Insurance for the Agent-Averse

PolicyGenius, an online insurance brokerage, is chasing the kind of customer who would rather fill out a detailed profile on a website than open up to a total stranger. A 2014 Gallup poll found that millennials, born between 1980 and 2000, are more than twice as likely as other generations to buy their policies online as through an agent. Insurers “still expect folks to deal with a face-to-face agent, and that’s just not how most people, particularly younger people, do things,” says Jennifer Fitzgerald, who co-founded PolicyGenius with Francois de Lame. “It can feel very intrusive, like, why is this guy asking me all this stuff?”

Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., PolicyGenius sells life and disability insurance, along with policies that cover renters’ possessions and pets. The site has logged 300,000-plus users since its inception in July 2014, according to Fitzgerald, who adds that more than half of customers are millennials. Visitors to the company’s website select what type of coverage they want and how much, and are then asked to answer standard questions about their finances and health. Within a few minutes of submitting the application, the site returns quotes from some of the 26 different insurers that offer policies through PolicyGenius, including AIG, ING, MetLife, and Prudential Financial. Users can model different levels of coverage and cost by sliding a rule back and forth. Once a final selection is made, PolicyGenius processes the paperwork and books a medical exam, if required. The startup earns commissions from insurers that are in line with industry standards, Fitzgerald says.