Jul. 24, 2006
Sony Life, a wholly-owned life insurance subsidiary of Sony Financial Holdings, today announced that from August 2, 2006, it will initiate a new policy-writing procedure that allows customers to make their payment of initial premiums by account transfer. This will be the first such instance in the Japanese life insurance industry.
Under conventional procedures for writing new life insurance policies, policy coverage begins only after the insurer receives the application and the verification of health of the insured, together with the initial premium payment. Instead, now Sony Life will lead the industry by initiating coverage upon receipt of the application and the verification of health*, relieving customers of the need to prepare cash, credit cards or cash cards, by accepting a future payment by transfer from the designated account. Observing the rapid development of increasingly diverse and cashless settlement methods, Sony Life has decided to enhance customer convenience through this new policy-writing procedure.
The launch of this new service saves customers the trouble of preparing cash for payment at the time of contract. Instead, they are able to make completely cashless transfer payments from the initial payment through to the termination of the payment period. Furthermore, customers will be able to avoid the non-coverage period that previously arose from the delay in payment of initial premiums. For Sony Life, this launch will enhance underwriting efficiency by eliminating the need to fill out a cash transfer voucher and relieve it of the need to control cash.
Sony Life believes this new procedure will change procedures throughout the life insurance industry, as its consulting sales have done since the company's inception.
* Policies that Sony Life is unable to take are voided.
Note: This is an English-language summary of a Japanese announcement made by Sony Life on July 24, 2006. The summary was prepared by Sony Financial Holdings Inc. solely for the convenience of non-Japanese readers.