For anyone who works in Life underwriting and is a fan of Star Trek (a large subset, we’re sure!), 2025 felt like the year that underwriting captains across the galaxy engaged maximum warp speed, boldly going where no underwriting team has gone before. The good news is that you are not experiencing some Vulcan-mind-meld induced delusion… Gen Re’s recently published 2025 U.S. Individual Life Next Gen Underwriting Survey confirm that the pace of change is ramping up substantially, as new systems and better key performance indicators enable quicker, incremental changes to underwriting programs.

So, let’s break out our tricorders, set our phasers to stun, and explore the latest Next Gen survey insights. (Alright, fine… no more corny Star Trek jokes).

Survey Overview

The Gen Re Accelerated Underwriting (AU) Survey became the go‑to source for actionable underwriting insights – covering risk evaluation tools, key underwriting performance metrics, and mortality implications – in 2021. We publish a summary report each year and the full survey report is available to participating companies.

The 2025 edition provides even deeper and broader analysis to ensure carriers can stay ahead of the latest trends. Thirty Individual Life insurance carriers, representing over two million paid policies and $827 billion in volume, participated in the 2025 survey, providing data on throughput rates, sources of underwriting evidence, mortality experience, and pre / post-issue auditing tools.

Workflow Insights

We continue to see growth in AU program eligibility and AU approvals as a percent of eligible policies, as companies become more comfortable with this new paradigm and programs become more sophisticated. Some key examples of this:

• The percentage of apps that qualify for an accelerated path has increased from 42% reported in 2021 to 59% in 2025.
• Of the 59% of applications eligible for AU:
  • 19% were approved through an automated workflow
  • 52% were approved with human underwriter review
  • The remaining 30% were not AU approved

Pass-through rates are higher versus prior survey years, as carriers continue to refine evidence ordering and decisioning to accept more edge cases.

Setting Ambitious Goals

Participants were asked to rank their top three underwriting program goals. Year over year, reducing time to issue is still the top AU workflow goal for most companies. Next came managing mortality slippage (45%) and increasing sales (41%).

Even more interesting was how companies planned to achieve their goals. Expected pace of change is high, with 87% of the companies indicating some changes planned in the next 12 months. Top focus areas include new data sources, risk control process, and face amount limits.

Planned Changes to Workflow in the Next 12 Months

Mortality Slippage Insights

Speed is exciting. Growth is energizing. But for every underwriting captain engaging warp speed, one question remains constant:

What is it doing to mortality?

To answer that, Gen Re continues to publish Next Gen Analytics, our dedicated mortality slippage study focused specifically on Accelerated Underwriting programs. With data stretching back to 2019, the 2025 edition includes over 14,000 policies representing nearly $10 billion of face amount – making it one of the most comprehensive views of Accelerated Underwriting slippage in the market today.

Mortality slippage is calculated on a consistent basis across contributing companies, enabling meaningful trend analysis and peer comparisons. And this year’s results tell an important story.

After several years of upward pressure, overall slippage improved to 12.3% in 2025 – a welcome stabilization signal for many programs.

But as always, the details matter.

Companies utilizing Random Holdouts (RHO) continue to show higher measured slippage compared to those relying primarily on Post-Issue APS / Audits (PIA). Why? RHO programs tend to surface higher levels of smoker misrepresentation – a reminder that how you measure risk can influence what you find.

Gender differences also persisted. Male slippage remained materially higher, approximately 60% greater than Female slippage, continuing a pattern observed in prior years. Understanding whether this reflects behavior, underwriting segmentation, or data source dynamics remains a key area of focus for many carriers.

From Static Report to Interactive Insight

Recognizing that every carrier’s AU program is different, Gen Re has expanded beyond static reporting.

Enter Gen Re Insights Engine (GENIE) – an interactive platform designed to put the slippage data directly into your hands. GENIE allows participants to slice results by underwriting approach, demographic characteristics, face amount bands, and other key dimensions, helping translate aggregate findings into actionable program insights.

Because ultimately, managing slippage is not about a single headline number. It’s about understanding where it’s emerging, why it’s emerging, and how to respond.

If you would like to benchmark your program, explore the deeper analytics, or schedule a GENIE demonstration, please contact your Gen Re Life account executive.

Warp speed is powerful – but precision navigation ensures you reach the right destination.