Carrier results
Every carrier already knows the moment they're about to lose the policy. Almost none of them act on it that day.
- Card declines Retain starts, hour 0
- Draft returns NSF Retain starts, hour 0
- Employee leaves payroll Retain starts, hour 0
Retain runs off the trigger file, not a monthly cycle. Two carriers put it on the business they had already written off. Here is what came back.
up from 1.4%
continued coverage
the certificates saved
begins
Case study 01 — Direct to consumer
A declined card stopped meaning a lapsed policy.
The situation
Direct-to-consumer life premium lives and dies on a payment method. Cards expire, balances run short, drafts return — and none of it means the policyholder wanted out. The carrier's standing process recovered 1.4% of failed payments. The rest lapsed, taking with them every dollar spent to acquire that policyholder and every renewal the writing agent was counting on.
What ran
- Retain fires on the payment-failure file the same hour the carrier posts it. No batch, no queue, no waiting for the next dunning cycle.
- Ringless voicemail, SMS, and two-way AI conversation work the same policyholder until they update, decline, or the record closes.
- The card update is completed on the policyholder's phone and written straight back to the carrier — no call center hold, no paper form, no mailed check.
- Retain ran on 100% of payment fails, not a test segment. Every failure got the same treatment.
Case study 02 — Worksite
Coverage that used to fall off payroll now follows the person.
The situation
Worksite certificates are sold at the workplace and paid by deduction. The moment the employee leaves payroll, the deduction stops and the certificate goes with it. Portability exists on paper, but the take-up rate sat below 1% — the offer arrived late, in an envelope, alongside a bill for the months already missed.
The certificates walking out the door averaged 4.7 years in force. Seasoned, fully acquired, past their first-year cost — the most profitable business on the block, lost for administrative reasons rather than economic ones.
What ran
- The separation file becomes the trigger. Retain reaches the cert holder while the coverage is still current, not after it has lapsed.
- The continuation offer is explained in plain language by two-way SMS and AI voice, on the cert holder's schedule.
- Billing moves off payroll and onto the cert holder's own payment method, completed on their phone in one sitting.
Average time in force of the certificates now being saved — the mature, high-margin end of the block.
Of separating cert holders kept their coverage, on the same file that previously converted under 1%.
Outreach begins when the separation posts, so the certificate never has to be resurrected.
Adverse selection
The lag is not a delay. It's a selection event.
A retention program that runs on a 30-, 45-, or 60-day cycle doesn't just convert less. It converts worse. Every day the offer sits, two things happen: unpaid premium piles up into a bill the policyholder has to clear before coverage can continue, and the policyholder learns more about their own health. The ones who come back after that wait are disproportionately the ones with a reason to.
Payment fails, or the employee leaves payroll. The carrier knows.
- Unpaid premium accrues
- Coverage lapses on the books
- Policyholder learns their health status
- Competing offers arrive first
Reinstatement or port offer arrives with back premium attached and a form to mail.
A thin slice of the population, weighted toward those who now need the coverage.
The same file. Retain reads it and starts immediately.
RVM, SMS, and two-way AI reach the policyholder while coverage is still in force.
The whole population, decided on convenience rather than on a claim.
No lag means no back premium to bill, and no month in which the healthy quietly leave and the impaired quietly stay. The carrier keeps a cross-section of the block, not the tail of it.
How the save happens
The entire transaction closes on the policyholder's phone.
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The trigger arrives
The failure or separation file posts. Retain picks it up the same hour and opens the record — no list pulls, no manual queue.
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The conversation runs itself
Ringless voicemail, SMS, and two-way AI voice and chat handle the outreach and the questions, at whatever hour the policyholder is free. Nothing waits on staffing.
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The policyholder finishes it
New payment method or continuation election, completed on the device and written back into the carrier's system. No form, no envelope, no hold music.
Distribution impact
Persistency is a recruiting argument.
Every lapse is money out of a producer's pocket as well as the carrier's. When a carrier holds onto what its sales force writes, renewal income stops leaking, agents stay, and the carrier becomes a materially easier place to sell for — and to recruit into.
Business the agent already wrote stays on the books instead of lapsing quietly.
Renewal and persistency-based compensation holds instead of being clawed back.
Steadier income is the difference between a career and a rough first two years.
A stronger persistency story recruits better agents and puts more new business on the block.
Engage More. Retain Longer. Grow Smarter.
Send us your failure file. We'll show you what's still in it.
Retain works alongside the systems you already run — from a flat file to a full API integration. 100% U.S.-based systems, data handling, and support.
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