How legal are eSignatures? How safe are they to use? More to the point - where do brokers start to use eSignatures?
Video transcript below:
Reporter: How legal are e-signatures, how safe are they to use, more to the point, where do brokers start to begin using e-signatures? Insurance Business asked one industry provider what is it that brokers are asking before entrusting their book of clients to e-signatures.
Yazan Alwaid, Regional Sales Manager, Silanis
Yazan Alwaid: There are three reasons why organisation or brokers typically look at at adopting electronic signatures. The first does is it empowers the customer experience, the customer experience is very important to brokers and to carriers to ensure that their customers are happy and executing transactions in an easy to use way.
Second reason is process efficiency. Printed paper there is always the chasing paperwork, making sure that the customers sign in the right location, ensuring that all the papers are back with nothing missing from a signature perspective or a document perspective. So the process efficiencies are always a big reason why electronic signatures are adopted.
The third and probably the most important reason from a legal perspective is it mitigates risk and maximises legal enforceability. So you have a stronger more compliant process that you can enforce in the case of dispute.
Reporter: I am glad you touched on the legalities of it, many brokers ask how legal are these documents?
Yazan Alwaid: Legal, there is a very strong legal framework that exists in Canada, that allows you to choose electronic signatures in the place of what’s ink signatures. So the answer is yes it is legal.
Reporter: And if I am a broker and wondering how can I get started, who should I approach?
Yazan Alwaid: Also a very good question. We have seen three variations for the adoption of electronic signatures. The first would be the carrier adopting the technology and providing it to a broker through a broker portal. The second would be through a broker management system where a broker management system integrates with an e-signature provider and again provides the e-signature capability to the broker and finally the third is the broker actually adopting it themselves. They would go out and procure an electronic signature solution for use by the brokerage and by the brokers themselves.
