Product Philosophy
Product Philosophy
How did Bowtie Debug Insurance and Fill in Gaps Worth Billions?
Author
Bowtie Team
Updated on
2025-07-24
Disclaimer: This article is translated with the assistance of AI.
Many Hong Kongers already have insurance, but is the coverage truly sufficient? The answer is a resounding no! Take life insurance as an example: As of 2018, Hong Kong topped the world in per capita premiums, yet the protection gap reached a staggering HK$6.9 trillion. Bowtie believes these gaps stem from traditional insurers’ product designs, operations, and services. That’s why we’re committed to debugging insurance, delivering superior experiences for Hong Kongers. In just two years, Bowtie has successfully bridged a HK$20 billion protection gap.
Affordable Premiums Without Broker Commissions
Traditional insurance companies rely on intermediaries (including brokers and agents) as their main sales channels. These intermediaries can draw commissions from premiums on medical, critical illness, life insurance policies, and more. But at Bowtie, we believe your premiums should go entirely towards “protection,” so we use a direct sales model, letting you apply online directly—meaning no commissions for you to pay.
Unique Online Underwriting and Policy Platform Cuts Admin Costs
In the past, when underwriting, insurance companies had to manually process each policyholder’s information, which might even involve medical check-ups. Due to high admin costs, traditional insurers might charge policyholders administrative fees.
But Bowtie has designed a unique online underwriting system and policy management platform. Customers simply answer straightforward questions (mostly multiple-choice) to complete underwriting. By using tech instead of manual processes, we save on admin costs and never charge extra fees.
No Hard Selling! Questions? Expert Support is Here
Bowtie Has No Brokers
As mentioned earlier, intermediaries earn hefty commissions from policies, so they often push hard during sales, which can stress out customers and turn them off insurance altogether. Even worse, applying, hospital admissions, or claims almost always require meeting the broker or agent in person. For one, they need your signature to process things.
Secondly, every meeting is a sales opportunity. Online sales not only cut out commissions to lower premiums significantly, but you also avoid sales pressure—you decide for yourself!
Expert Customer Service is Here to Help
Even though there’s no intermediary between Bowtie and you, that doesn’t mean no service! You can reach our customer service team via live chat, email, hotline, WhatsApp, or even visit our service center (book a day in advance) for info on product features, online applications, claim status, and more.
Our team proactively follows up on your applications or claims to ensure you get covered as quickly as possible.
No Long-Term Ties, No Savings, Flexible Premiums
No Savings or Investment Components
In recent years, many insurance products on the market include savings components. While these plans have their appeal, they often come with higher premiums , and a significant portion of the fees goes towards commissions, administrative costs, and investments, which indirectly reduces the resources allocated to actual protection.
As a virtual insurer, Bowtie is committed to offering “pure protection” insurance products, including reimbursement-based VHIS and accident insurance , term life insurance , and critical illness insurance without any savings or investment elements. Our goal is to charge the most affordable premiums while providing maximum coverage to policyholders, bridging existing protection gaps.
Eliminating Unnecessary Coverage
Over the past two years, Bowtie has struck a balance between price and coverage, offering Hong Kongers “just right” protection.
Bowtie is happy to exclude unnecessary coverage items. Take critical illness insurance as an example—many products on the market boast coverage for hundreds or even thousands of illnesses, but many are rare diseases that few people ever encounter. When designing our products, the Bowtie team only included the 38 most common critical illnesses (with 7 of them, like cancer and heart disease, accounting for nearly 90% of claims). For those with rare conditions, we’ve added a “4-layer safety net,” which not only keeps premiums reasonable but also ensures comprehensive protection for policyholders.
No Hassle, Instant Quotes, Easy Application
Generally, after answering health questions, policyholders can get an instant quote. Bowtie won’t collect your personal information until you confirm the monthly premium.
If you’re still comparing insurance products from different companies, you can try Bowtie’s online underwriting system. First, check if you’re eligible for coverage—since no personal details are required during the process , even if your health condition leads to no quote being offered, our underwriting process won’t leave any “rejection record,” ensuring it doesn’t affect your applications with other companies.
Get a Quote Now
- * The premiums calculated above are for reference only. The actual premiums you need to pay are subject to factors such as time, inflation, underwriting, etc., and include the Insurance Authority levy. Please download and refer to the standard premium table (Standard/Flexi (Regular)/Flexi (Plus))
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