Remote identity verification of life insurance policyholders

What a remote check of a life insurance applicant has to settle

The guidance quoted below treats the photo identification method for a person who is not present as two jobs. The first job concerns the document: it has to be authentic, valid and current, and the process for that has to be written down. The second job concerns the person: the name and the photograph have to be those of the person who is applying. A video call alone does not authenticate the document. It can contribute to the second job, comparing the name and the appearance with a document that has been authenticated, but viewing a person and a document over a video conference is not enough on its own. The flow on this page is built around those two jobs, around what happens when one of them fails, and around the record that has to be kept. The applicant's first contact with the insurer and the later payout are covered on the insurance page, and the chain between insurer and intermediary on the life insurance distribution page.

• Photograph a government-issued document on a phone and check it for fraud.
• Match a live face to the portrait on the document.
• Read the name from the document so the insurer can compare it with the application.
• Put a case that the check does not settle in front of a person.
• Keep a log of each session for the compliance team.

The flow

1. Application. The applicant fills in the application in the insurer's or broker's own system, and the system starts the check from there. This rule is yours.
2. Start. Your backend creates a session and sends the applicant a one-time link, or the applicant opens the web widget. A user who starts on a desktop can finish on a phone with a QR code.
3. Document authentication. The applicant photographs a passport, national ID card, driver's licence or residence permit, and you choose the documents and countries in the scenario editor. The document is read and checked for fraud. If the document cannot be read or fails the fraud checks, the session does not pass, and a person decides whether the applicant may try another document.
4. Valid and current. Your system takes the expiry date read from the document and compares it with the date of the application. An expired document is not accepted, and the application waits for another one.
5. Appearance. The selfie is matched to the document portrait and active liveness confirms a live person. If the match fails or liveness is not confirmed, the application does not go on, and a person decides the case.
6. Name. Your system compares the name read from the document with the name on the application. A mismatch goes to a person, who may ask for a supporting document or decline.
7. Both parts complete. The two jobs need not happen at the same moment, but the application is not accepted until both are complete and the result is read from the session status or a webhook.
8. Decision. A case that needs a person is decided manually in the dashboard.
9. Record. The record under this method is the person's name, the date of verification, the type of document, its unique identifying number, the jurisdiction and country of issue, and the expiry date if available. The insurer or broker keeps it in its own records, the session log and export stay in the dashboard, and retention is a setting you choose per scenario.

Modules used

• Document verification, face verification and liveness.
• Scenario editor for the documents and countries a scenario accepts.
• Questionnaire and QR hand-off.
• Dashboard for the session log, export and manual decisions.
• REST API and webhooks.
• Data controls for retention and erasure.

Regulatory frame

One official text: the guidance of Canada's financial intelligence unit, FINTRAC, on methods to verify the identity of persons and entities, as fetched on 27 October 2026. It is guidance on the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and its regulations, not the regulations themselves. It applies to reporting entities, a group that includes life insurance companies. This page does not say that the platform satisfies the guidance.

• The guidance lists five methods to verify the identity of a person, and the first is the government-issued photo identification method.
• For that method, the document must be authentic, valid and current, be issued by a federal, provincial or territorial government, or by a foreign government if it is equivalent to a Canadian document, indicate the person's name, include a photo and a unique identifying number, and match the name and appearance of the person being identified.
• It says that a reporting entity may use this method if a person is not physically present, but must have a process in place to authenticate the document, for instance a technology capable of determining the document's authenticity, such as asking the person to scan the document with a phone camera and comparing its features against known characteristics and security features.
• It says that the reporting entity must still determine that the document is valid and current and that the name and photo are those of the person, for example by a live video chat session, or by asking the person to take a selfie and using an application to apply facial recognition technology to compare it to the photo on the authentic document, together with a process to compare the name on the document with the name the person provided.
• It adds that it is not enough to only view a person and their government-issued photo identification document through a video conference or another type of virtual application.
• It says that the steps of determining that the document is authentic, valid and current, and of ensuring that the name and photo match the person, do not need to happen at the same time, but both must be completed.
• It lists the details to record under this method: the person's name, the date of verification, the type of document, its unique identifying number, the jurisdiction and country of issue, and the expiry date if available. It cites paragraph 105(1)(a) of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Regulations.

This block describes the text, not our service. For information; not legal advice.

Sources

• FINTRAC, Methods to verify the identity of persons and entities, fetched 27 October 2026.

Next

Try the interactive tour, read about face verification or compare with the insurance flow.