Lemonade: World’s First Live Policy

We've just announced a first-of-its-kind insurance policy. One that puts the power formerly reserved to brokers and agents in the hands of all Lemonade customers!

When we entered the insurance industry, we knew one of the biggest problems with traditional insurers was the endless amounts of red tape and long wait times. That’s why we committed to "instant everything" since day one.

From the world’s first 90-second sign-up to our world-record-setting claims process, we’ve hit some pretty exciting milestones, but they were just a preview of what we’ve got cooking.

The Old Paper Policy

Up until now, if a customer wanted to change the deductible or coverage amounts or add a valuable that was just bought, the customer had to contact the insurer’s customer support and explain the issue. Then, customers would need to pay for some changes, and probably get a new policy sent to them in the mail (snail mail, of course). That’s where the red tape and long wait times come in, and where the industry, new or old, startup or multibillion-dollar corporation, is right now. But our customers can now make those changes on their own.

As far as we know, no other insurance company allows its customers to modify their coverages or even cancel their policy on their own.

The new release is a great example of the reason behind our decision to take the longer, harder path in becoming a full stack insurance carrier, rather than a reseller. It also explains why we bet on building our own technology instead of taking the easy path of buying old-school IT systems (the ones that run most insurance companies in America today, and the startups that resell their insurance).

Introducing Lemonade’s Live Policy

Even if you buy renters insurance directly from the likes of GEICO or Progressive, the only part that’s direct is taking your money and sending you a policy. Everything else requires customers to contact customer service — which we all know can be… painful.

That sucks. So, in the last couple of months we’ve been working hard on the second phase of our policy, turning it into a "live" document that can easily be modified without involving an agent!

With Live Policy, Lemonade customers (existing and new) can make changes to their coverages and more, whenever and wherever they are! It’s actually easier to change your Lemonade coverages than it is to pay for your latte. Just open our app, go to your policy and start playing with stuff!

Here’s a list of things you can now do with your existing policy:

• Change deductible
• Change personal property limits
• Change liability limits
• Change loss-of-use limits
• Change limits for medical payments to others
• Add/remove your significant other
• Add/remove spouse
• Add/remove landlord
• Add/remove property manager

Moments like these are the reason why we chose the hard way - becoming a real insurance company. It would have been a walk in the park to slap on some pretty UX over a centuries-old insurance carrier.

But we started from square one and built an insurance company from the ground up to address the very issues that turn people away from insurance. Doing so takes more than changing the way we market insurance, or even changing the very business model of insurance. It requires a dynamic focus on the issues our customers - and every insurance customer - face every day. It requires a commitment to tackling pain points, even (and especially) when it means questioning precedent.

This exciting new update is a part of a series of new features we’ll be releasing in coming months that will make insurance even more enjoyable, affordable and instant.

This post was originally posted on the Lemonade Blog