When you hear the word document, what comes to mind? For many in the insurance industry, it’s physical paper, like a policy mailed to someone. In fact, the processes and systems that are in place at most organizations actually reinforce the thinking that a document is something physical you can hold.

But document = paper is a legacy way of thinking. If you went outside the insurance industry and asked general consumers, I think you’d get an entirely different response to what comes to mind when hearing the word document. I suspect those people would say hearing the word document makes them think of a PDF or Microsoft Word. Many may not even use the full word and instead say ‘doc’ as an abbreviation since the usage of Google Docs has become so widespread.

It’s important to note that these general consumers, who are more familiar with electronic or digital documents, are your policyholders. But as they’ve evolved in their definition of document, we as an industry have failed to evolve at the same rate. We’re still looking at the word as representative of a piece of paper.

To remain competitive as new digital-first options continue to evolve, carriers will need to meet the document access and delivery expectations of policyholders and potential policyholders. A good policy and premium are only part of the equation. They also want a model that aligns with their lifestyle. Many insurtech carriers without legacy thinking have gone entirely paperless (or largely paperless). This is proof that the shift to digital document delivery instead of traditional printing and mailing is well under way.

Now is the time for planning the operational requirements needed to expand the definition of document. Evolving beyond physical paper and into offering policyholders electronic and digital options of documents is happening right now. Lagging behind could be costly to a carrier’s business.