess what? We firmly believe that ideas that make the world a better place deserve to be shared.

And now, it’s time to share the love. And by love, we mean technology. So while Haven Technologies is wholly owned by MassMutual, the company will operate independently, offering its solution to other businesses in the life, annuities and disability industries. So in the future, you might buy, say, a disability insurance policy from Company X. But under the hood, it could be powered by Haven Technologies. Indeed, a recent example is HealthBridge, a free online life insurance policy offered by MassMutual to frontline healthcare workers and volunteers in the wake of the COVID pandemic, that was built and launched in a mere three weeks leveraging the Haven Technologies solution.

Why Haven Technologies?

Great question. And as we often do when we’re asked a great question, we found someone else who knows the answer and asked them. In this case, that’s Yaron Ben-Zvi, CEO of Haven Technologies. Here’s what he said:

“The life, annuities and disability industries have gone as long as they can relying on legacy technology, whether that’s outdated homegrown platforms or a patchwork of vendor solutions. It’s time they stop running on fumes and start transforming to deliver a seamless digital experience, reform complex advisor driven businesses, and launch new products with speed. We are eager to partner and build hand-crafted relationships with the most forward-thinking carriers in order to do just that.”

That all sounds good. But don’t take his word for it. Here’s Gareth Ross, Head of Enterprise Technology and Experience at MassMutual:

“Over the past few years, and as a result of using the Haven Technologies platform to power our digital offering, we’ve seen an improved customer experience, faster time-to-issue of policies and an increased ease of doing business for advisors. That’s translated into substantial cost savings across new business activities as well as legacy blocks of business we’ve migrated over. Because of this, we are quickly moving to consolidate 100% of our new and legacy life business onto a single platform, something we would have thought impossible just a few years ago. This will help us stay ahead of the technology transformation happening in the industry.”

We’ll add another thing, if you’ll forgive the immodesty. We know Haven Life is awesome. But our greatest asset is our people. We are creative, caring and kind — and we direct our creativity, care and kindness toward partnering with carriers to make financial protection and security available to as many people as possible. Fundamentally, Haven Technologies is a way to do that, which is why we’ll be stressing quality over quantity as we build partnerships going forward.

Another way to put it is that, yes, Haven Technologies uses a business-to-business model. But we like to think of it as a people-to-people company.

What does it mean for Haven Life?

Haven Life remains Haven Life. It will remain a direct-to-consumer insurance agency, with policies underwritten and issued by MassMutual and its various subsidiaries — same as it ever was. So don’t worry about us.

But we have a feeling what you’re really asking is…

What does Haven Technologies mean for you?

If you’re a potential carrier or client, quite a bit, for all of the reasons outlined above. Our team is innovative, creative, understanding and caring. Expect the same TLC from Haven Technologies. (And who knows, maybe there’ll be a cookbook down the line.)

If you’re a Haven Life customer, more good news: Nothing will change. If you’re somehow not a customer — and hey, we can help you with that — all it means is there’s a chance that, in the future, your life or disability insurance policy may be powered by Haven Technologies, regardless of where you purchase it.

And that’s good news. As any customer can tell you, online-first life insurance is the future (or maybe just the present). You can get a quote online, quickly and easily. You can apply in minutes. You can get approved quickly, sometimes even immediately, sometimes without even taking a medical exam (just be honest on your application, since issuing the policy or paying its benefits is based on your answer to the health questions in it) — something your parents or grandparents could never have imagined. And then, of course, once you have the policy, getting help from Haven Life’s customer success team is only an email (or chat) away, and many customers will also be eligible for easy, digital-first offerings from partners via Haven Life Plus, a rider to the Haven Term policy that offers a suite of bonus offerings like a no-cost fitness app subscription and no-cost online will services.

All the ease and speed that made Haven Life what it is will now be available farther and wider, as more insurers partner with Haven Technologies to power their businesses. And again, at the end of the day, that’s what we’ve always been about: Making life less hard.