Insurance underwriting will become less of a headache for financial planners after key insurers introduced automated underwriting into their products, a major leap from the days of error-prone rate books and simple quotation software.

Only three years ago none of the major insurers offered electronic underwriting. But today, AMP, Aviva, Macquarie and Tower are among those that have helped ease one of the bottlenecks in retail life insurance - the cumbersome underwriting process.

Joining the fray this year is Asteron, which spent millions of dollars and ten months on research and development on its electronic insurance application, Lifeguard EQ.

"[Electronic applications] used to be a novelty but they're now absolutely mainstream," said Jordan Hawke, executive manager at Asteron.

Hawke said they could have introduced the service around the same time as the other providers but they decided to hold back and pilot it first and get more adviser feedback.

The result is an application that can be used across Asteron's Lifeguard suite, not just on specific products, and helps financial advisers to complete the insurance application faster.

"The technology removes the inefficiencies and the costs of manual processing and automates underwriting to the extent that planners are able to give applicants life insurance at the point of sale," said Alby van Wyk, director at Allfinanz, the key technology developer behind Lifeguard EQ.

Sue Paterson, financial adviser and director at Big Financial Services firm said that it is definitely a big change from the days of rate books, which are not only error prone but only provides an estimate of the rate, rather than the actual rate.