United Heritage Sheds Legacy Tech for Cloud-Native Future

PHILADELPHIA, PA – February 04, 2026 – In a decisive move to overcome the constraints of aging technology, United Heritage Life Insurance Company, an insurer with roots stretching back to 1934, has successfully launched its annuity products on a modern, cloud-based platform from Equisoft. The transition marks the first major phase of a comprehensive digital transformation strategy, signaling a broader industry trend where established carriers are racing to modernize to remain competitive.

The Idaho-based insurer has implemented Equisoft/manage, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) policy administration system, to overhaul its annuity business. This initiative addresses a critical challenge that plagues many legacy insurance companies: systems that are too rigid and costly to support growth and innovation in a fast-moving financial services market.

The High Cost of Standing Still

For decades, the insurance industry has been built on robust but inflexible mainframe systems. While reliable, these legacy platforms have become a significant drag on progress. Industry analysis reveals that insurers can spend up to 70% of their annual IT budgets simply maintaining these outdated systems, siphoning funds away from innovation. This technological debt often manifests as slow product launches, inefficient manual processes, and a fragmented experience for both agents and customers.

United Heritage faced this exact dilemma. "Our legacy policy administration system was limiting our ability to effectively scale and quickly bring new products to market," explained Johanna Hale, Senior Vice President and Chief Transformation and Risk Officer at United Heritage. This limitation is not just an internal inconvenience; in today's market, the inability to swiftly adapt product offerings and streamline operations can lead to a loss of market share to more agile, digitally native competitors.

The challenges extend beyond speed-to-market. Legacy systems often create data silos, making it difficult to gain a holistic view of the business or leverage advanced analytics for better decision-making. This lack of integration hinders everything from personalized customer service to sophisticated risk assessment, putting traditional insurers at a distinct disadvantage.

A Modern Blueprint for Transformation

By partnering with Equisoft, a global digital solutions provider, United Heritage is adopting a new technological foundation designed for agility and growth. The Equisoft/manage platform is a cloud-native solution, meaning it is built from the ground up to leverage the scalability, security, and cost-efficiency of the cloud. Unlike on-premise systems that require significant capital investment in hardware and ongoing maintenance, the SaaS model provides a more predictable, subscription-based cost structure.

"We chose Equisoft because of their domain expertise in insurance technology and their approach to solution delivery," said Todd Gill, President and Chief Executive Officer at United Heritage. This expertise is crucial when undertaking such a complex migration. The project involved not just implementing a new back-office system but also migrating the company's independent agents to a unified digital platform.

United Heritage's decision to roll out the transformation in phases, starting with its annuity line of business, is a strategic choice that reflects best practices for large-scale IT modernization. This incremental approach allows the organization to manage risk, gather learnings, and demonstrate value quickly before expanding the project's scope. This measured rollout minimizes disruption to business operations and helps build momentum and buy-in for subsequent phases.

Empowering Agents and Enhancing Experience

A key component of this transformation is its direct impact on the front lines of the business: the independent agents who sell United Heritage's products. The implementation included Equisoft/apply (eApp) and AppCapture, tools designed to digitize and streamline the application process. This creates a unified digital experience that spans the entire insurance value chain, from the initial application to claims processing.

For agents, this means moving away from cumbersome paper-based workflows and toward a faster, more intuitive digital process. An integrated platform reduces the chance of errors, eliminates redundant data entry, and accelerates underwriting and policy issuance. This efficiency allows agents to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time advising clients and growing their business.

Ultimately, a better agent experience translates into a better customer experience. Faster application processing and policy issuance mean clients get the coverage they need without lengthy delays. As Mark DePhillips, Senior Vice President, USA at Equisoft, noted, "United Heritage's successful go-live demonstrates how the right technology foundation and people enable financial institutions to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and respond more quickly to market opportunities."

Charting the Course for Future Growth

The successful launch for its annuity products is just the beginning for United Heritage. The company plans to embark on the next phase of its transformation in early 2026, extending the Equisoft platform to its preneed life insurance business. This segment, which covers funeral expenses, presents its own unique set of challenges and opportunities.

The preneed market is growing, yet it remains heavily reliant on paper-based processes, creating inefficiencies for both insurers and the funeral homes they partner with. Modernizing this line of business requires a platform that can handle low-margin, high-volume transactions with maximum automation and straight-through processing.

By leveraging a modern, scalable core system, United Heritage is positioning itself to capture growth in this specialized market while improving service for its partners and policyholders. This forward-looking strategy underscores the company's commitment to building a resilient and adaptive enterprise. The move to a unified, cloud-native platform is more than a simple technology upgrade; it is a fundamental re-architecting of the business to ensure continued relevance and success for decades to come.