Technology-driven "disruptive innovation" — innovation that results in new products, services and markets and that threatens the business models of industry incumbents — is much on minds of top executives at life insurers these days.

And for good reason: Technology giants like Amazon, Apple and Google have driven long-established companies out of business or to the brink of extinction. The life insurance business, once thought impervious to such upending, could be next in the tech titan cross hairs. 

The question is, are life insurers ready for the high-tech onslaught coming their way? And, more to the more point, what are they doing to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing market that is already experiencing the effects of disruptive innovation?