If you’re reading this, you likely already recognize the lucrative opportunity that offering insurance presents—helping your business generate new revenue streams while strengthening relationships with your customers. After all, everyone needs personal insurance, and your own customer base is no exception; so why not be the one to provide it?
Especially for insurance-adjacent businesses, embedding insurance into customer journeys—like buying a home or car, getting a loan, managing financial assets, or banking—makes it more relevant, convenient, and appealing when offered at the point of need. Done right, it not only unlocks cross-sell opportunities to monetize existing relationships, but also deepens customer loyalty and stickiness, positioning you as a go-to resource for a broader range of your customers’ needs.
Different paths to selling insurance as a non-insurance brand
It’s important to pay attention to the "done right" part mentioned above. Like planning a long road trip, there are multiple possible routes you could take to arrive at launching an insurance sales channel. It’s up to you to choose the path that best maps to your customers’ needs and your business goals.
Here are the primary ways non-licensed companies can begin to monetize their customer base through insurance:
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Lead aggregators: If you choose to work with an aggregator, they will collect and sell consumer data to licensed insurance providers, who then contact your customers with quotes or offers. While it’s a fast way to generate revenue, it comes with trade-offs: limited control over the user experience, potential privacy concerns, and a risk of damaging brand trust. Customers may receive multiple outreach attempts with inconsistent messaging, which can feel intrusive or confusing and reflect poorly on your brand.
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Affiliate or redirect models: This lightweight approach involves displaying a quote request or call-to-action on your site that redirects users to a licensed partner’s platform. It's easy to implement and monetizes via referral fees or commissions. However, it often creates a fragmented customer journey and gives you less ownership of and visibility into the experience.
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Embedded offers: Similar to the affiliate model, partnering with a platform that provides embedded insurance infrastructure is a strategic way to offer insurance without adding operational complexity while still earning commission-based revenue. However, unlike redirect-based relationships, these embedded offers live directly within your environment, seamlessly integrated into your purchase flow so consumers never have to leave your experience. This creates a more cohesive user journey that encourages immediate purchase completion and, when applicable, can leverage your existing customer data to streamline and personalize offers, helping reduce drop-off rates and improve conversions.
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White-label partnerships: In this model, a licensed insurance provider handles the backend, covering regulatory requirements and agency services, while your brand controls the customer experience. It’s a balanced approach that offers speed to market, a cohesive user journey, and greater control without added infrastructure or compliance burdens.
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In-house agency: For organizations looking to make insurance a core part of their business, establishing an in-house agency can be a viable option. This approach gives you full ownership of the customer relationship—along with control over branding, experience, and revenue, inclusive of carrier commissions and ongoing income from your own book of business. However, it also requires significant investment in time, infrastructure, licensing, compliance, and ongoing operations. This model is best for companies committed to long-term insurance sales and capable of managing the complexities of licensing, staffing, and carrier relationships.
Additionally, operating your own agency can lay the groundwork for becoming a managing general agent (MGA). As you build your book of business, you’ll gain access to valuable insights on purchasing behaviors and risk profiles. Over time, this data can be used to develop proprietary insurance products tailored to the specific needs of your customers or members—unlocking new revenue opportunities and helping your business stand out from competitors.
Key Considerations Before Choosing a Model
Before committing to an insurance distribution model, it’s essential to clearly define your goals. Each distribution model comes with trade-offs, and the right choice depends on your priorities. Here are key factors to consider as you build your own insurance sales strategy.
Customer experience
If brand affinity is important to you, consider how much control you want over the user journey. Will you send customers to a third-party site, or keep them within your ecosystem? The more cohesive and brand-aligned the experience, the more likely your customers are to trust and convert.
Operational costs and complexities
Each model comes with its own level of investment and operational lift. Lead aggregators and referral partnerships typically involve minimal overhead and can be launched quickly, but they also offer limited control and lower revenue potential. On the other end of the spectrum, building a full-scale agency requires significant upfront investment in infrastructure, staffing, licensing, and compliance—but it also delivers the highest potential for long-term revenue, customer ownership, and brand equity.
Access to products
The best insurance experiences are built around customer choice. Customers want the ability to compare options and find the best value—but delivering that requires established carrier relationships and appointments. Building those relationships in-house can take months or even years. Partnering with a provider that already has the products you want to offer gives you immediate access to the market.
Keep in mind that while lead aggregators may offer a broad range of carriers and products, you often have little control over what your customers see when they request a quote. In contrast, white-label solutions typically provide a wide selection of offerings with the flexibility to curate which providers and products are available. By tailoring the experience to your customers' needs and expectations, you're more likely to see stronger conversions and greater revenue. Consider how much control you want, whether that means offering a broad, unfiltered selection or focusing on a marketplace of options that aligns more closely with your core business.
Dedicated agent support
If you’re considering a partner, make sure they enable you to meet customers wherever they prefer to shop—whether online, through an agent, or both. Lead aggregators often connect customers directly to carriers, limiting unbiased advice and personalized support. In contrast, models like white-label solutions typically offer broader product selections and multi-channel access, helping you serve customers across their preferred buying methods. This approach not only provides convenience and choice, but also builds trust in your brand by delivering consistent, expert guidance from licensed agents equipped to assist your specific audience with confidence and clarity.
Technology and business insights
Think about how important it is to control your data, get measured feedback, and optimize your customer experience over time. Especially for those organizations looking to take a crawl-walk-run approach to insurance, a solution that integrates well with your tech stack and provides actionable insights will better serve you as you scale.
As you build your program and gather data on your customers' preferences and behaviors, you gain valuable intelligence that can inform future product development. Over time, this may position you to evolve into an MGA, at which time you can leverage your exclusive, holistic view of your customers’ risk profiles and needs to create tailored insurance products. This level of product ownership gives you the ability to deliver highly specific, differentiated coverage that meets your customers' unique needs, which can also differentiate you in a crowded market.
Compliance
Insurance is a heavily regulated industry, and compliance can't be an afterthought. Depending on the insurance model you choose, you may be able to rely on a trusted partner to handle licensing, underwriting, regulatory filings, and compliance management. This can significantly reduce your operational burden and minimize risk, allowing you to focus on customer experience and growth.
However, if you opt to build these capabilities in-house, be prepared for a substantial investment of time, money, and resources. Obtaining and maintaining proper licenses, ensuring staff meet continuing education requirements, adhering to marketing and sales compliance, and staying current on evolving regulations is a full-time commitment.
Regardless of which path you take, prioritizing compliance is critical to sustaining a trustworthy, legally sound insurance program that protects your customers and your brand.
Speed to market and scalability
If you're testing the waters or need to launch quickly, lightweight models offer a fast path to market. But if you have long-term goals, it's important to consider how your initial approach will scale. Will the platform you start with support future growth in customer volume and product offerings?
Also consider the long-term cost—both financial and brand-related—of outgrowing your original model. Switching to a more advanced solution down the line can be expensive, disruptive, and may require rebuilding customer trust. Choosing a scalable and flexible approach from the start can save you time, money, and brand equity as your program evolves.
Grow your business with Bindable’s Insurance-as-a-Service platform
At Bindable, we help forward-thinking companies expand beyond their core offerings and meet more of their customers’ needs—all without losing focus on growth. Whether you're looking for a lightweight embedded insurance solution or a full-scale white-label partnership on the path to in-house agency ownership, our flexible Insurance-as-a-Service infrastructure and industry expertise make it easy to start, scale, and succeed in insurance distribution.
