Jennifer Linton is an insurance technology leader, entrepreneur, and the CEO/Founder of Fenris. She leads the development of real-time data and analytics platforms that support millions of monthly insurance quoting workflows across auto, home, and commercial lines. Her background spans 15+ years in startup growth, corporate strategy, business development, and innovation.

SR:
You’ve spent your career building data-driven businesses that challenge the status quo. How has that mindset shaped the way you think about improving the connection between insurers and consumers, especially at the very first point of their action?

JL:

Over the past two decades, whether building startups or working within large enterprises, I’ve observed how crucial data is in decision support. 

Most of the insurance industry has focused on optimizing what happens after intake with better underwriting models, better pricing, better workflows. But if the data coming in at the start is wrong or incomplete, everything downstream is working off a flawed foundation, and that was where Fenris started in 2020 by building its capability to enrich and prefill any application for any insurance product.

Today, we’re at an inflection point. Predictive insights can now be applied as early as the initial ping and continue throughout the quote, sale, and policy lifecycle. This helps insurers and consumers connect more effectively by making the first interaction more informed, more accurate, and more reflective of real risk before the process even begins.

Imagine knowing, at the first touchpoint, whether a prospect could become your best customer. That changes everything downstream. At Fenris, we’re focused on eliminating the gap between intake and insight, to align with what will ultimately yield the best outcome.

Turning insight into action

• Audit where early workflow decisions are being made with incomplete information. Most organizations focus heavily on underwriting and pricing optimization while overlooking the quality of the data entering the process. Identify where intake, routing, prioritization, or follow-up decisions are happening before enough context is available.
• Move enrichment and predictive intelligence closer to the first interaction. Apply real-time data and predictive signals before quote or underwriting so teams can make better decisions earlier, rather than correcting issues downstream after time and resources have already been spent.
• Use first-touch signals to drive segmentation and workflow orchestration. The earliest customer interactions often contain enough information to distinguish high-fit opportunities from low-fit ones. Build workflows that use those signals to influence routing, engagement strategy, and next-best actions from the start.

SR:
With Fenris focused on real-time data and predictive intelligence, how should insurers rethink the role of data enrichment in creating more meaningful and effective customer connections, and not just faster ones?

JL:

There’s been a longstanding push to reduce friction in insurance workflows, often measured by how quickly an agent or consumer can move through a process. But speed alone isn’t enough. The real value comes from validating and enriching the right information at the right time. If you rely on defaults or skip meaningful data fields, you risk undermining both your business and the customer’s experience.

The key is to use real-time predictive intelligence to identify high-potential customers early, then create an optimized journey, and enrich with the necessary data. This isn’t just about moving faster, it’s about making every interaction count. At Fenris, we deliver this through APIs and emerging use cases like agentic workflows, where bots or digital agents can dynamically request only the data that matters.

Turning insight into action

• Validate critical customer data before advancing the workflow. Identify where inaccurate or missing information is creating downstream friction in quoting, underwriting, or servicing, and prioritize real-time enrichment at those points.
• Personalize the workflow based on predicted customer value and intent. Use predictive signals to determine which prospects require additional verification, different routing, or higher-touch engagement instead of applying the same process to every submission.
• Design workflows that request only the data necessary for the next decision. Reduce unnecessary questions and leverage APIs or intelligent orchestration to dynamically enrich information as needed throughout the customer journey.

SR:
There’s a growing emphasis on reducing friction in quoting and underwriting workflows. Where do you see the biggest disconnect today between the data insurers have and the decisions they need to make in real time?

JL:

The biggest disconnect is in the distance between the data and the decisions. Often, data is applied at underwriting that, if known earlier, would have completely changed the outcome for the better. When there is no upfront segmentation, every lead is pushed through the process, regardless of fit. This is inefficient and costly.

There are three main challenges: 

1. Data silos make it hard to connect insights from one system to another. 
2. Models and data sources require constant upkeep; what works today may be outdated tomorrow as new products, campaigns, or markets emerge.
3. Traditional workflows front-load the process with questions and only apply data at the “moment of truth”, the rate call or indicative quote. 

To truly enable real-time decisioning, insurers need to break down these barriers and bring predictive intelligence to the very start of the customer journey.

Turning insight into action

• Identify decisions that are currently happening too late in the process. Review where underwriting, routing, or qualification insights are only being applied at quote or bind, and determine how those signals could improve earlier workflow decisions.
• Break down operational silos between data, distribution, and underwriting teams. Ensure that insights generated in one system can be used across intake, routing, quoting, and servicing workflows instead of remaining isolated.
• Continuously evaluate model and data performance against changing market conditions. Establish a process for retraining models, validating data sources, and adjusting segmentation strategies as products, channels, and customer behavior evolve.

SR:
With ActiveProspect’s acquisition of VMS and Fenris already adding predictive lead scoring, what new opportunities does this partnership unlock for the industry, and where do you see it making the biggest difference?

JL:

Fenris has been a partner of both VMS and ActiveProspect, so we see clearly the potential from bringing these two capabilities together. Every partnership is about scale and synergy. 

With VMS, Fenris’s machine learning platform was enabling them to serve scores in the education and home services verticals, accelerating time to value and reducing the cost of maintaining in-house solutions.

ActiveProspect has been a leader in the lead gen space for a while, across almost every possible vertical exemplifying their strengths in consent, compliance, and lead transparency. As part of our partnership there, Fenris has been delivering its prefill data to enrich leads.

All together, we see lead buyers and publishers will benefit post Active Prospect’s acquisition of VMS, in a way that prioritizes results based on revenue potential, capacity, and predicted outcomes, transforming how leads are purchased, routed, and acted upon.

Turning insight into action

• Prioritize leads based on predicted business outcomes, not just volume. Shift from evaluating leads solely on cost or speed to using predictive intelligence that identifies which opportunities are most likely to convert or generate long-term value.
• Align lead routing with operational capacity and appetite. Use predictive scoring and consent-driven data to direct leads toward the right buyer, team, or workflow based on fit, performance potential, and real-time business constraints.
• Integrate compliance, enrichment, and predictive intelligence into a unified workflow. Reduce fragmentation between lead acquisition, validation, and decisioning systems so teams can act on more complete and trustworthy information from the start.

SR:
In an environment where AI is accelerating everything, how do you decide when sooner is better than better, and when precision still needs to win?

JL:

“Sooner is better than better,” is a reminder that in fast-moving markets, waiting for perfection can mean missing the moment. You need to deliver value quickly.

I have to give credit to my Board member, Larry, former CEO of FICO, for making me see the value in shipping products fast, even if it’s not perfect, because models and data will continue to improve over time.

At Fenris, we balance speed with our three pillars for machine learning: 

• Transparency
• Explainability
• Fairness

If a model meets these criteria and delivers value, we deploy it, knowing it will learn and adapt as more data flows in. With over 100 million outcomes informing our algorithms, we’ve seen firsthand how rapid iteration leads to better results. When the data is right, you don’t have to choose between speed and precision, you can have both. That’s the future we’re building.

Turning insight into action

• Launch models that deliver measurable value, even if they are not fully optimized. Focus on transparency, explainability, and business impact first, then improve performance over time through iteration and additional outcomes data.
• Build feedback loops that allow models to continuously learn and improve. Capture downstream outcomes such as bind, conversion, retention, or churn so predictive systems can adapt to changing customer and market behavior.
• Define governance standards before deploying AI into production workflows. Establish clear expectations around fairness, explainability, and monitoring so teams can move quickly without sacrificing trust or accountability.

The post Jennifer Linton on turning early insurance data into better customer outcomes appeared first on ActiveProspect.

TL;DR

• Insurance leads cost varies by lead type, with shared leads often under $45 and live transfers reaching $200+, directly impacting cost per acquisition.
• It matters because poor lead quality and unclear consent can increase wasted spend and create TCPA compliance risk for insurance marketers.
• Key drivers include lead source transparency, exclusivity, targeting filters, and documented consent at the point of capture.
• Main action: validate lead quality and consent upfront, and use filtering and routing tools to reduce waste and improve conversion efficiency.

Overview

If you are an insurance agent, your pipeline will always need leads. At some point, you probably ask yourself a simple but stressful question: “How much do insurance leads cost, and what should I actually be willing to pay?” The short answer is that insurance leads can run anywhere from a few dollars to more than $200 per lead, depending on the line of business, the type of lead, and whether it is exclusive. For life insurance, the gap between the sticker price and your true cost per client can be especially wide.

This guide walks through the main factors that shape insurance lead costs, the typical price ranges across lead types, what drives life insurance lead pricing in particular, and practical ways to bring those costs down without sacrificing compliance using tools like TrustedForm and LeadConduit.

What affects insurance leads cost when you buy leads?

There is no single “standard” price list. The cost of insurance leads is shaped by a mix of market forces and how the lead was generated. Key factors include:

1. Line of insurance

Some products are simply more valuable than others, so lead prices reflect that.

• Auto and home leads are usually on the lower end, often under $20 for shared web leads in many markets.
• Life insurance leads are more expensive because policies are higher value and require more data about the consumer.
• Niche products like final expense or business insurance may carry premiums if targeting and compliance are more complex.

2. Lead type and intent level

The price of insurance leads depends heavily on what kind of lead you are buying:

• Shared web leads are sold to multiple agents. They cost less but come with more competition.
• Exclusive web leads are sold to a single buyer. They cost roughly 2 to 3 times more than shared leads, but often convert better.
• Live transfer leads (warm phone transfers) are typically the most expensive but come closest to a ready-to-talk prospect. 
• Aged leads are older and cheaper, but response and conversion rates are lower. 

You are not just paying for a record. You are paying for how close that consumer might already be to buying.

3. Exclusivity and filters

Every layer of targeting increases insurance leads cost:

• Tight geographic filters
• Specific age bands or income ranges
• Policy type or coverage amount
• Filters for homeowner status, credit band, or other underwriting signals

Vendors charge more for this precision, but better targeting can actually drop your cost per acquisition if those leads close at a higher rate. According to Agentero, agents with access to 10 or more carriers close purchased leads at higher rates because they can quote competitively across a wider range of risk profiles.

4. Source quality and transparency

Leads from well-known, transparent vendors usually cost more than leads from “mystery sources,” but for good reason. Reputable providers disclose:

• How they generate leads (search, social, native, comparison sites, etc.)
• What consent language was used
• Whether the lead was validated (email, phone, identity checks)

If you are not sure how a lead was generated or whether the person ever agreed to be contacted, your real risk is not just wasted spend, it is compliance exposure. That directly affects your total cost of buying leads.

How much do insurance leads cost in practice?

Let’s talk ranges. Exact pricing varies by vendor, but recent benchmarks across the industry paint a fairly consistent picture.

Average cost of insurance leads by type

Across common product lines (auto, home, health, life), the typical average cost of insurance leads looks something like this:

For auto and home insurance, pricing typically falls toward the lower end of these ranges, especially for shared leads. Life and specialty products tend to sit on the higher end due to higher policy value and more complex underwriting.

How much do life insurance leads cost?

When people ask about the cost of life insurance leads, they are usually surprised by how wide the range is. 

• Shared life insurance web leads: roughly $20 to $45 per lead
• Exclusive life insurance leads: typically $75 to $150 per lead
• Real-time exclusive or live transfer life leads: commonly $80 to $200+ per transfer
• Aged life insurance leads: often $5 to $15 per lead

Industry analysis of purchased life insurance leads shows that, after you factor in close rates (often in the 2 to 3 percent range) and the time required for follow-up, the total acquisition cost per life client can easily reach $2,000 to $3,000. 

If you want more context on the tradeoffs between volume and quality, this is a good time to review what makes a qualified insurance lead and how it fits into your broader lead flow.

How to reduce life insurance leads cost without sacrificing quality

You can lower your life insurance leads cost in two basic ways:

1. Pay less per lead
2. Increase conversion and retention so your cost per client drops, even if you pay more per lead

In reality, the biggest wins usually come from the second path. Here are practical strategies you can use, with a special focus on tools that make every purchased lead count.

1. Only buy leads with documented third-party consent (TrustedForm)

One major hidden cost of buying life insurance leads is compliance risk, especially under regulations related to telemarketing and TCPA. If you cannot prove that a consumer gave clear, prior express consent to be contacted, you are exposed.

TrustedForm is built to solve that problem by capturing and documenting consent at the moment the lead is generated. 

For lead buyers, the TrustedForm lets you:

• Receive a TrustedForm Certificate with each lead, which independently records the consumer’s session
• See a visual session replay and event log that shows exactly how the consumer interacted with the form
• Verify that the consent language meets your standards (clear and conspicuous)

Why does this lower life insurance lead costs?

• You can reject non-compliant or fraudulent leads up front, instead of paying full price for data you cannot safely contact.
• You protect against costly TCPA litigation, which can turn a cheap lead into an extremely expensive mistake.
• You gain visibility into which vendors consistently deliver compliant, high-intent leads so you can shift budget toward what works.

2. Use LeadConduit to evaluate vendors, filter bad leads, and speed up distribution

If you buy from multiple lead vendors, you know that performance is not equal. LeadConduit helps you fix that by sitting in the middle of your lead flows as a real-time decision engine. 

With LeadConduit, you can:

• Set filters and rules that automatically accept, reject, or reroute leads based on your criteria.
• Add third-party enhancements and verifications (phone, email, identity, credit proxies, compliance protections, etc.)
• Return rejected leads back to the source with clear failure reasons.
• Distribute good leads in real time to your CRM, dialer, or quoting system so your team can call faster.
• Use reporting and vendor performance dashboards to measure and compare which sources actually convert.

Here is how that directly lowers your insurance leads cost:

• You stop paying full price for leads that are out of territory, incomplete, duplicated, or obviously low intent.
• Faster delivery to sales systems improves speed to lead, which is one of the strongest predictors of conversion for purchased leads.
• Over time, you can reward your best-performing vendors with more volume and negotiate tougher terms with underperformers.

If you are still managing all of this with spreadsheets and manual uploads, tools like LeadConduit are often the simplest way to increase ROI without drastically changing your top-line marketing budget.

3. Track the real cost per client, not just cost per lead

Especially in life insurance, the cheapest lead is not always the best deal. Aged or shared leads at $10 may cost more per policy than exclusive leads at $100 once you factor in:

• Connect rate
• Appointment set rate
• Close rate
• Average premium and persistency

To keep your life insurance leads cost under control:

• Track conversion by vendor, campaign, and lead type
• Compare your numbers to benchmarks in resources like this guide to buying insurance leads and lead quality best practices
• Regularly prune sources that drive a high cost per acquisition, even if their cost per lead looks low

4. Tighten your overall lead generation strategy

Buying leads should fit into a broader growth plan, not replace it. If you want more control over cost and quality, pair lead buying with:

• Strong referral and review programs
• Content and SEO for organic inbound demand
• Partnerships and co-marketing with aligned professionals

FAQs

1. How much does it cost to buy insurance leads?

The cost to buy insurance leads typically ranges from $10 to $200+ per lead, depending on the type, exclusivity, and targeting. Shared web leads are usually the most affordable, while exclusive and live transfer leads cost more due to higher intent and lower competition. Your true cost depends on conversion rate, not just price per lead.

2. How much do life insurance leads cost?

Life insurance leads tend to be more expensive than other lines.

• Shared leads: ~$20–$45
• Exclusive leads: ~$75–$150
• Live transfers: ~$80–$200+

Because life insurance often has lower close rates, total acquisition cost per client can reach $2,000–$3,000 when factoring in follow-up and conversion.

3. How much do auto insurance leads cost?

Auto insurance leads are generally on the lower end of the pricing spectrum.

• Shared leads: ~$10–$25
• Exclusive leads: ~$30–$80
• Live transfers: ~$50–$150

Pricing varies by geography, competition, and targeting, but auto leads are typically less expensive due to higher volume and shorter sales cycles.

Final thoughts

Buying insurance leads is always a balance between cost and quality. The agents who win are the ones who track performance, protect their budgets, and use tools that lift conversion instead of chasing the lowest price.

TrustedForm is the simplest way to make sure every lead you buy is safe to contact. It gives you independent proof of consent, cuts out bad or non-compliant leads, and mitigates costly TCPA risk. If you want cleaner, higher-intent leads, start there.

LeadConduit helps remove the rest of the friction out of your lead flow. It evaluates each lead in real time, filters out the ones that will never convert, and routes the good ones to your sales systems fast. You get clearer vendor performance, better speed to lead, and a lower cost per client.

If you want to get more out of the leads you already pay for, TrustedForm and LeadConduit are two of the quickest ways to increase ROI without draining your budget.

The post Insurance leads cost: How much does it cost to buy leads in the insurance industry? appeared first on ActiveProspect.

TL;DR

• Insurance lead management software centralizes, routes, and validates leads to improve conversion rates and operational efficiency.
• It matters because poor lead management creates wasted spend, missed opportunities, and compliance exposure under TCPA regulations.
• One of the biggest mistakes is relying on CRMs alone: They help manage leads after intake, but they do not control lead quality before bad, duplicate, or non-compliant records enter your system.
• The best insurance lead management system combines real-time routing, data validation, and CRM integration to protect lead quality.
• Key action: Choose tools that filter, score, and distribute leads instantly while maintaining visibility into source quality and consent.

Overview

If you’re evaluating insurance lead management software, you’ve likely already felt the friction. Leads come in from multiple sources. Some convert. Many don’t. Your team moves fast, but not always fast enough. And somewhere between vendors, forms, and your CRM, things start to break down.

It’s rarely one big issue. It’s a series of small ones that compound:

• Leads arriving too late
• Duplicate records clogging your pipeline
• Unqualified prospects eating up agent time
• Unclear consent putting compliance at risk

Quickly, those gaps turn into lost revenue. That’s why choosing the right insurance lead management system matters. It’s not just about organizing leads. It’s about controlling what enters your funnel, how it moves, and whether it’s worth your team’s time.

Quick pick list

• AgencyBloc: Best for health, life, and benefits agencies that want an insurance-specific management platform with CRM, commissions processing, quoting, and compliance tools in one system.
• Applied Epic: Best for growth-minded mid-size and enterprise independent agencies that need a broad agency management system across roles, locations, and lines of business, including P&C and benefits.
• Decerto Agent Portal: Best for insurance carriers or agency networks that want an all-in-one portal/CRM for agents to sell products, manage client information, track sales and post-sales work, and connect multiple insurance systems in one place.
• LeadConduit: Best for real-time lead intake, filtering, enhancement, routing, and delivery. It is a strong fit for teams that buy or generate leads and need to validate, enrich, and distribute them before they hit the CRM or downstream systems.
• Vertafore AMS360: Best for independent insurance agencies that need a core agency management system with strong workflow automation, policy administration, accounting, commissions, reporting, and carrier connectivity.

What is insurance lead management software?

Insurance lead management software sits between your lead sources and your sales team. It handles how leads are captured, evaluated, distributed, and tracked. Instead of sending everything straight into your CRM, it acts as a control layer.

At a practical level, it helps you:

• Capture leads from multiple sources in one place
• Filter out duplicates, bad data, or low-quality submissions
• Route leads instantly to the right agent or system
• Track performance by source, campaign, or vendor
• Maintain visibility into compliance and consent

Without it, most agencies rely on manual processes or CRM-only workflows. That’s where things break down. And in a high-volume environment like insurance, those breakdowns add up quickly. Lead management is essential for tracking, organizing, and nurturing prospects through the sales process, directly impacting conversion rates and growth.

Top features to look for

Insurance lead management software varies widely in what it actually handles. Some tools focus on CRM functionality, while others lean toward marketing automation. Few are built to manage lead quality, routing, and performance end to end.

When evaluating options, focus on the capabilities that directly impact how leads are handled and converted. Here is what matters:

1. Real-time lead routing

Real-time routing helps ensure that leads are sent to the right agent, buyer, or system the moment they enter your funnel. In insurance, speed matters because the value of a lead can decline quickly if follow-up is delayed.

A strong routing engine should let you:

• Instantly distribute leads based on geography, product line, availability, or performance rules
• Reduce response times and improve contact rates
• Prevent leads from sitting idle or being manually reassigned later

This is especially important for teams managing multiple agents, partners, or downstream systems at once.

2. Lead filtering and validation

Not every lead that enters your system deserves to move forward. A good insurance lead management software should help you catch problems before they waste time, money, or agent effort.

Look for tools that can:

• Remove duplicates before they enter the CRM
• Detect incomplete or invalid submissions
• Verify phone numbers, emails, and required fields in real time
• Stop low-quality or obviously bad leads from reaching your sales team

The goal is not just cleaner data, it’s making sure your team spends time on quality leads that can actually be contacted and converted.

3. Vendor and source tracking

If you buy leads from multiple vendors or run campaigns across multiple channels, source visibility is essential. Without it, you may know how many leads you are getting, but not which partners are actually driving value.

The right platform should help you:

• Track lead performance by vendor, campaign, or channel
• Identify which sources deliver stronger quote, bind, or close rates
• Compare quality, not just volume
• Make better budget decisions based on real outcomes

This is what turns lead buying from guesswork into something much more measurable and strategic.

4. Workflow automation

Manual lead handling breaks down quickly as volume increases. Workflow automation helps insurance teams scale without losing speed, consistency, or control.

Strong automation capabilities should make it easier to:

• Apply scoring and qualification rules automatically
• Trigger follow-up actions based on lead attributes or behavior
• Standardize how leads are accepted, rejected, enriched, or routed
• Reduce manual handoffs and operational errors

This becomes especially valuable when you are juggling multiple products, markets, or buying strategies at once.

5. CRM and dialer integration

Insurance lead management software should not create more work for your team. It should connect cleanly to the systems you already rely on so leads can move from intake to outreach without delays or manual cleanup.

Look for software that can:

• Sync standardized lead data directly into your CRM
• Push leads into dialers or other sales tools automatically
• Eliminate spreadsheet uploads and one-off imports
• Improve speed-to-lead by reducing friction between systems

The more seamless the integration, the easier it is for Marketing, Sales, and Operations to work from the same source of truth.

6. Compliance and consent visibility

TCPA compliance is not optional. Insurance lead management software should help you understand how a lead was generated, what consent was captured, and whether it is safe to contact that person.

Key capabilities include:

• Visibility into the lead source and acquisition path
• Access to proof of consent or consent-related metadata
• Support for TCPA and other regulatory requirements
• Better documentation for audits, disputes, or legal review

This is one of the most important differences between a general-purpose lead tool and a platform built for regulated lead generation.

7. Reporting and feedback loops

The best insurance lead management systems do more than process leads. They help you learn from them. Reporting and feedback loops let you connect top-of-funnel activity to downstream outcomes so you can improve performance over time.

Look for software that helps you:

• Monitor results by source, campaign, and vendor
• Understand which leads actually convert, not just which ones arrive
• Refine routing, scoring, and qualification rules
• Shift spend toward the sources producing the strongest ROI

This is what allows teams to continuously optimize rather than just react.

8. Ping/Post and buyer logic

For lead buyers especially, ping/post functionality is a critical capability. It allows you to make dynamic decisions before purchasing a lead, rather than accepting every lead at a fixed price and dealing with the consequences later.

Look for software that can:

• Accept or reject leads dynamically based on your rules
• Apply monetization and cost-control logic before purchase
• Protect margins by helping you buy more selectively
• Support bidding, filtering, and pricing decisions in real time

This is especially important for buyers managing multiple vendors, variable lead quality, and strict profitability targets. Ping/post and buyer logic help you control what enters your funnel and what it costs before spend is committed.

Top 5 insurance lead management software comparison

How we evaluated these tools

To compare these platforms fairly, we focused on how well each one supports the full insurance lead management process.

Specifically, we evaluated:

• Lead capture and routing capabilities
• Data validation and filtering
• Integration with CRMs and dialers
• Workflow automation
• Reporting and transparency
• Fit for insurance-specific use cases

The goal wasn’t to find a one-size-fits-all solution, but to understand where each tool performs best depending on how your business handles leads.

1. AgencyBloc

What it is: AgencyBloc is an insurance CRM and agency management system built specifically for life and health insurance agencies.

Top features

• Commission tracking and policy lifecycle management
• Built-in CRM for client and prospect management
• Workflow automation for renewals and follow-ups
• Reporting tailored to life and health agencies

Pricing

• Subscription-based pricing (varies by features and users)
• Public pricing not always fully transparent

Trust signals

• Designed specifically for life and health insurance verticals
• Widely used by independent agencies in that segment

Best fit: Life and health agencies that want an all-in-one CRM and management system.

Explore AgencyBloc today.

2. Applied Epic

What it is: Applied Epic is an enterprise-level agency management system designed for large insurance organizations handling complex, multi-line operations.

Top features

• Comprehensive policy and document management
• Accounting and back-office automation
• Integration with multiple insurance systems
• Scalable infrastructure for large teams

Pricing

• Custom enterprise pricing
• Typically requires implementation and onboarding services

Trust signals

• Long-standing industry adoption across large agencies
• Part of the Applied Systems ecosystem

Best fit: Large agencies with complex workflows and infrastructure needs. The tradeoff is agility. Many teams find it less suited for fast-moving lead environments.

Explore Applied Epic today.

3. Decerto Agent Portal

What it is: Decerto Agent Portal combines agency management system capabilities with a modern CRM interface, designed for data-driven insurance teams managing both leads and policies.

Top features

• 360° customer view across policies and interactions
• Real-time dashboards and sales tracking
• Workflow automation for follow-ups and renewals
• Omnichannel communication tracking
• Data-driven lead prioritization

Pricing

• Custom pricing (not publicly disclosed)
• Typically tailored to enterprise or mid-market agencies

Trust signals

• Combines AMS + CRM functionality in one platform
• Designed for modern, digital-first insurance operations

Best fit: Agencies looking for a unified system that combines lead management, policy tracking, and client engagement. Decerto stands out for reducing fragmentation between systems and improving visibility across the full customer lifecycle.

Explore the Decerto Agent Portal today.

4. LeadConduit

What it is: LeadConduit is a lead management and distribution platform designed to control how leads are captured, filtered, and routed before they reach your CRM. It’s built for teams that buy, sell, or manage leads at scale.

Top features

• Real-time lead capture and routing from any source
• Data validation, enrichment, and normalization
• Rule-based filtering for duplicates, fraud, and compliance
• Multi-destination delivery (CRMs, dialers, partners)
• Vendor performance tracking and reporting

Pricing

• Usage-based pricing (per lead transaction)
• Custom pricing depending on volume and integrations

Trust signals

• Processes billions of lead events annually
• Used by high-volume lead buyers and enterprise marketers

Best fit: Agencies buying leads at scale or managing multiple vendors. LeadConduit gives teams control over lead quality before it impacts performance, which is critical when source quality varies.

5. Vertafore AMS360

What it is: Vertafore AMS360 is an agency management system focused on property and casualty (P&C) insurance operations.

Top features

• Policy administration and renewal tracking
• Accounting and financial management tools
• Client and document management
• Integration with carrier systems

Pricing

• Custom pricing based on agency size and configuration
• Requires implementation support

Trust signals

• Widely adopted among independent P&C agencies
• Established vendor in the insurance technology space

Best fit: P&C agencies that need strong back-office and policy management capabilities. AMS360 is reliable for operations, but it relies more on manual workflows and offers limited real-time lead routing and filtering.

Explore Vertafore AMS360 today.

How to choose the best alternative

Choosing the right insurance lead management software comes down to how your business operates. Start by looking at where your biggest bottlenecks are. Then align your tool to solve those specific problems:

• If you buy leads → prioritize filtering and vendor tracking
• If speed-to-lead is your issue → focus on real-time routing
• If data quality is inconsistent → invest in validation tools
• If compliance is a concern → ensure visibility into consent

It’s also worth thinking about scale. A system that works for 100 leads per week may not hold up at 10,000. The best tools don’t just manage leads. They give you control over your pipeline.

How LeadConduit streamlines insurance lead management

Most tools start after the lead enters your system. LeadConduit works before that. LeadConduit acts as a gatekeeper between your lead sources and your CRM, ensuring only high-quality leads make it through.

With LeadConduit, you can:

• Capture leads from any source in real time
• Filter out duplicates, fraud, and low-quality submissions
• Route leads instantly based on rules and criteria
• Integrate with CRMs, dialers, and third-party tools
• Track vendor performance and optimize spend
• Improve consent traceability
• Strengthen vendor accountability

This matters because many insurance programs struggle with inconsistent lead quality. Without a filtering layer, bad leads flow straight into your pipeline, where they waste time and budget. LeadConduit gives you control at the point where it matters most.

FAQs

What is insurance lead management software?

Insurance lead management software is a system that captures, organizes, filters, and distributes leads across your sales process. It helps ensure leads are routed quickly, tracked accurately, and managed efficiently.

Why do I need to implement an insurance lead management system?

Without a structured system, leads can be lost, delayed, or mishandled. A dedicated system improves speed-to-lead, increases conversion rates, and reduces wasted spend by ensuring your team focuses on the right prospects.

What are some best practices for insurance lead management?

• Respond to leads immediately
• Filter out duplicates and bad data early
• Track performance by source
• Automate routing and follow-ups
• Validate consent and compliance

These practices help improve both efficiency and conversion outcomes.

Final thoughts

Most insurance lead management software are designed to manage leads after they arrive. Those systems matter, but they usually step in only once the lead is already in your environment.

The real leverage comes earlier.

If low-quality leads, slow response times, routing issues, or poor vendor performance are your main challenges, the most important question is not how you manage leads after intake, it’s how much control you have before those leads enter your system in the first place.

That is where the difference between tools becomes much more important:

• Agency management systems handle policies and operations
• CRMs manage relationships and follow-ups
• Lead flow platforms control what enters your pipeline

That upstream layer is where lead quality is protected, spend is controlled, and speed-to-lead is won or lost. LeadConduit is built for that layer. It helps you filter, validate, enrich, and route leads in real time before they affect your CRM, your sales team, or your budget.

If you want more control over what enters your funnel—and better visibility into what you are buying, accepting, and converting—it’s worth taking a closer look. Discover the power of LeadConduit today!

The post 5 insurance lead management software to try in 2026 appeared first on ActiveProspect.

TL;DR

• Qualified insurance leads are not just interested prospects, they also need to be real, reachable, relevant, and safe to contact.
• The biggest challenges are fraudulent leads, fake or aged data, and TCPA compliance risks that waste budget and create legal exposure.
• The best insurance marketers optimize for cost per bind and lifetime value, not just cost per lead.
• Insurance businesses can improve lead quality by using solutions like LeadConduit add-ons to filter bad leads, detect fraud, validate data, and reduce duplicates.
• Tools like TrustedForm Insights helps buyers use originating domain data to better understand lead intent and make smarter purchasing decisions.
• Tools like TrustedForm Certify and Retain help document and store proof of consent, making it easier to reduce TCPA risk and confidently contact leads.

Overview

Insurance businesses face numerous challenges when trying to acquire leads. Fraudulent leads, unqualified leads, and TCPA-related issues are major roadblocks for businesses trying to grow their customer base.

Most insurance lead programs fail not because of volume but because buyers lack visibility into where leads come from, whether they’re compliant, and whether they will actually convert or bind profitably.

In this blog post, we will delve into these challenges and provide practical solutions on how insurance businesses can overcome them, to make sure they’re only contacting leads that are truly interested in what they’re offering and most likely to convert.

The challenges with buying qualified insurance leads

Fraudulent and unqualified leads are a constant source of frustration and can quickly eat into a business’s bottom line. These types of leads are often generated by unscrupulous companies that aim to make a quick buck. They are not interested in providing high-quality leads that convert into customers. This can be a huge problem for insurers who spend a lot of money on lead acquisition. The result is a lot of wasted resources and revenue that could have been better allocated elsewhere.

Low-quality leads don’t just waste budget; they reduce agent productivity, inflate acquisition costs, and ultimately compress margins.

While the use of technology like CRM systems for the Insurance industry has helped to mitigate these issues, aged and fake leads continue to plague the industry. In most cases, businesses will expend resources buying and trying to convert leads into customers, only to realize that they were fraudulent or unqualified. This can be a huge drain on resources and can significantly impact a business’s profitability.

Another issue that insurance businesses face is related to TCPA regulations. Under TCPA guidelines, businesses must follow strict rules when contacting prospects. Failure to comply can result in hefty fines and loss of reputation. Many businesses struggle to keep up with these regulations as they continue to evolve, leading to non-compliance and substantial fines.

So, how do businesses overcome these challenges?

How to get qualified insurance leads that are ready to convert

There are 3 things that you can do to safely buy insurance leads that are real, fresh, qualified, and likely to convert.

1. Leverage LeadConduit add-ons

There are a plethora of tools that can help you address the issues presented above. For example, here are five tools that insurance companies can use to stay clear of bad leads: The Blacklist Alliance, Anura, BriteVerify, Trestle, and Experian.

These tools provide businesses with an added layer of security when acquiring leads:

• The Blacklist Alliance is a comprehensive blacklist database that identifies and blocks known fraudsters.
• Anura provides businesses with real-time insights into a lead’s behavior, making it easier to identify fake leads.
• Fenris is a real-time data enrichment and predictive intelligence platform that helps insurers prefill applications, assess risk, and improve lead conversion.
• BriteVerify provides email verification services that can help insurance businesses ensure they are contacting real email addresses.
• Trestle provides identity verification services and can help businesses avoid fraudulent leads.
• Experian offers credit reporting and fraud detection services that can help identify potential risks.

If you’d like to dig deeper and see how these tools can help your insurance business, check out this guide: The top 5 add-ons every insurance brand needs.

All these tools – and many more – are ready-to-use and directly available within the LeadConduit platform as add-ons that you can purchase to enhance your lead flows and get the highest lead quality possible.

LeadConduit add-ons allow you to:

• Eliminate duplicate and fraudulent leads, securing only top-notch quality leads that enter your systems.
• Broaden your lead-buying efforts by effortlessly collaborating with new providers.
• Streamline and enhance your lead acquisitions from every source for optimal productivity.
• Attain valuable knowledge on lead age and consumer behavior to enhance the quality of your leads.

Explore all of our add-ons here.

2. Leverage originating domain

If you’re relying on vendor-supplied identifiers (SubIDs) to evaluate lead spend and quality, you should know that this approach is seriously flawed and will only lead to poor lead-buying decisions. Many leads pass through multiple intermediaries before reaching the buyer, creating a lack of transparency into the true source and intent of the consumer.

Here’s a more reliable way to assess leads and make smarter lead-buying choices.

One of the most powerful data points that can help insurance businesses identify where their leads are coming from to effectively target the right audience and improve sales is the originating domain.

Identifying the originating domain – the URL of the website or landing page where the lead information was initially entered that generated the lead – can help insurance businesses better understand lead intent, irrespective of which vendor is sending the lead. This insight can be used to create targeted marketing messages that resonate with potential customers, leading to higher conversion rates.

And how do you access this data point? That’s easy: with ActiveProspect’s TrustedForm Insights.

We independently verify the website (or site identifier) where the lead originated, so that lead buyers can use it to optimize their lead acquisition campaigns. TrustedForm Insights helps you gain insights into every lead you purchase, so that you can make better-informed decisions and buy more intelligently.

If you’re interested in learning more about originating domain and how TrustedForm Insights can help you optimize your lead-buying process, take a look at this blog post: Originating domain: The key to unlocking lead intent for smarter lead-buying.

3. Obtain independent proof of consent with TrustedForm

Insurance businesses also face TCPA risks, and implementing a VoIP phone system can be instrumental in ensuring compliance. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is a federal law that regulates telemarketing calls and text messages. Failure to comply with TCPA regulations can result in costly lawsuits and settlements. To avoid these issues, insurance businesses must ensure that they are following TCPA regulations. This includes obtaining consent before making telemarketing calls or sending text messages.

One way you can help mitigate the risk of incurring TCPA litigation is by making sure you only acquire leads whose consent has been certified and for which you have proof.

Leads with clear, informed consent are not only safer to contact, they are significantly more likely to engage and convert.

Issue TrustedForm certificates for every lead you generate

TrustedForm Certify helps lead sellers prove the authenticity of each lead they generate. This tool allows them to easily document when and where consent was obtained, providing solid evidence for every lead they sell.

They simply have to add a JavaScript snippet to their web forms and this will capture every lead event, from mouse movements to clicks, and key presses. All the data will be securely stored and easily accessible.

Watch our short video to learn how to implement TrustedForm Certify and share this with your lead providers to have them start generating certified leads today. The Web SDK is available to everyone for free when you sign up for an ActiveProspect account.

Store TrustedForm certificates for every lead you purchase

Then, you can use TrustedForm Retain to access your certificates when your leads give express written consent to be contacted, so that you will have documentation to comply with the TCPA.

By retaining your TrustedForm certificates, ActiveProspect will preserve them for you for 5 years, so that you’ll have them ready and available in case you need them to mitigate a potential TCPA litigation.

TrustedForm certificates that aren’t retained are automatically deleted 90 days after they were created.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity! Start leveraging the benefits of TrustedForm Retain today for unparalleled lead acquisition success.

If you’d like to learn more about the TCPA and what you can do to guarantee compliance, check out the articles below:

• TCPA consent: The complete guide for marketers
• TCPA rules: What is changing and how to adapt to the new regulations
• TCPA litigation and compliance risks: What you can do to protect yourself
• How to respond to a TCPA warning

Lead qualification checklist for insurance agents

Not all leads are worth your time. Whether you’re generating your own pipeline or looking to buy qualified insurance leads, the real key is making sure those leads are actually a fit. Use this checklist to separate high-potential prospects from the time-wasters.

Note: This checklist should be automated and enforced in real time through your lead intake system, not handled manually.

1. Confirm the insurance lead’s needs

• What type of insurance are they interested in—auto, health, life, home, etc.?
• Does their need align with the products you offer?
• Are they actively looking, or just browsing?

Why it matters: Relevance is the first filter. Don’t spend time selling policies they’ll never need.

2. Check budget alignment

• Have they indicated a price range?
• Do they have a history of purchasing insurance?
• Can they afford the coverage level they’re asking about?

Why it matters: A lead without buying power is just noise. Price sensitivity upfront saves time later.

3. Identify the decision-maker

• Are you speaking directly with the policyholder?
• Do they have the authority to make the final decision?
• Are other stakeholders involved in the purchase?

Why it matters: If the lead can’t say “yes,” you’re better off spending time on someone who can.

4. Gauge timing and urgency

• When do they plan to purchase coverage?
• Is there a life event driving urgency (e.g., new car, home purchase, upcoming travel)?
• Are they comparing multiple quotes, or ready to commit?

Why it matters: Timing determines priority. Leads planning to buy soon deserve immediate attention.

5. Verify contact information

• Is the phone number valid?
• Is the email address responsive?
• Have they engaged with your messages?

Why it matters: No point qualifying someone you can’t reach. Bad data = wasted effort.

6. Apply demographic and geographic filters

• Are they located in a state or region you’re licensed in?
• Does their age, income, or household size align with your ideal client profile?
• Are they part of a demographic you specialize in serving?

Why it matters: Targeted outreach leads to higher conversions. Know your best-fit segments.

7. Evaluate risk profile, not just interest level

• Does this lead show signs of being a high-risk prospect? Consider factors like property characteristics, driving history proxies, demographic signals, and prior coverage patterns that may indicate the lead is likely to be declined or priced out.
• Is this lead likely to meet your profitability thresholds? Look beyond surface-level interest to determine whether the opportunity is worth the cost of quoting, underwriting, and follow-up.
• Is this a high-quality risk worth prioritizing right now? Use enrichment data to identify leads with stronger fit, better conversion potential, and a higher likelihood of becoming profitable policyholders.

Why it matters: Without this layer, you are effectively treating all leads the same, even though their true value can vary dramatically.

8. Score based on engagement

• Have they clicked on your emails or visited your site?
• Have they filled out a form, requested a quote, or responded to a call?
• Do they show signs of real interest?

Why it matters: Behavior is a better predictor than demographics. Score based on action, not just info.

9. Validate consent and compliance

• Did the lead opt in to be contacted?
• Are you following TCPA and other compliance requirements?
• Do you have proof of consent?

Why it matters: Qualified doesn’t just mean ready to buy; it also means legally safe to contact.

10. Update and enrich lead data

• Is the lead’s information current?
• Can you enrich the data with third-party tools (e.g., household income, credit range)?
• Has their status changed since they entered your funnel?

Why it matters: Outdated or incomplete data leads to misaligned outreach and lower conversion rates.

11. Focus on improving quote-to-bind ratios

• Are you prioritizing the leads most likely to bind? Look beyond top-of-funnel volume and use enrichment to identify which prospects are most worth your agents’ time.
• Are you spending too much effort on low-probability leads? Identify which leads should be suppressed, deprioritized, or routed differently before they consume sales resources.
• Are your agents getting enough context before outreach? Better lead intelligence can help teams have more relevant conversations, improve bind rates, reduce acquisition costs, and bring in higher-quality customers.

Why it matters: Better lead qualification is not just about filtering out bad leads. It is about giving your team the information needed to spend more time on leads that are actually worth converting.

12. Requalify over time

• If they weren’t ready today, are they worth checking in with later?
• Have they moved further down the funnel?
• Can they be nurtured with email or retargeting?

Why it matters: Some leads ripen over time. A “no” today might become a “yes” tomorrow—if you stay on their radar.

Whether you generate leads internally or buy qualified insurance leads, having a consistent, repeatable checklist keeps your pipeline clean and your close rate high. The right lead is out there. You just need the right system to help spot them. Implementing automated Insurance Workflows with joget can simplify lead management and help your team focus on converting prospects more effectively.

Why insurance companies like yours trust ActiveProspect

With growing competition in the insurance industry, it’s crucial for providers to stay one step ahead. That’s where the ActiveProspect platform comes in, empowering you to do just that and more!

ActiveProspect’s comprehensive lead optimization and compliance platform helps insurance businesses:

• Hit their Cost Per Acquisition targets. By leveraging lead enhancements and workflow rules, they ensure they’re only accepting the leads with the highest conversion potential.
• Improve customer retention and lifetime value. By discovering valuable consumer insights, they can identify when current policyholders may be evaluating their existing life insurance coverage and exploring options in the life settlement market, ensuring they never miss an opportunity.
• Mitigate TCPA risks. By boosting their compliance efforts and protecting themselves with documented proof of consent, they gain newfound confidence in their lead acquisition strategies.

FAQs

How to buy qualified insurance leads?

To buy qualified insurance leads, start by choosing vendors that offer strong targeting, real-time delivery, and clear consent documentation. Focus on leads that match your product, geography, and ideal customer profile, then use tools to validate contact data, filter duplicates or fraud, and verify proof of consent before your team reaches out.

The best results come from measuring lead quality by outcomes like contact rate, quote rate, and cost per bind, not just cost per lead.

How to improve the quality of insurance leads?

You can improve the quality of insurance leads by tightening your intake and qualification process. Focus on better targeting, validating contact data, removing duplicates and fraud, checking buyer intent, and verifying consent before leads reach your sales team. It also helps to track outcomes by source so you can invest more in the channels that actually produce quotes, binds, and long-term value.

What is the difference between leads and qualified leads?

A lead is any potential customer who has shown some level of interest, such as filling out a form or requesting information. A qualified lead goes a step further: It has been evaluated and confirmed as a better fit based on factors like need, intent, budget, contactability, and compliance. In short, all qualified leads are leads, but not all leads are truly qualified.

How much do qualified insurance leads cost?

Qualified insurance leads can range from low-cost shared data leads to higher-priced exclusive leads and live-transfer calls. Pricing depends on the product line, exclusivity, and vendor, and many providers do not publish fixed rates publicly. In general, shared leads cost less, exclusive leads cost more, and live-transfer calls are usually the most expensive—but often highest-intent—option.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, while the challenges of acquiring quality leads may seem daunting, insurance businesses have several options at their disposal. They can combat fraudulent lead acquisition and ensure compliance with TCPA regulations through a multifaceted approach that leverages cutting-edge tools and techniques. 

By leveraging tools like LeadConduit and its add-ons, analyzing data like originating domain, and implementing tools like TrustedForm, insurance businesses can successfully navigate the hurdles of lead acquisition, streamline their marketing endeavors, guarantee compliance, and build successful long-term customer relationships.

Ultimately, the future of insurance lead generation is not about buying more leads, it’s about making smarter decisions about which leads to accept, contact, and convert.

If you’d like to see how ActiveProspect works, schedule a free demo now! We will show you how our platform can help you acquire new customers at scale through consent-based marketing.

The post Qualified insurance leads: Everything you need to do to acquire only the best ones appeared first on ActiveProspect.

Insurance is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Whether you’re selling life, home, auto, health, or Medicare products, the biggest challenge is always the same: Finding high-quality prospects at scale. That’s why many agencies and agents consider purchasing insurance leads as part of their growth strategy. But the big question remains: Is buying insurance leads worth it?

The answer isn’t a simple yes or no: It depends on how you approach lead buying, which partners you work with, and how you manage and verify the leads you pay for. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore how insurance lead buying works, review the pros and cons, and help you answer the question: Should I buy insurance leads?

How buying insurance leads works

Insurance lead buying is simple on the surface: You pay a lead vendor for access to consumer inquiries that match your target customer profile. These consumers typically submit their information through comparison websites, quote forms, or advertising funnels indicating they’re interested in insurance. Vendors then sell these leads to one or multiple agents.

There are three main types of insurance leads:

1. Shared leads

These are sold to several agents at the same time, often 3 to 8 buyers. Because they’re shared, they cost less, but competition is much higher. Response time matters; the first agent to contact the consumer often wins.

2. Exclusive leads

These cost more because they’re only sold to one agent. While exclusivity reduces competition, it doesn’t always guarantee lead quality.

3. Aged leads

These are older inquiries, sometimes days, weeks, or months old. They are inexpensive, but intent may be low. Still, some agents successfully use aged leads for long-term nurturing.

The risks in the lead buying process

While lead buying can be profitable, there are several risks:

• Duplicate leads — paying multiple times for the same consumer.
• Invalid or fake leads — including bots or incorrect information.
• Leads without proper consent — risky in an industry governed by TCPA regulations.
• Slow delivery — meaning you lose the lead to faster competitors.
  

Insurance agents turn to technology solutions to fix these issues and improve ROI, which we’ll cover later.

Is buying insurance leads worth it? Pros and cons

If you’re asking “is buying insurance leads worth it?” or “does buying insurance leads work?”, the truth is that lead buying can be incredibly effective if you understand both the benefits and limitations.

Pros of buying insurance leads

1. Immediate access to prospects

Building an organic lead pipeline takes time. Buying insurance leads provides instant access to people actively researching insurance.

2. Scalable lead flow

Lead vendors allow you to increase or decrease lead volume based on your sales capacity and budget. That flexibility is crucial for agents looking to grow quickly.

3. Ability to target specific niches

Whether you want Medicare Advantage prospects, homeowners, small business owners, or life insurance shoppers, vendors allow demographic and geographic filtering.

4. Predictable costs

Lead prices are generally fixed, making it easier to forecast monthly spending and expected conversion rates.

5. Great for newer agents

If you’re still building your referral network or establishing your brand, lead buying can help fill the gaps.

Cons of buying insurance leads

1. Lead quality can be inconsistent

Not all vendors use the same marketing practices. Some generate high-intent leads, while others rely on aggressive tactics that result in uninterested or confused consumers.

2. Competition can be intense

With shared leads especially, agents must respond within minutes to have a chance at closing the sale.

3. Potential compliance risks

If a lead didn’t actually give consent to be contacted, you could face TCPA complaints — and costly legal exposure.

4. Costs add up if not managed well

Paying for duplicates, invalid leads, or low-intent prospects can burn through your budget quickly.

5. Leads alone won’t fix a weak sales process

Successful lead buyers have strong follow-up systems. If you aren’t prepared to contact leads fast and often, your ROI will suffer.

Does buying insurance leads work?

Yes, when done correctly. Many high-performing agencies rely on purchased leads as a major part of their growth engine. But the ones who see the best results treat lead buying as a measured investment, not a gamble.

That means:

• Tracking which vendors consistently produce high-quality leads
• Verifying consent and lead authenticity
• Automating lead distribution
• Eliminating waste and inefficiency
  

Lead buying works when you eliminate the guesswork.

Should I buy insurance leads? Tips to maximize ROI

If you’re still asking “should I buy insurance leads?” the answer is: Yes, but only if you set yourself up for success.

Here are proven strategies to get the most out of your investment.

1. Use TrustedForm to verify consent and help protect your business

One of the biggest risks in insurance lead buying is purchasing leads who never actually asked to be contacted. Not only is this bad for your team and your budget — it exposes your agency to TCPA liability.

TrustedForm helps solve this problem by providing independent, unbiased documentation of a lead’s consent.

TrustedForm:

• Shows when and where the consumer opted in
• Shows if a real person completed the form
• Helps protect you from fraudulent or bot-generated activity
• Helps you buy leads only from vendors who use compliant, ethical collection practices
  

When you buy leads with TrustedForm Certificates attached, you know exactly what you’re paying for — and you can show consent was obtained if challenged.

This dramatically increases your confidence in lead buying and improves overall lead quality.

2. Use LeadConduit to evaluate vendors and optimize every lead

Buying leads without monitoring quality is like buying insurance policies without reading the coverage terms. You need full visibility into what’s working — and what’s not.

LeadConduit helps insurance agents and carriers analyze, filter, and optimize lead buying in real time. Even better, carriers can add and test third-party tools—such as scoring, data append, and compliance add-ons—directly within LeadConduit without needing to procure those services upfront. This gives teams unprecedented flexibility to experiment, evaluate performance, and determine what delivers real value before committing budget.

With LeadConduit add-ons, you can:

• Automatically reject invalid or duplicate leads before you pay for them
• Score and route leads instantly, improving contact speed
• Measure each vendor’s performance based on conversion rates, not assumptions
• Eliminate wasted spend by stopping low-quality lead sources
• Integrate directly with your CRM and dialer for seamless distribution
  

Instead of manually checking every lead, LeadConduit becomes your automated quality gate.

3. Start small, test, and scale intentionally

Never buy thousands of dollars’ worth of leads upfront without testing the vendor first. Insurance lead performance varies widely.

A smart testing strategy includes:

• Buying small batches from multiple vendors
• Using TrustedForm and LeadConduit to evaluate each batch
• Tracking contact rate, appointment rate, and close rate
• Scaling up only the sources that prove their value
  

Data, not guesses, should guide your lead-buying decisions.

4. Respond to leads immediately

Speed-to-lead matters — especially in insurance. The agent who responds first often secures the policy. Automating lead routing with platforms like LeadConduit helps ensure no lead goes untouched.

5. Build a follow-up system that matches consumer behavior

Most insurance customers don’t buy on the first call. Or even the second. Success requires:

• A multi-touch communication strategy
• Automated reminders
• Consistent nurturing
• Personalized scripts
  

The better your process, the higher your ROI — regardless of lead source.

Conclusion: Is buying insurance leads worth it?

So, is buying insurance leads worth it? Yes, for the agents who treat lead buying as a strategic investment, verify every lead’s authenticity, and optimize their distribution workflow.

Does buying insurance leads work? Absolutely, when you have the right tools in place to ensure quality, compliance, and speed.

Should you buy insurance leads? You should, if you are committed to doing it the right way. By leveraging solutions like TrustedForm to validate consent and LeadConduit to filter and manage lead flow, you can turn lead buying into a reliable, scalable growth channel for your insurance business.

When done correctly, buying insurance leads is not just worthwhile — it can be one of the most efficient ways to grow your book of business.

The post Is buying insurance leads worth it? A full guide for insurance agents appeared first on ActiveProspect.

Artificial intelligence is transforming nearly every sector, and insurance is no exception. In ActiveProspect’s recent webinar, “How Insurance Carriers Use AI to Reach and Retain Consumers,” a panel of experts explored how Insurance carriers are leveraging AI to streamline operations, improve consumer engagement, and stay compliant in a complex regulatory environment.

The discussion featured Matt Fraser (GM of Insurance at ActiveProspect), Brandon Debenham (Sales Leader at Liberate), and John Henson (Founder at Henson Legal), moderated by Andrew Bailey from ActiveProspect. Together, they unpacked how AI is reshaping lead generation, compliance, and retention strategies—and what insurance carriers need to know to keep pace.

Key takeaways

Below are the main themes and takeaways from this insightful session:

• AI starts with easy wins – replacing outdated IVRs and streamlining claims intake.
• Biggest value = full integration – AI completing back-end tasks like payments or policy changes.
• Retention is a huge opportunity – faster service and personalization boost loyalty.
• Compliance is critical – AI voice counts as “artificial voice” under TCPA, so update consent and disclosures.
• Vet vendors carefully – check funding, data security, SOC 2/HIPAA/PCI compliance, and data usage policies.
• Outbound AI = higher risk – stricter rules, need clear scripts and off-ramps to humans.
• Train and monitor AI – treat it like a new employee, with testing and guardrails.
• Offer off-ramps – let consumers opt out or reach a human agent mid-interaction.
• Legacy systems are a hurdle – plan for latency and compatibility.
• Act now to stay ahead – early adopters will be better prepared as tech and regulations evolve.

Now let’s dive deeper into the topics presented above.

AI’s expanding role in Insurance carriers’ operations

One of the central themes was how AI is moving beyond hype to become a practical, revenue-driving tool for Insurance carriers. Brandon detailed how Liberate initially designed AI systems to handle claims intake, particularly during high-volume “catastrophe seasons” in Florida. At the height of hurricane season, the platform was filing one claim every six seconds—without human involvement.

However, the team soon discovered a broader application: Replacing outdated IVR systems with AI-driven voice interactions. By triaging inbound calls and routing them to the correct department in real time, carriers reduced wait times, improved service quality, and gained valuable insights into why customers were calling.

This shift shows how AI can start small—solving a straightforward operational pain point—and evolve into a strategic asset that enhances customer experience and organizational agility.

From IVR replacement to full integration

Panelists agreed that using AI to replace rigid IVR menus is an easy entry point for Insurance carriers. But the real long-term value comes from deep integrations with policy administration systems.

Brandon explained that the “magic” happens when AI systems can not only understand a customer’s intent but also complete back-end tasks—such as adding a vehicle to a policy or processing a payment—directly within carrier systems. This creates a seamless experience for the consumer and significant efficiencies for carriers.

Matt noted that while AI will not outperform a carrier’s top-performing human agents, it can level-set performance across teams, eliminate bottlenecks, and scale service capacity infinitely—especially critical during high-demand periods.

Compliance and risk mitigation: The non-negotiables

John, an attorney specializing in TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) and AI compliance, underscored the legal and regulatory risks of AI adoption. In early 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) clarified that AI-generated voice counts as “artificial voice” under the TCPA, placing it in the same regulated category as robocalls. This means AI-driven calls must meet strict consent, disclosure, and opt-out requirements.

Key compliance considerations discussed in the webinar included:

• Consent language: Traditional lead form disclosures covering autodialers are not sufficient for AI-generated voice. Consent language must explicitly mention AI or artificial voice technology.
• Required disclosures: AI-driven calls must include the caller’s identity, a callback number, and an opt-out mechanism within the first two seconds of pickup.
• Data security: Carriers should ensure their AI vendors adhere to standards such as SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA (if applicable), and PCI compliance for payment data.
• Vendor risk: Carriers must vet AI providers carefully to avoid “fly-by-night” vendors who lack financial stability, compliance expertise, or secure data practices.A dedicated contract review tool helps legal and compliance teams spot risky clauses, data use issues, and missing protections before agreements are signed.

Vendor selection: Moving past the hype

All three panelists reflected on the explosion of AI products at industry conferences in the past year. While many were “pretty wrappers” around existing technologies, the market is now maturing. Carriers are moving toward specialized AI platforms with deep use-case expertise rather than generic solutions.

Practical tips for carriers evaluating AI vendors include:

1. Assess financial stability: Ask about funding, staffing, and long-term plans to ensure the vendor will still be around in a year.
2. Demand proof of compliance: Look for SOC 2 audits, HIPAA and PCI adherence, and single-tenant data storage. If PCI is in scope, confirm where card data would live in a U.S. environment, Atlantic Net’s U.S. infrastructure.
3. Understand the data lifecycle: Ask what data trained the model, what happens to your data after ingestion, and whether you retain access if the contract ends.
   

By treating vendor selection as a compliance and operational decision—not just a technology purchase—carriers can reduce risk while reaping AI’s benefits.

Outbound AI: The next frontier and its legal challenges

While inbound AI applications are relatively low-risk, outbound AI presents more regulatory hurdles. As John noted, the TCPA and Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) overlap but differ in key areas, creating gray zones for carriers.

For outbound campaigns, carriers must ensure:

• Explicit consumer consent for AI-generated calls.
• Scripts and disclosures that comply with TCPA/TSR requirements.
• Systems to recognize and honor revocations of consent—even when expressed in nonstandard language.
• Clear “off-ramps” to connect consumers with human agents upon request.
  

The panel also touched on emerging state-level laws and the importance of anticipating future regulatory shifts when designing AI strategies.

AI for retention: The unsung opportunity

While lead acquisition often dominates the conversation, the panel emphasized that retention is where AI can drive the biggest financial impact. By applying AI to service channels—claims, billing, policy updates—carriers can resolve requests faster, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately boost retention.

Brandon highlighted how AI sentiment analysis can detect consumer frustration mid-call and automatically escalate to a human agent, preserving the customer relationship. This kind of proactive service turns AI from a cost-saver into a loyalty-builder.

Integrating AI with legacy systems

One recurring challenge is integrating AI tools with carriers’ older infrastructure. Many carrier APIs were built decades ago and may not support real-time response speeds required by AI. Panelists suggested that as carriers modernize their tech stacks, AI’s potential will expand dramatically.

This modernization trend extends beyond consumer-facing systems to distribution infrastructure, where carriers are replacing manual spreadsheets and legacy tools with platforms like Producerflow to automate producer licensing, appointments, and compliance tracking across their agent networks.

In the meantime, carriers adopting AI must plan for latency, data flow, and system compatibility. Strategic pilots and phased rollouts can help identify bottlenecks before full-scale deployment.

Pitfalls to avoid when implementing AI

The panel identified several common missteps that carriers should avoid:

• Using old consent language: Update disclosures to reflect AI-specific outreach.
• Underestimating training needs: Like a new employee, AI systems require time to be trained, tested, and optimized—expect a 60–120 day ramp-up.
• Ignoring consumer off-ramps: Ensure your AI can detect “stop” or “do not call” requests and seamlessly route to human agents.
• Treating AI as plug-and-play: AI is a strategic capability, not a magic switch. Success requires ongoing monitoring, iteration, and compliance reviews.

By addressing these pitfalls early, carriers can accelerate adoption while safeguarding their reputation and customer trust.

The bigger picture: AI’s evolution in Insurance

As the webinar wrapped up, each panelist shared a forward-looking takeaway.

The consensus was clear: AI in Insurance is at an inflection point. Carriers that adopt thoughtfully—balancing innovation with compliance—will gain a decisive edge in both customer acquisition and retention.

Final thoughts

ActiveProspect’s webinar underscored that AI is no longer a futuristic concept for Insurance carriers; it’s a present-day tool with measurable impact. From replacing outdated IVRs to enabling real-time claims processing, AI is reshaping how carriers engage consumers and manage operations.

Yet, success depends on more than just technology. Carriers must update consent language, vet vendors rigorously, and build guardrails to ensure compliance. Those that invest in the right infrastructure today will be positioned to offer faster, smarter, and more personalized service tomorrow.

As the panelists repeatedly emphasized, the industry is still in the early innings. But by embracing AI now—starting small, learning quickly, and scaling responsibly—insurance carriers can future-proof their business and set a new standard for customer engagement.

DISCLAIMER: This page and all related links are provided for general informational and educational purposes only and are not legal advice. ActiveProspect does not warrant or guarantee this information will provide you with legal protection or compliance. Please consult with your legal counsel for legal and compliance advice. You are responsible for using any ActiveProspect Services in a legally compliant manner pursuant to ActiveProspect’s Terms of Service. Any quotes contained herein belong to the person(s) quoted and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions of ActiveProspect.

The post The future of Insurance: Using AI to drive growth and stay compliant appeared first on ActiveProspect.

In our webinar “Insurance Perspective | Navigating 2025’s Shifting Landscape,” we delved into the evolving world of insurance lead generation, exploring the industry’s current state and how compliance and technology are shaping its future.

Industry experts Matt Fraser, GM of Insurance at ActiveProspect, and Brock Thompson, Vice President of QuoteWizard by LendingTree, shared their insights and experiences in navigating the complex terrain of lead generation.

Key takeaways

Below are some of the key takeaways from our Insurance-specific webinar:

• The one-to-one consent rule being knocked down by the courts left both buyers and sellers scrambling, leading to a focus on maintaining compliance and understanding customer intent.
• Compliance is crucial and remains at the forefront of lead generation practices, even after the one-to-one rule was rescinded.
• Feedback loops are becoming more consistent and granular, helping marketers and buyers make better decisions and adjust to industry changes.
• The insurance industry is cyclical, and while there is budget and appetite, it is more thoughtful and focused on the right customer and the right product.
• The impact of external factors, such as tariffs, new car technology, and state regulations, on insurance profitability and lead generation strategies is significant.
• There is a need for better alignment and understanding between marketers and carriers to ensure that data is used beneficially rather than weaponized.

Let’s take a closer look at the topics presented above.

Q1 in review: The rollercoaster of compliance and uncertainty

Diving into the first quarter, it’s clear that the landscape was anything but calm. As Matt points out, the one-to-one consent compliance issue took center stage, with a new administration bringing about a whirlwind of changes.

The real drama, however, unfolded when the courts delivered a last-minute blow to one-to-one consent, leaving both buyers and sellers scrambling to navigate the new terrain. Budgets and volumes were in flux, creating a significant amount of uncertainty. Meanwhile, TCPA litigators were quick to adapt, shifting their focus to target those who didn’t comply with the new regulations. It’s a clear reminder that the legal and regulatory environment can change rapidly, and staying informed is crucial.

Navigating one-to-one consent and its impact on buyers and carriers

Brock highlights how the team at QuoteWizard and LendingTree went the extra mile to prepare for one-to-one consent.

They conducted extensive testing, customer surveys, and mapped out consumer journeys, all while having in-depth discussions with carrier partners. The goal was to reduce excess calls and avoid distractions from primary products, while still offering consumers choice and timely information.The balance between these objectives was a key focus, especially in a comparative market like QuoteWizard.

They spent significant time analyzing the market, collaborating with acquisition partners, and refining the consumer experience. This preparation led to a better understanding of their customers and how to empower them to make the right decisions at the right time, aligning closely with carrier partners’ acquisition goals.

However, the flip side was the persistent litigation. Brock was surprised by how many companies were unprepared if one-to-one consent had gone through. The market became saturated with lawsuits. To counter this, Brock and his team spent 15 months tightening their processes, working with partners like ActiveProspect to implement robust monitoring, guardrails, and feedback loops.

This proactive approach allowed them to quickly address issues and position themselves for a stronger, more compliant 2025.

QuoteWizard’s compliance strategy: Tracing customer journeys and partnering for success

Brock emphasizes that compliance “starts with understanding your own processes.” It’s crucial to know how you acquire customers and whether you can trace their journey back to the point of origin. If you can, you need to ensure that this point of origin is fully compliant.

At QuoteWizard, they track, monitor, and collaborate with internal and external compliance teams and legal counsel to ensure they are always putting their best foot forward.

However, the challenge increases as you move upstream and work with third-party companies. This is where partners like ActiveProspect come in, helping to bridge the gaps and capture essential data. This way, they ensure that customers receive what they requested, are treated with respect, and that matches are made with the customer’s best interest in mind.

Once the customer moves downstream, the focus shifts to their performance and feedback. How are they responding to our outreach—whether by phone, email, text, or direct mail? What are they saying about our services? This feedback is crucial for making necessary adjustments. Sometimes, it’s as simple as tweaking the language or setting different expectations. Other times, it involves changing processes.

Regardless, compliance acts as the fulcrum of the business. According to Brock, as long as you have a solid compliant foundation, you can make quick adjustments while maintaining the overall effectiveness of your operations.

Choosing the right contact strategies

According to Brock, “it first starts with confidence.” You need to be confident that the customer wants something you offer—whether it’s a single product or multiple options that could benefit them. This confidence is the foundation of compliant engagement. It involves ensuring that your TCPA language, your partner’s TCPA language, and your processes are all sound.

With a solid foundation, you can start to get creative. This creativity comes from a deep understanding of your customer and your acquisition partners. As a facilitator, you need to determine the best way to meet their needs. What are the customer’s goals? What are your goals? How can you align with them? Each step should have a feedback loop to ensure continuous improvement.

If you approach this with honesty, transparency, and vulnerability, it’s like building a relationship with a human. By doing so, you can foster a strong relationship with your customer and your buyer.

The importance of feedback loops

In Brock’s opinion, the landscape of feedback loops has significantly improved over the past few years. Four to seven years ago, obtaining and integrating information was a major challenge. The buying feedback loop was loose, and stitching together data, tracing it back to its source, and breaking it down by state or demographic was incredibly difficult. While it’s still not perfect, the situation has markedly improved.

In 2024 and 2025, feedback loops are becoming more popular and sophisticated. AI is now capable of scanning data for trends, anomalies, and similarities, and API integrations are making data collection and analysis more efficient. Although we’re not yet at real-time feedback, we’re much faster than we were a few years ago, no longer dealing with delays of months.

However, there are still areas where people fall short:

1. The usage of the data. Are you leveraging it to make better decisions and improve your strategies?
2. Tracking this data upstream to ensure that your language and processes remain compliant as regulations like the TCPA and TSR evolve. Staying informed about the latest regulatory shifts is crucial for using feedback loops effectively.

Moreover, the regulatory landscape is changing. States are now taking the lead, creating a complex 51-state (including DC) regulatory environment. This raises questions about how these regulations will interact, especially in areas where state lines are close. Ensuring consistency in language, processes, and feedback loops across these jurisdictions is a significant challenge.

According to Brock, this is where marketers and responsible businesses must come together. By staying informed and adaptive, we can navigate these changes and maintain compliance while fostering strong, data-driven relationships with our customers.

How tight and honest feedback loops can transform the Insurance industry

What Brock really wants to see in the industry is more instantaneous and granular feedback, and a better understanding that data can be used for benefit rather than being weaponized. Himself and others in the industry prefer to use data to become smarter, not to leverage it against others, though he understands the hesitancy around this.

Tight, vulnerable, and honest feedback loops can help insurers stay ahead of the game, making more informed decisions and adapting to changes more effectively.

Budgets and channel trends: What’s growing and what’s shifting?

Brock highlights that in the Property and Casualty (P&C) world, there’s a recurring cycle we go through. Post-COVID, feedback loops and adjustments have become more consistent, helping marketers mitigate the peaks and troughs of this cycle. However, external factors like inflation, tariffs, and losses remain challenging. While vehicle losses are decreasing due to advanced safety features, home losses are becoming more expensive due to higher material costs and severe weather events.

Despite these unpredictable elements, there is a clear appetite and budget from carriers, agencies, and buyers. It’s not the Wild West, but it’s also not as restrictive as it was in 2022 and 2023. The focus is on the right customer and the right product, ensuring a thoughtful approach.

In this environment, marketers must be more conscious of budgeting and work closely with carriers to understand and adapt to these evolving dynamics.

The key to navigating a complex compliance landscape

Brock highlights that the strategies for marketers, distributors, and organizations need to be adaptable. The key is to stay aligned with both customer and buyer expectations, whether in P&C, health, or Medicare. This involves navigating the three-dimensional shifts in the compliance landscape, including state and federal regulations. 

By staying informed and integrating all these elements, we can ensure consent-based marketing, aligned strategies, and effective feedback loops.

According to Matt, the key is finding the right balance. At the end of the day, you need a scalable business across the board. Volume is crucial because it’s a numbers game, and it always will be. The goal is to improve those numbers continuously.

Conclusion

As compliance, technology, and consumer expectations continue to evolve, one thing is clear: the insurance industry must stay agile to thrive. By investing in smarter acquisition tools, tightening feedback loops, and maintaining transparency throughout the lead journey, marketers and carriers alike can build stronger relationships and drive better outcomes. The path forward requires not just compliance—but confidence in every step of your funnel.

Want to see these strategies in action? Watch the full episode of the webinar for deeper insights, or book a free demo to see how ActiveProspect can help you protect your brand, improve lead quality, and scale with confidence.

The post Confidence & compliance: How insurance marketers are adapting to lead gen shifts appeared first on ActiveProspect.

In a world where milliseconds matter and data accuracy drives conversions, speed and intelligence aren’t just nice to have – they’re critical. That’s why we’re excited to announce a powerful new integration between ActiveProspect and Fenris, bringing together real-time consent-based lead optimization with cutting-edge data enrichment.

With new integrations now available for Customer 360 and Property Details, users of ActiveProspect’s LeadConduit can access more complete, verified lead data the moment it enters their funnel – automatically.

So what is Fenris, how does it work, and how can these new integrations help streamline your lead flow and boost conversions? Let’s dive in.

What is Fenris?

Fenris is a technology company specializing in real-time data enrichment and predictive intelligence for the insurance and financial services sectors. Their platform is built to accelerate and improve lead acquisition, quoting, and conversion by integrating actionable insights into the lead flow process.

Fenris enables organizations to:

• Enhance leads with verified and pre-fillable data.
• Score and prioritize prospects based on their fit and likelihood to convert.
• Provide conversion signals that minimize friction in applications and quoting.
• Provide real-time, context-specific insights for sales and underwriting teams.

By leveraging proprietary datasets and AI-driven analytics, Fenris can assess both individual and small business prospects in real time. This capability allows your team to make more informed decisions quickly, while also streamlining the application and qualification processes.

In the same way, having access to accurate payroll records is also important for verification and employment processes. Resources like a cvs paystub guide help employees and HR teams easily retrieve and review wage information when needed.

Introducing Fenris Customer 360 & Property Details

With our new integrations, LeadConduit users can now tap into Fenris Customer 360 and Property Details as real-time enrichment steps in their lead flow.

Here’s how each works:

Customer 360

With just a name and address, Customer 360 taps into a robust database of over 216 million adults and 130 million households to match leads with exceptional precision. Once a match is found, four key data enrichment processes kick in:

1. Address cleansing & verification: Ensures the address is current and correct – crucial for CRM syncing, retargeting, and pre-filling forms.
2. Individual demographics: Includes marital status, homeownership probability, and length of residence – particularly valuable for Home Services and Insurance.
3. Household demographics: Details the makeup of the household, such as generational data, age ranges of children, and even up to 20 hobby interests for targeted marketing.
4. Financial wherewithal: Offers insights into household income, net worth, liabilities, and mortgage details – including title company, lender, and balance – for more precise financial services targeting.

These insights can be used to prefill applications, improve segmentation and lead routing, support eligibility checks, and deliver a smoother quoting experience.

All this data is delivered in a single, easy-to-use package – with transparent, set pricing that lets you use as much or as little as you need, for smarter lead scoring, routing, and conversion.

Property Details

Property Details delivers a deep set of real estate insights pulled from thousands of public data sources across all 3,200+ U.S. counties – each with its own local assessment and tax systems. 

By aggregating and standardizing this data, Fenris provides a clean, accurate view of each property in your lead flow. Here’s what you get:

1. Address cleansing & verification: Ensures the address is standardized and accurate, supporting de-duplication and downstream data management.
2. Building characteristics: Includes detailed information like square footage, construction type, year built, and roof details. This is especially helpful for insurance providers qualifying homes more efficiently.
3. Exact bathroom counts: Rather than rounding, Fenris delivers exact numbers (e.g., 3.5 bathrooms) to support more precise quoting and qualification.
4. Valuation & mortgage data: Access market and assessed values, land and improvement values, and mortgage details – mirroring county-level tax records.

All this is delivered in a single, flexible API-ready payload, enabling insurers and marketers to leverage only the fields that matter most to their workflows. The result: less friction, more precision, and smarter lead handling from the start.

Optimize your lead flows with Fenris’ LeadConduit integration

With LeadConduit, you can create custom automated lead flows to make real-time decisions on leads, filter out unwanted leads, and identify high-quality prospects before they enter your CRM.

LeadConduit assists thousands of brands in boosting their ROI, reducing fraud, and enhancing efficiency by streamlining lead acquisition and distribution processes. By automating these tasks, you can eliminate error-prone manual work and ensure seamless data normalization, maintenance, and synchronization between various lead vendors and technology stacks.

Fenris is ready to use and directly available as an integration within LeadConduit. What sets Fenris and LeadConduit apart is their ability to deliver real-time data enrichment and predictive intelligence the moment a lead enters your funnel – without adding friction. With Fenris integrated into LeadConduit, you can ensure each lead is automatically enriched, scored, and verified – empowering smarter decisions.

This enables you to optimize your lead flows, improve targeting, and boost conversion rates – without adding friction to your process. LeadConduit’s centralized dashboard makes it easy to manage these enriched leads in real time, all in one place.

By adding Fenris to your flows, you can set custom rules and logic to prioritize leads with the highest fit or filter out those that don’t meet qualification standards. The result? A more streamlined, data-driven approach that improves efficiency and maximizes ROI.

Final thoughts

In the competitive landscape we live in today, the difference between a lead and a conversion often comes down to speed, accuracy, and actionable data. With the new Fenris Customer 360 and Property Details integrations, LeadConduit empowers insurers and financial service providers to enrich, verify, and score leads in real time – before they ever reach your CRM or sales team.

No more piecing together data from multiple sources. No more wasted time on unqualified prospects. Just smarter, cleaner, more complete leads – delivered instantly and enriched with the insights your business needs to act faster and perform better.

If you’re ready to reduce friction, elevate your qualification process, and maximize ROI from every lead, Fenris and LeadConduit are your next strategic advantage.

The post New integration alert: Fenris Customer 360 & Property Details appeared first on ActiveProspect.

In our recent webinar, “The power of data: How data enhances lead generation and buyer performance,” Matt Fraser, our GM of Insurance, had the opportunity to engage in a stimulating discussion with Jennifer Linton, the CEO and founder of Fenris. The primary focus of their discussion was the role of data enrichment in enhancing lead generation, buyer performance, and conversion rates.

In their conversation, they also explored an essential tool in the market, ActiveProspect’s LeadConduit, and how it enhances lead distribution, filtering, and real-time decision making.

Key takeaways

Here are the main takeaways from our Insurance-specific webinar, “The power of data: How data enhances lead generation and buyer performance:”

• Data enrichment can significantly improve lead management and customer acquisition processes.
• Real-time data integration is crucial for optimizing the customer journey and reducing friction.
• The insurance industry, in particular, benefits from early data verification and predictive analytics.
• Different verticals have unique data needs, but all benefit from accurate and timely data.

Let’s dive deeper into these topics and explore our experts’ perspectives.

What is Fenris?

Fenris is a technology company that provides data enrichment and predictive intelligence purpose built for the insurance and financial services industries. Their platform helps insurers, lenders, and other providers transform lead acquisition, quoting, and conversion.

At its core, Fenris enables real-time decisioning during the workflow by:

• Enriching leads with verified, pre-fillable data.
• Scoring and prioritizing prospects based on fit and likelihood to convert.
• Delivering signals that reduce application friction and accelerate quoting.
• Empowering sales and underwriting teams with contextual insights.

Fenris uses AI-driven analytics and their proprietary dataset to deliver real-time insights on individuals and small businesses, helping companies make smarter, faster decisions while reducing friction for the end user.

​​How are carriers in the P&C space leveraging data?

As Jennifer explains, in the P&C (Property & Casualty) space, Fenris works with a diverse range of stakeholders, including carriers, MGAs (Managing Generals Agents), agencies, brokers, marketplaces, and even embedded insurance providers. These entities connect to Fenris’ API and are provisioned with one of their 20 or so data products, which span auto, home, and small business insurance.

They primarily use Fenris’ services for two key reasons:

1. Early data integration: Traditionally, the insurance industry has robust data, but it is often applied too late in the process, typically during the underwriting phase. By this point, significant investments have already been made to acquire the lead. Fenris changes this by bringing data into the acquisition process much earlier. This early integration reduces friction, increases efficiency, and improves the customer experience, much like how tools such as a Cyprus tax calculator help simplify complex financial assessments for consumers. 
2. Predictive analytics: Fenris’ predictive platform is a game-changer, with a patent-pending approach that combines extensive data assets with advanced machine learning. Clients can augment their own predictive analytics capabilities by leveraging the platform to maintain and deploy their models in the cloud. This allows them to pull real-time scores and insights, optimizing every step of the customer acquisition journey.

This results in better close rates, higher customer lifetime values, and more efficient cost of acquisition.

How can other verticals leverage data enhancements during the lead purchase experience?

As Matt explains, at ActiveProspect we service a number of verticals. We have a significant home services business that includes solar and roofing contract work, along with subverticals like higher education, legal, and mass tort, and various segments within insurance. Each of these areas has distinct approaches to lead buying, with different outputs and outcomes.

Despite these differences, however, all these verticals start with a consumer who is interested in a product or service and is providing their information. This information helps businesses understand who is coming through their lead flow and allows them to segment leads effectively. They might route leads to different contact center agents based on the consumer’s demographics and specific needs, tailoring their contact strategy accordingly.

According to Jennifer, another key element that is uniquely shared across all these categories is the speed-to-lead requirement.

How LeadConduit helps buyers in all verticals leverage data

LeadConduit is ActiveProspects’ lead management platform, designed to provide lead buyers with a seamless and efficient way to connect with sellers, marketing partners, and third-party solutions. This enhances lead distribution, filtering, and real-time decision-making.

One of the key benefits of LeadConduit for buyers is the ability to add important steps to the lead buying process before purchasing the lead. For instance, you can perform duplicate checks and TCPA compliance checks in real time.

Additionally, LeadConduit offers a curated marketplace that enables powerful add-ons, such as Fenris, to be integrated into your workflow. This is a significant advantage for buyers, particularly in the insurance industry, as it allows you to leverage third-party services like Fenris easily and quickly, without the usual procurement hassles and time delays.

New LeadConduit add-ons coming soon

As Jennifer explains, based on customer feedback across various industries, ActiveProspect will soon integrate two products by Fenris with LeadConduit.

Customer 360

With Customer 360, you need to provide the name and address of the individual. Fenris has a robust database of around 216 million adults and 130 million households, which allows for highly accurate matching. This capability significantly narrows down a large search to a single, precise record.

Once the match is made, four key processes occur:

1. Address cleansing and verification: This ensures the address is accurate and up-to-date, which is crucial for maintaining data hygiene. This is particularly important for lead management, remarketing, retargeting, prefilling forms, and CRM integration.
2. Individual demographics: You receive detailed information about the individual, such as their marital status, whether they are a definite or probable homeowner or renter, and how long they have been at their current location. This is especially useful for the home services industry.
3. Household demographics: This data set provides insights into the household, including the number of generations living there and the age ranges of any children. It also identifies up to 20 hobbies, which can be valuable for targeted marketing.
4. Financial wherewithal: For the financial services industry, this category provides household financial data, including income, net worth, and liabilities. It also includes detailed mortgage information, such as the name of the title company, lender, and balance.

All this data is aggregated into a single, easy-to-use package, eliminating the need to gather information from multiple sources. You can choose to use as much or as little of the data as you need, all at a set price. This innovative approach avoids the common issue of nickel-and-diming, offering a comprehensive and robust view of the customer.

Property Details

The second product is Property Details, which is an aggregation of data from various sources. As Jennifer explains, there are approximately 3,200 counties in the US, each with its own local process for property assessment and tax collection.

This is the data that gets pulled, primarily from public records:

• Address cleansing and verification: It starts by cleansing and verifying the address to ensure data hygiene, which helps with de-duplication and other data management tasks later on.
• Building characteristics: The property details include building characteristics such as square footage, type of construction, year built, and roof type. These details are particularly useful in the home insurance industry, as they help qualify homeowners more accurately and efficiently.
• Precise bathroom counts: One unique feature is the precision in bathroom counts. For example, if a property has 3.5 bathrooms, it provides that exact information rather than rounding up to 4, making it more helpful and accurate.
• Valuation records: The data package includes valuation records, providing both market and assessed values. You’ll receive land and improvement values, similar to what you might see on a county tax bill, helping you track changes over time and including mortgage data.

All this information is delivered as a comprehensive payload, and you can choose to use as much or as little of it as you need.

Three key benefits of gathering customer data

According to Jennifer, there are three reasons why getting this kind of data is important:

1. Enhanced customer and agent experience: By validating information upfront, you can improve the customer and agent experience. Instead of asking numerous questions, you can pull up some information and go through it together, which builds trust and shows that you are investing in the process.
2. Increased accuracy: The data can often be more accurate than self-supplied information.
3. Optimized lead management: Knowing this information from the start allows you to structure the customer journey to optimize the lead. If you don’t have a suitable product for a particular individual based on their profile, risk classification, or pre-screening, you can prioritize the lead or even resell it if it doesn’t fit your in-house offerings.

Conclusion

The power of data enrichment is transforming the landscape of lead generation and buyer performance. By integrating real-time data and predictive analytics early in the customer journey, businesses can achieve significant cost savings, enhance customer experiences, and optimize lead management.

Whether in the insurance industry or other verticals, the ability to make data-driven decisions is proving to be a game-changer, leading to higher close rates, increased customer lifetime value, and more efficient lead acquisition processes.

Watch the entire episode now and check out our webinar library for more expert content.

DISCLAIMER: This page and all related links are provided for general informational and educational purposes only and are not legal advice. ActiveProspect does not warrant or guarantee this information will provide you with legal protection or compliance. Please consult with your legal counsel for legal and compliance advice. You are responsible for using any ActiveProspect Services in a legally compliant manner pursuant to ActiveProspect’s Terms of Service. Any quotes contained herein belong to the person(s) quoted and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions of ActiveProspect.

The post From click to conversion: The role of data enrichment appeared first on ActiveProspect.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has recently taken steps to enhance consumer safeguards within the Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicare Part D, and Medicare Supplement plans market. Through a newly issued ruling, CMS has established additional requirements for Medicare Third-Party Marketing Organizations (TPMOs) involved in the marketing and individuals’ annual enrollment in these Medicare plans.

This guide is designed to provide you with a better understanding of this ruling’s impact and how it can influence the choices and privacy of the healthcare industry. We will examine how the rules impact lead generation and TPMOs in Medicare marketing, and offer guidance on maintaining compliance with the revised standards.

What is TPMO Medicare?

TPMO in Medicare stands for Third-Party Marketing Organization. These organizations are entities that Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D plan administrators may use to perform marketing and outreach activities regarding annual plan enrollment. These organizations include a wide range of entities such as brokers, agents, and other marketing firms that help promote Medicare plans and assist beneficiaries in enrolling.

By providing marketing expertise and direct beneficiary support, TPMOs can help contribute to the effective dissemination of Medicare plan information and facilitate informed enrollment decisions.

CMS issues new ruling on Medicare TPMO requirements

Half of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, a number that has doubled since 2010. This growth is partly due to the extensive network of insurance agents, brokers, field marketing organizations, and lead generators that help beneficiaries choose and enroll in plans. However, some marketing practices in this sector have drawn regulatory scrutiny for potentially misleading or confusing beneficiaries.

In response, the CMS issued a final rule update on April 4 that imposes significant restrictions regarding Prior Express Written Consent (PEWC) requirements on TPMOs, including lead generators. This ruling underscores CMS’s commitment to ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries are fully informed about their options and choices when selecting Medicare plans.

Key changes to Prior Express Written Consent (PEWC) requirements

TPMOs for Medicare will now face stricter controls on how they handle leads. Starting October 1, 2024, TPMOs must obtain Prior Express Written Consent (PEWC) from beneficiaries before sharing their data with other TPMOs for marketing or enrollment purposes.

Each sharing of data requires consent through a clear and conspicuous disclosure, and blanket consent for redistributing contact information is no longer allowed. Additionally, TPMOs cannot condition access to information on a beneficiary’s agreement to have their contact information sold or shared.

Some view this rule update as an opportunity to more clearly connect existing privacy protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to TPMOs. TPMOs that are HIPAA-covered entities (CE) or business associates (BA) must adhere to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which includes limitations on using protected health information (PHI) for marketing.

Moreover, TPMOs must carefully and compliantly factor in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and related Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations when performing telephone or text message outreach. These include obtaining Prior Express Written Consent (PEWC) requirements before transferring beneficiaries’ data to another TPMO for help in the annual Medicare enrollment program.

Thus, TPMOs should be cautious when contacting Medicare leads, whether using automated or manual dialing methods, to ensure compliance with these stringent requirements.

In addition, TPMOs must keep a record of the opt-out request and honor it within 10 business days. This requirement ensures that beneficiaries are not bombarded with unwanted marketing messages, and helps to ensure that marketing preferences are respected in the marketplace.

This requirement is designed to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries are fully aware of the implications of their decision. By promoting transparency, the ruling aims to equip beneficiaries to make well-informed choices about their Medicare coverage.

Main CMS Medicare communications and marketing guidelines

There are specific CMS marketing guidelines regarding PEWC in place to protect Medicare beneficiaries’ personal information and ensure ethical marketing practices by TPMOs. 

Importance of clear and conspicuous disclosures

The CMS mandates that TPMOs must obtain PEWC through disclosures that are both clear and conspicuous. This means the information should be presented in a manner that is easily noticeable and understandable to beneficiaries.

The disclosure must explicitly state which entities will receive the beneficiary’s data and provide the option for the beneficiary to consent to or decline the sharing of their information with each individual TPMO. This approach ensures that beneficiaries are fully informed about who will access their personal data and for what purposes.

Applicability of the CMS PEWC rule

The PEWC requirement applies specifically to situations where a TPMO intends to share a beneficiary’s personal data with another TPMO for marketing or enrollment purposes related to Medicare Advantage (MA) or Part D plans. In such cases, the originating TPMO must secure explicit written consent from the beneficiary before any data sharing occurs.

This rule is designed to prevent unauthorized dissemination of personal information and to uphold the privacy rights of Medicare beneficiaries. If there is data sharing of beneficiary data to other TPMOs beyond the immediate medicare annual enrollee transaction it rises to obtain and capture a documented consent to share date with another TPMO identified party      

Exceptions to the CMS PEWC rule update

The CMS PEWC rule does not apply in scenarios where a TPMO is not sharing beneficiary data with another TPMO. For instance, if a TPMO collects beneficiary information solely for its own marketing or enrollment activities and does not intend to distribute this data to external TPMOs, the requirement to obtain prior express written consent for data sharing is not applicable. 

However, TPMOs must still adhere to other relevant regulations and ethical standards concerning beneficiary data usage and marketing practices. 

By enforcing these CMS marketing guidelines, you enhance transparency, protect beneficiary privacy, and ensure that individuals have control over how their personal information is utilized within the Medicare marketing ecosystem.

Staying compliant with the updated TPMO guidelines

In today’s landscape, with a spotlight on data privacy and consumer safeguards, TPMOs are called to unwaveringly uphold these compliance measures. By doing so, they earn the trust of Medicare beneficiaries, showcase a dedication to principled marketing, and contribute to a healthcare environment that respects the rights of beneficiaries, ensuring their healthcare choices are made with the fullest consent and responsible sharing of personal information.

To ensure that beneficiaries are fully informed and in control, TPMOs must keep a record of all prior express written consents obtained, a task that virtual assistants for healthcare can help manage by handling documentation, follow-ups, and administrative workflows so compliance teams can focus on higher-level oversight. These records must be maintained and made available for CMS review upon request. Failure to maintain these records can result in significant civil monetary penalties and other enforcement actions.

The new rules are a significant step in protecting Medicare beneficiaries and promoting ethical behavior in Medicare marketing. By requiring prior express written consent and promoting transparency, CMS aims to create a more secure and trustworthy Medicare marketplace that benefits Medicare beneficiaries, health insurance issuers, and TPMOs.

By adapting to these new requirements and operating transparently, TPMOs can continue to serve the Medicare market and build trust with beneficiaries. This collective effort will lead to a more ethical and sustainable Medicare marketing environment that benefits all involved.

Provide documentation of consent with TrustedForm

Although the journey to one-to-one consent is still an ongoing one, ActiveProspect can help with a small yet crucial step at its beginning: Documenting proof of consent with TrustedForm.

TrustedForm is the ultimate compliance solution for documenting TCPA consent on digital lead capture forms, offering a number of products:

• TrustedForm Certify reduces compliance risk by documenting proof of TCPA consent and ensures your certified contacts have requested communication.
• TrustedForm Retain guarantees certificate availability for up to five years.
• TrustedForm Insights allows you to make informed decisions to optimize lead-buying strategies and maximize your ROI.
• TrustedForm Verify optimizes the consent capture process by enabling users to identify and categorize TCPA consent language for different lead vendors.

Key takeaways

The updated CMS rules for TPMOs underscore the importance of transparency, informed consent, and responsible data sharing. By following these guidelines closely, TPMOs can demonstrate their commitment to protecting the privacy of Medicare beneficiaries, building trust in the healthcare marketplace, and contributing to a more secure and efficient system that benefits everyone.

ActiveProspect is here to support your journey towards TCPA compliance. If you’d like to see how TrustedForm works, book a free demo now!

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