(Bloomberg) — A meme stock fan logging onto ETrade to chase the latest trend will soon have the option of picking up a very different sort of investment: life insurance.
The Morgan Stanley brokerage is joining with Covr Financial Technologies Inc. to offer term life policies, which pay out if the person covered by the plan dies within a certain time frame, according to a Thursday statement.
The agreement is the latest example of a financial-services company broadening their consumer offerings. SoFi Technologies Inc. announced a similar partnership with insurance-technology startup Ladder in 2018. More broadly, financial companies like Affirm Holdings Inc. and Paypal Holdings Inc. are vying to become the next “super app.” The model, employed by the likes of China’s Alipay or WeChat and India’s Paytm, integrates everything from financial services and payments to food delivery and shopping.
“Consumers are increasingly seeking financial-services firms that can help them with their entire financial lives,” Deniz Ozgenc, executive director of financial product management at ETrade, said in an interview. “We try to serve the customer as a whole.”
ETrade won’t be selling the policies to customers directly. Rather, it will operate a web page that will explain the products and provide price quotes. From there, users will be channeled toward Covr’s site, where they can make a purchase.
“The adoption of life insurance by many customer bases has been increasing through Covid,” said Covr Chief Executive Officer Mike Kalen. “Many customers are now more aware of the need to protect their portfolios and their families, and the technology and the fintech-ification that is now available makes the buying experience much more favorable than it’s been in the past.”
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