Who We Are: Q&A with Founder of LegacyShield [Part 1]

[This is part one of a two-part Q&A blog series about LegacyShield.]

The life insurance industry is rapidly changing as technology becomes critical to communicating with clients and gaining new prospects.

LegacyShield has been at the forefront of providing insurtech solutions to advisors since 2014. The platform is designed for advisors to digitally store records, maintain file notes, and collaborate and transact business with their clients. As a result, clients seamlessly engage with their advisors, view their policy information at any time, and easily share important information with their families.

LegacyShield founder Dan Pierson discusses why he started LegacyShield and how the platform works to meet life insurance advisors’ needs in this Q&A interview.

Q.  What inspired you to start LegacyShield?

A.  I recognized there was a need to further protect people’s legacies in the digital age from experiences in both my personal and professional life.

On the personal side, my father-in-law passed away, and my wife’s family turned to me for help in gathering their father’s assets because I worked in financial services. But I wasn’t able to because there were no records. They didn’t know how or where to find critical documents like his life insurance policy. As a result, my father-in-law’s legacy wasn’t fully passed on to his loved ones.

It made me realize there needed to be a better way to ensure information was sent to the right person at the right time.

I was operating my general agency at that time, so I began asking advisors about this issue. It became clear to me that advisors lacked a good set of tools to communicate and collaborate with clients. An online space was needed to safely store clients’ important documents so that they could be shared with loved ones.

Q.  What is LegacyShield today?

A.  Since our founding in 2014, LegacyShield has evolved into a virtual workplace where advisors can conduct business with their clients. The platform allows advisors to securely share and store clients’ important documents, financial information, and anything else in one’s life. LegacyShield also facilitates two-way communication between clients and advisors. They can comment on files and communicate with each other in real-time through the platform.

Most importantly, because there is this bi-directional relationship and because the platform’s storage is permanent, clients themselves can assign different individuals for access to their information at the time of their choosing, whether that’s immediately or at a future date. Not everybody wants their family to know the exact details of their policy, but they want to ensure that policy is passed down and their family is protected.

Above all, what LegacyShield provides is peace of mind – peace of mind that the right information will get into the right hands at the right time.

Q.  Does LegacyShield provide other benefits to life insurance advisors?

A. Yes, LegacyShield’s power to build strong relationships leads to a major benefit for advisors: finding and converting more life insurance prospects.

We know that, unfortunately, the chances of a kid working with their parent’s advisor is less than 30%. Advisors miss the vast majority of multigenerational prospects not because they’re doing bad work but simply because of a lack of connectivity.

LegacyShield help advisors connect with clients and their families and, as a result, gain new prospects. When clients grant their loved ones access to their LegacyShield system, they automatically receive an account with LegacyShield. The advisor receives that contact’s information, so they can reach out and introduce themselves. With each new client loaded into LegacyShield, an advisor receives more prospects and can build their network.

One of the other major benefits of LegacyShield is the safety and security it provides to life insurance advisors. It’s simply a better way to do business in the digital age. You have a permanent record of all your clients’ information, and you don’t have to worry about email security or violating laws by sending unencrypted emails.

Q.  What sets LegacyShield apart from other insurtech providers?

A.  First and foremost, we come from the insurance business. We understand the nuances of the insurance industry and the important role advisors play. We truly believe things are better when there’s an advisor involved. Most of our competitors, even if they are in the B2B world, are also selling direct. We never want to displace the advisor. We want to be an extension of their team.

The other part is collaboration. From day one, we built LegacyShield as enterprise-grade software with extensive collaborative abilities and unlimited storage. We knew our system would need to be vetted over and over by large enterprises that carry a lot of risks.

We’re proud to say that LegacyShield is now trusted by insurance companies, distributors, and advisors across the U.S. But we’re never content to rest on our laurels. LegacyShield continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of advisors and clients in 2020 and beyond.

To learn where LegacyShield is going, check out our blog next week.