IRI CONVENES INAUGURAL INDUSTRY “DIGITAL FIRST EXPERIENCE” EVENT

Top Technology Talent Devise Solutions to Reimagine How Annuities are Sold and Serviced

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) convened and facilitated a first-of-its-kind collaborative exercise this week, bringing together top technical experts to drive innovation in the annuity market. This competitive event aimed to harness the collective expertise from across the insured retirement industry supply chain to help explore creative digital solutions that reimagine how individual annuity products are marketed, sold, and serviced alongside traditional investments.

The Digital First Experience event, a component of IRI’s Digital First for Annuities initiative, brought together more than 50 technology specialists from across the industry to tackle critical industry-wide challenges. Participants were assigned critical problem scenarios and tasked with developing practical, technology-driven solutions.

The event involved 16 IRI member companies and three non-member companies and was hosted by Prudential Financial at its Shelton, Connecticut, facility. It was sponsored by Amazon Web Solutions (AWS), American Equity, Athene, Financial Independence Group, Global Atlantic Financial Group, Jackson National Life Insurance Company, Nationwide, Proformex, Prudential Financial, and SS&C.

“IRI is uniquely positioned to convene experienced technology specialists from across our industry to work collaboratively toward solutions that ultimately will create the modernized, digital experience that customers and financial professionals expect,” said Wayne Chopus, President and CEO at IRI. “This event proves our industry’s commitment to overcoming obstacles to long overdue change.”

“IRI’s inaugural Digital Experience Innovation event was a transformative moment for the industry,” said Scott Haggerty, Chief Operating Officer, Prudential Retirement Strategies, and Co-Chair of IRI Digital First for Annuities. “Prudential was proud to be able to host this unique opportunity for so many great minds to come together to accelerate digital solutions that help broaden access to retirement solutions and improve the consumer and financial professional experience.”

 Event teams were formed with a diverse mix of expertise from different member companies and technology providers. Each team was assigned a specific issue to address and judged on creativity, innovation, and business and technical feasibility. Next, IRI and partners will evaluate the work to determine how to scale these frameworks and solutions across the industry. Ultimately, solutions that are developed and finalized as a digital first standard will be open-source and available to any and all industry participants.

“This event brought together a talented group of innovators to quickly prototype solutions in a competitive, fast-paced experience design session to demonstrate the transformative potential of digital first standards,” said Katherine Dease, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at IRI. “We’re excited by the enthusiasm of our member companies, who are competitors in the marketplace but came together to improve ease of doing business for consumers and financial professionals.”

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Contact: Dan Zielinski