The protection market must "embrace change" and be open to technological advances or risk dying out, delegates at The Protection Review conference heard.
Ian McKenna, managing director at Finance & Technology Research Centre warned the protection industry risked the same fate as traditional record shops closing in the wake of online services such as iTunes.
He said while aggregator services such as MoneySupermarket currently impacted General Insurance and were becoming more prevalent in the annuity market, such systems moving into the protection space were "not far behind."
"People now expect to run their lives on mobile devices. They expect total ease of use when buying life insurance, but even if the industry is slowly reacting to technology, it continues to operate an online version of a 19th-century process" he said.
McKenna also highlighted that advances such as wearable devices would become the norm, perhaps even spelling the end of mobile technology, and this is where insurers should focus.
He said: "Do you realise on of the main [focuses for] Google Glass - is medical biometrics? The technology being developed could make underwriting as simple as a single voice command.
"We're already seeing telematics being advertised by Aviva for motor insurance, how long will it be before it gets into the life insurer arena? Customers could make a deposit premium and receive a monthly rebate based on the information delivered in real time, kind of like PruHealth and PruProtect's Vitality on steroids. "
In addition, he referenced research that had shown one third one third of consumers in the UK today would be happy to wear a device that would feedback data to insurers in real time. Such wearable devices could provide insurers with vital lifestyle information such as mood, sleep patterns, and whether people really have given up smoking, he added.
Finally, McKenna warned there were lessons to be learnt from the domination of platforms and wraps in financial services.
He said: "There is a lot of protection business you're not writing right now and that has a worrying echo of the platform market to me. We need to give advisers the technology they want, and believe me they want to reengineer the new business process.
"If the existing community does not embrace change, other people will do it for you. Are we so arrogant to believe all those channels I outlined will not affect the protection market? We might see our iTunes moment very soon."
