Swiss insurer Zurich has rolled out a ‘selfie’ app called FaceQutoe to to encourage people to engage with life insurance and show how affordable life cover can be.

The app enables customers to simply submit a photo of themselves to obtain a life insurance quote.

It guestimates the user’s age before calculating life cover cost per month based on the suggested age.

A recent research carried out by Zurich indicated that 25% of people do not have life or critical illness cover as it was too expensive and nearly a third (30%) said they did not thinks it was relevant.

Zurich Insurance Company head of consumer distribution Chris Atkinson said, “Technology has a huge role to play in allowing us to connect with a wider audience and give more people confidence in making financial decisions but also inspiring and enabling them to take control and put proper plans in place.

“We know that many people prefer not to think about what will happen to them or their dependents if they become ill or were to die. So we’ve tried to approach these issues through gamification, in a fun and engaging way in the hope that some people will be nudged into action.

“Our own research shows that people are put off from buying life cover because they think it is unaffordable and perhaps a luxury and so our selfie app has been designed to help challenge that view.”