Scout InsurTech Spotlight with Amanda Yoho

Amanda Yoho is the President of Proformex, helping financial professionals analyze, share and act on current portfolio data. Amanda was interviewed by Andrew Daniels, Co-Founder at Scout InsurTech and Co-Founder and President at CrashBay.

Amanda, how has your experience as a data scientist shaped how you think about the industry's challenges today?

“That’s something I’ve reflected on a lot. While I’ve been with Proformex for nearly six years and am no longer new to the insurance space, many industry veterans bring decades of life insurance and annuity-specific experience. I came in with the lens of nearly 20 years working with large-scale information to generate reliable, trustworthy insights from data. The combination of experience across domains and a constant in managing data and technology challenges gives me a unique perspective on how data and technology can be applied in life insurance.

Before this, I worked in healthcare tech, and there are a lot of parallels: data about a single patient’s care is often spread across their primary care provider, specialists, local preventative care and so on. If you’re part of a patient’s care team, maintaining data integrity is critical to make accurate decisions from scattered data sources. Whether you're managing a part of a person’s financial health in a life insurance policy or their physical health as a healthcare provider, you need as complete a picture as possible for that client.

Data intuition built over years of experience also can’t be undersold, even as industry details are learned. Anyone operating in this space needs a sense of when something doesn’t look right in the data. Especially in post-sale processes, an area that often gets less attention, this approach raises standards for data reliability and the decisions made from it.”

How do you see APIs and integrations transforming how advisors and wealth managers engage with clients?

“That’s a space we’re learning more about every day. Lately, one of our biggest value propositions has been API integration. People have tech fatigue. They don’t want another login or portal, especially one that only covers a narrow slice of their business.

To drive adoption, we need to meet users where they already work by integrating into existing systems. Also, the life insurance and annuity process spans prospecting, quoting, sales, placement and post-sale management. Different tools handle different parts, but no one wants to manage eight separate systems.

So, tech companies in this space need to collaborate. Clients expect a seamless experience, which means vendors must integrate and work together to support a unified workflow.”

What’s the biggest roadblock preventing life insurance from making short-term tech investments that lead to long-term customer value?

“There are many reasons, but two stand out. First, in the post-sale space where we operate, it’s hard to quantify ROI. Most ROI models focus on the point of sale, making it tough to justify tech investments after a policy is issued.

However, we’ve shown that better post-sale data management can drive additional sales, though it takes years of data to prove this. When tech teams are prioritizing, they're more likely to choose projects tied directly to sales.

Second, what seems like a small tech upgrade often reveals complex legacy systems. Even quick wins can become massive efforts due to decades-old infrastructure. What looks simple on the surface may require untangling deeply embedded, outdated tech.”

How do data and tech challenges affect long-term outcomes?

“Life insurance policies and annuities are designed to last 30 or 40 years. Think about how little technology from 40 years ago is still in use today, yet these policies rely on systems that are old.

From day one, you need to plan for system evolution and data portability. We’ve seen data feeds from COBOL systems. It feels like digital archaeology. Many carriers have acquired multiple businesses, each with different tech stacks, and often haven’t updated them.

This fragmentation makes decision-making difficult because you're missing parts of the picture. Without complete data, conclusions can be skewed, leading to suboptimal outcomes for both clients and carriers.”

We’re seeing a shift from commission-based to fee-based life insurance. What’s driving that, and how will it change advisor-client relationships?

“There are a few forces at play. First, we’re seeing fee-based models grow across many financial products. Life insurance and annuities are following that trend, even if they haven’t reached the same market share yet.

Second, fiduciary responsibility is becoming more important. Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) are gaining market share, and in fee-based models, there’s a clear alignment to the client's best interest. Advisors are not earning upfront commissions, but rather ongoing fees for ongoing value.

This shifts the advisor’s role from one-time seller to long-term steward. They’ll need access to comprehensive, ongoing data to ensure products continue to meet clients’ needs. Excuses like the data being hard to get won’t work anymore. Technology will have to evolve to support this higher standard of care and transparency.”

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