What changed: Just a few years ago, direct-to-consumer life insurance startups like Ethos, Ladder, and Lemonade attracted seed rounds of funding by promising easy, straightforward, self-directed online shopping experiences. Traditional life insurers formed “speedboat” units or bought existing startups.

But direct-to-consumer sales failed to live up to expectations. They’re flat, at best, and startups are struggling:

• Prudential Financial shut down Assurance IQ after booking hundreds of millions in losses, just five years after paying $2.35 billion for it.