LIMRA and The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative have agreed to pursue a blockchain use case intended to streamline the licensing validation and appointment process for life insurance agents.

A new working group representing nine members of the RiskStream Collaborative life and annuity sector will use state and federal regulatory data to develop a licensing and appointments application. The app will automatically validate agents' and advisers' licensing credentials to sell specific life insurance and annuity products. The information will be available to all carriers and intermediaries that are part of the RiskStream Collaborative.

“According to LIMRA research, there are 200,000 independent agents in the United States who have an average of 11 separate carrier sales agreements, requiring considerable duplicative paperwork to comply with the growing regulatory requirements to validate agents' credentials to sell specific products in each state,” said Gina Birchall, chief operating officer of LIMRA. “Blockchain offers a unique solution that can benefit our industry and its consumers. Streamlining these core business processes will save carriers and distributors money and resources, allowing them to offer greater value to their customers.”