September 2025

The team at Manulife Insurance has been working hard on our enhanced Manulife E-Application, prepping for our launch this fall.

Our underwriting team with combined experience of over 200 years developed the updated Manulife E-Application medical questions. We know how challenging it can be to walk your client through the long application, trying to pronounce uncommon conditions listed in the medical section. The refreshed medical questions allow you to approach this section differently with a focus on conditions we’re most concerned about. We ask about medication use to establish your client's medical history, with a pick list of medications and a pick list of conditions. These questions are followed by the traditional "catch all" questions about pending tests and procedures, and so on.

While some of you prefer to complete the underwriting section through a tele-interview, which our team handles well, it does add time to the process. Our enhanced e-application features reflexive medical questions and integrated questionnaires, allowing you to complete the application yourself more efficiently and improve your client's experience. 

Since October 2023, we've implemented this enhanced set of medical questions in our tele-interview process. Healthier customers have enjoyed shorter interviews, while those with more complex health histories have provided necessary details through reflexive questions, aiding underwriters in taking the next best action. The consistency in underwriting decisions between the current and updated questions in our enhanced Manulife E-Application reassures us that this new process continues to meet Manulife's mortality and morbidity expectations.

If you're unsure how to answer a medical question during the e-application process, we've built offramps and included options like 'unknown' or ‘other’ in the question set to help. For instance, if your client is uncertain about a diagnosis or the reason for taking prescribed medication, you can select 'unknown' or ‘other’ to provide any details the client can recall. While these cases won't qualify for straight-through processing, this feature ensures you can still submit the application smoothly with the information you have. In such cases, an underwriter will review the file and take the necessary steps to finalize it.

Our healthiest clients applying for lower face amount policies may be approved quickly after application submission via MAUDE, Manulife's Automated Underwriting Decision Engine. MAUDE and its predecessor AIDA, both predictive AI tools, have been in use since 2018 and can only approve cases. Our depth of experience in AI modelling for underwriting will allow us to increase MAUDE's approval limits over time, allowing more straight-through processing in underwriting. Today, the approval is sent through a New Business Notification however we’re working towards an instant approval process faster than what’s available today.

Manulife E-Application with MAUDE 4.0 are innovative tools designed to speed up the application process and improve your client's boarding journey. Whether you complete the application yourself or use the tele-interview, we know you'll appreciate the new and improved approach.

For more underwriting tips and insight follow Karen Cutler on LinkedIn. Karen is our VP, Head of Underwriting and Claims, Chief Underwriter Individual Insurance.