Your High-Priced Legal Help Is Doing Low-Level Work
Many lenders are finding more efficient ways to manage necessary commercial loan scrutiny without compromising compliance. Yet life insurance CRE lenders remain tied to traditional, costly legal processes.
For these lenders, legal oversight, via manual review and expensive external counsel, is essential but increasingly exorbitant. The complexity of commercial real estate transactions, combined with high hourly legal rates, quickly drives up costs. And while premium legal fees already dilute profit margins, they’re only part of the problem. The real cost lies in a legacy system where legal review is seen as unchangeable.
What’s more, there’s growing pressure for internal counsel to focus on strategy and risk, not clerical document prep.
Meanwhile, tech-enabled banks and credit unions have cleared this hurdle. By automating loan closings, they’ve standardized documentation, cut legal spend, and gained a competitive edge over lenders still reliant on outdated legal workflows.
What Is Technology Better At?
So, what exactly is technology doing better than outside legal counsel? A lot, and the gap is only widening. Technology is transforming core areas of the lending process that law firms were never built to optimize. With the right automation technology, you can streamline your lending process to deliver fully compliant, lower-risk loans at a fraction of the cost and time.
Let’s explore the key areas where technology outperforms traditional reliance on law firms:
Closing Loans Dramatically Faster
- Document automation platforms can generate compliant, attorney-quality packages in minutes.
- No more waiting for counsel to fit you into their calendar.
Example: Longhorn Investments produces full packages in 60 seconds.
Reducing Legal Costs Without Sacrificing Quality
- Routine tasks like modifying templates or customizing terms don’t require outside counsel.
- Save your budget for true legal strategy.
Example: AVANA CUSO cut legal fees 75% by partnering with GoDocs.
Ensuring Full Compliance, Every Time
- The right platform includes legal guardrails for all 50 states.
- Removes the guesswork, and the liability, of human error.
- Keeps you audit-ready and protected as regulations evolve.
Eliminate Costly Errors and Inconsistencies
- Manual processes introduce inconsistencies from deal to deal.
- Consistency builds credibility.
Example: Anchor Loans cut their document error rate by 5x using automation.
Support Complex Loan Structures Without Delays
- Insurers often have nuanced deal terms that don’t fit banking templates.
- Automation can handle sophisticated structures without needing legal rewrites.
Freeing Up In-House Legal for Higher-Value Work
- Let your counsel focus on high-value work: risk, strategy, oversight.
- Stop using top talent for paperwork.
It’s Time to Rethink the Role of Legal in Lending
Modernization isn’t about removing legal from the equation, it’s about elevating it. For insurance lenders operating in a low-volume, high-value environment, continuing to rely on manual legal processes or outside counsel for loan documentation creates unnecessary costs, delays, and risk.
While banks, credit unions, and private lenders are accelerating with automation, many mid-tier insurers remain stuck in legacy legal loops. That gap is now an opportunity.
GoDocs is uniquely positioned to support insurance lenders modernizing their lending operations. With fast onboarding, built-in compliance guardrails, and proven support for CRE and C&I loan types, our platform delivers immediate value, especially for organizations transitioning from manual or counsel-heavy processes. For insurers, the ROI is clear: fewer delays, lower legal costs, and a faster path to scale.
Ready to modernize your lending process? Learn more about our solution for insurance company lenders →
