Life insurance games: AXA Equitable's Pass It On and its iPad app

In 2011 life insurance ownership was at an all-time low and the life insurance market was soft. Connie O'Brien, senior vice president of Internet strategy and development at New York-based AXA Equitable, told the trade magazine Insurance & Technology that insurers had to engage a new audience. The company was already known for casting the need for life insurance as an 800-pound gorilla in the room.

Among life insurance games, Pass It On took the journey of life as its frame. Demonstrating how complex life products work, in experiences consumers understand intrinsically, was a stated goal of AXA's new initiatives.

AXA released Pass It On in September 2011. The game uses a journey through life as a metaphor for the chances to buy coverage for loved ones. Players guide a virtual family toward a better financial future by saving game currency, managing expenses and making decisions about life insurance. Players choose an avatar, and colored shields signify levels. The player does not die at the end: he or she moves on, and the beneficiary takes over the benefits. A sweepstakes and charitable elements were part of the package, and a launch report put the cash prize at $15,000 to $25,000.

In October 2011 the company added an iPad app that explained how its Athena Indexed Universal Life product works. It began as an interactive storybook for children and grew to hold calculators, quizzes and customizable personal situations. It also contained much of the sales material that distributors normally hand out on paper, which made signing up for a policy easier. O'Brien acknowledged that the subject is more serious than the light mobile games the format resembles, but argued it let people see why they needed the product.

The web address that served Pass It On in 2011, axa-equitablepassiton.com, no longer loads in November 2026, and no official page offering the game was found. This entry among the life insurance games is therefore listed as unconfirmed.

A comparable game from another insurer is covered in Aflac Trivia, and the games directory lists more business and finance titles with checked statuses. Typical budgets for corporate games are discussed on the cost page.