How AI Is Reshaping the Insurance Industry: Efficiency, Innovation, and Customer Focus

It’s no secret that the insurance industry is ripe for disruption. Customers expect personalized experiences. Competitors are finding ways to offer better service for lower premiums. Legacy systems make staying agile a significant challenge.

Thankfully, the industry’s evolving embrace of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) offers a meaningful solution.

From enhancing the insurance product development process to improving experiences for your customers and staff members, AI has the power to transform the insurance landscape, driving efficiency, innovation, and customer-centricity.

Streamlining Operations and Reducing Costs with AI

AI can automate many repetitive and labor-intensive tasks across the insurance value chain. From claims processing to policy underwriting, AI can analyze data, make informed decisions, and reduce the workload on your human team. Imagine AI-powered chatbots that provide 24/7 support for customers or algorithms that automatically identify fraudulent claims. 

The potential cost savings are substantial, allowing insurance companies to optimize their bottom line and stay competitive.

Fueling Innovation with AI-Driven Insights

Historically, insurance product development has relied on static risk models that don’t always capture individuals’ and businesses’ complex and ever-changing risk profiles. 

AI changes all that. 

With real-time data from sources like telematics, wearables, and even weather patterns, AI can personalize risk assessments, leading to the development of new, innovative insurance products and premiums best aligned to the actual risk. Think usage-based insurance for drivers, dynamic cybersecurity insurance for businesses, or health insurance that promotes preventive care.

Elevating the Customer Experience with AI

In today’s crowded insurance market, customer experience is everything.

AI allows insurers to deeply understand their customers, personalize their offerings, and provide proactive support. Consider virtual assistants that answer questions and guide policyholders through processes, as well as sentiment analysis tools that proactively identify and address potential customer dissatisfaction. This results in loyal, happy customers – essential for retention and growth.

Successful AI Implementation: The Role of Strategic Guidance

While exciting, implementing an AI-driven solution in insurance carries its own complexities.

Data quality, legacy systems, regulatory compliance, and employee adoption all need careful consideration. This is where partnering with experienced AI consultants can make a tremendous difference.

The right partner helps you develop a clear AI strategy, prepare your data for AI success, ensure regulatory adherence, and get your team on board for a smooth AI adoption process.

Get the Full Picture: Download Our White Paper

This blog post has offered a brief glimpse into the transformative power of AI for the insurance industry.

However, if you’re ready to explore the possibilities in greater detail, we invite you to download our comprehensive white paper, The Transformative Power of AI in Insurance: Unlocking Cost Savings, Innovation, and Competitive Advantage.

In this white paper, we’ll dive into specific use cases, proven strategies, and crucial considerations for navigating your AI journey.

Download the white paper today and discover how AI can revolutionize your insurance business.

The Human Side of Operations

by Rob Berg

Insurance is an industry famously associated with numbers, statistics, and financial data. And yet, behind every policy, every claim, and every transaction, there are individuals – people just like you and me – who have feelings and emotions, ups and downs, good days and bad.

From the customers who purchase insurance policies to the employees who work for insurance companies, there is a human side to insurance company operations that is often minimized, unnecessarily subjecting the insurer to being poorly perceived. During decades of providing insurance operations consulting services, we have seen the upside of companies that recognize the power of their people – and the problems that arise when they don’t.

AGENTS ESTABLISH THE TONE OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

Most obviously, insurance companies interact with their policyholders. When a customer decides to purchase a policy, they’re often making a significant financial commitment, and the insurance company is charged with ensuring the policy adequately secures a given risk at a fair price.

As the face of an insurance company, agents are often the first point of contact. They help customers understand their insurance options, explain the benefits and limitations of different policies, and answer any questions they may have. In many cases, insurance agents build long-term relationships with their clients, providing ongoing support and assistance as their insurance needs change over time.

However, in our age of increasing self-service and minimal human interaction, countermeasures must be taken to preserve the value of the relationship. During insurance operations and technology consulting engagements, we always caution our clients against letting automation usurp the very real value of a genuine human bond.

CLAIMS MANAGERS MUST BE SENSITIVE TO CUSTOMERS IN CRISIS

Of course, when a customer experiences loss or damage, they must file a claim to receive compensation. This is a particularly stressful and emotional time for the customer; it’s critically important that claims managers handle the claim with sensitivity and efficiency throughout the process. Claims adjusters who investigate the claim, determine the extent of the loss or damage, and work with the customer to reach a settlement are especially prone to being perceived as greedy and unsympathetic, which reflects poorly on a carrier brand.

Because adjusters are often best positioned to provide emotional support and guidance during this difficult time, they’re vulnerable to tacking too far to the analytical side of operations (often in service of their organization’s key performance indicators) while neglecting the claimant’s very real emotional and financial needs.

Adjusters take note: A failure to satisfy customers during the claims process can cause a tremendous hit to an insurer’s credibility and reputation. Take a random look at online reviews for practically any insurance company for proof.

SATISFIED STAFF MEMBERS PERFORM BETTER

Perhaps most importantly, because work consumes a substantial portion of our lives, insurance companies are increasingly responsible to their employees for their wellbeing. This means, in addition to providing a safe and healthy work environment, competitive compensation, and opportunities for professional advancement and development, that they actively support their autonomy (their ability to work without constant managerial intervention), competence (their feeling of being appropriately challenged by the work they do), and relatedness (the feeling that they’re adding value to something larger than themselves).

Unsurprisingly, according to Self-Determination Theory – a rigorously researched psychological construct for human motivation – autonomy, competence, and relatedness are three psychological needs that underpin employee engagement. Failure to respect those needs can result in poor morale, burnout, and high turnover.

SUPPORT THE COMMUNITIES WHERE YOU WRITE BUSINESS

Finally, insurance companies have a social responsibility to the communities they serve. This includes investing in programs and initiatives that promote safety and prevention, supporting local charities and organizations, and working to make insurance more accessible and affordable for everyone.

The human side of insurance company operations is often overlooked, but it merits greater attention as it is essential to the success of the industry. From the agents who sell insurance policies to the claims adjusters who help customers in their time of need, to the employees who work behind the scenes, and the communities they serve, the human element is what makes insurance companies truly effective and valuable to society. By recognizing and valuing the people who are involved in every aspect of insurance operations, we can build stronger, more resilient communities and a more compassionate and sustainable insurance industry.

Empower your teams to do their best work. Contact the insurance operations experts at Perr&Knight today to discuss how we can help.

Why Insurance Experts Should Lead Software Configuration

by Bob Cericola and Mark Nawrath

Adding products to legacy software or to new software system implementations has long been a challenge for insurance companies. While developing your insurance products and filing with the Departments of Insurance (DOIs) in the states where you write business, concurrently defining product requirements and setting up testing can be a considerable challenge if you are working with software vendors who have limited experience managing the complexities of insurance.

Partnering with actuarial and insurance technology experts helps you sidestep common pitfalls so you can bring your new products to market faster. When decades of experience providing actuarial consulting services meet proven insurance technology implementation support expertise, you end up with more accurate, useful insurance product requirement definitions that streamline the path to success.

WHY GENERALIZED SOFTWARE VENDORS FALL SHORT

Though insurance software products are all based on unique, carrier-specific requirements, many share baseline similarities that general software vendors overlook. For example, instead of building systems with the perspective that “this is a uniform product with deviations and company-specific information to match 51 jurisdictional filings,” many software vendors inefficiently capture requirements and re-build the same software 51 times. This lack of expertise slows implementation timelines and exposes your organization to compliance violations – all of which drain the project’s budget and impede speed to market.

WORKING WITH INSURANCE EXPERTS MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Partnering with software vendors who offer “out of the box” software to meet insurance product requirements may seem like a good idea, but their lack of insurance expertise can easily cause misalignment of the system’s output with DOI filings, as well as a mismatch between the system’s back-end data and the real-world requirements of statistical reporting. When entering products into your company’s software, it makes more sense to work with experts who understand how product and workflow configuration impact compliance with statistical agents, rating bureaus and DOIs.

At Perr&Knight, we have established a proven process for defining requirements that is efficient, scalable and meets compliance standards for all 51 U.S. jurisdictions. Our subject matter experts possess the domain knowledge to expedite the configuration, testing and maintenance of carrier-specific insurance products for all rating, underwriting and policy administration systems.

END-TO-END DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT

The real economies and efficiencies in insurance product development occur when partnering with seasoned insurance experts from the outset. At Perr&Knight, our decades of actuarial consulting services experience inform our insurance product requirements definition, testing and maintenance solutions. Our StateFilings.com and BureauMonitor solutions are designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing software, empowering you with access to circulars, publications and carrier-defined workflows to initiate, monitor and archive DOI filings in a single repository.

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Due to the complexity of insurance products, software requirements must emulate the insurance-specific product requirements from the start. Inaccuracies in product requirements and limitations in testing are common problems that plague companies partnering with vendors that lack insurance experience. Even more serious are the risks that quickly arise from an absence of comprehensive requirements that align with compliance mandates.

Insurance technology experts like those at Perr&Knight can bring spiraling software implementation projects back under control, even if your company has involved outside vendors for development or implementation. However, partnering with Perr&Knight from the start of product ideation and software implementation planning ensures you achieve the best possible economies of time and scale. Because our teams work with internal peers to efficiently develop requirements from the outset, and partner with our clients to define their product requirements to advance software implementations, our clients waste less time and resources moving their software implementation project forward and retroactively solving compliance and reporting issues.

CONTACT PERR&KNIGHT TO START THE CONVERSATION

Our insurance technology consulting department is the fastest-growing division of Perr&Knight. This is because carriers, program administrators and Insurtechs recognize the value of working with insurance experts for insurance product requirements definition and testing. Our technology team partners with our actuarial consulting services team to define insurance product requirements documents that truly match software requirements. The result is peace of mind that your implementation process will stay on track to launch your products quickly and begin writing business as soon as possible.

See how our experienced insurance technology consultants can streamline your new product integration. Contact Perr&Knight today.

Get Help from Perr&Knight’s Experts

As we head into the second half of 2022 and the summer months filled with employees taking vacations, you may find that you have a lot of work to get done by year-end and not enough experienced people to get it all done.

If you are like many of the insurance entities we work with, you likely have an abundance of work to kick off new projects and introduce innovative product offerings, but not enough internal resources to tackle these projects. The experts at Perr&Knight can help.

Due to inflationary pressures, you may find it necessary to make rate changes on some of your insurance programs. Perr&Knight can help.

If you need to outsource additional work, our team has the capacity and expertise to take it on. We can help with any phase of actuarial, product development or state filings work.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help with your projects.

Tips for Adding Flexibility to Your Commercial Lines Rating Plan

Every company writing commercial insurance products needs flexibility in its filed rates in order to charge the appropriate premium. There are many different types of rating flexibilities in the commercial lines insurance marketplace for admitted state filings, but the terminology is somewhat confusing and is often misunderstood. In this summary, we describe each main type of rating flexibility and provide a clearer definition based on our experience with the various Departments of Insurance (“DOI”s) and lines of business.
With some exceptions, commercial lines rates and rules are subject to the DOI’s state filings and approval requirements, similar to personal lines. Commercial lines premiums must also be calculated in compliance with filed rates and rules.
However, commercial lines policy premiums are generally bigger, coverages are more complex, and limits are higher compared to personal lines. As a result, the level of underwriting required for commercial lines is more than personal lines. In addition, risks insured under commercial lines are more heterogeneous, so is difficult for a rating manual to address the rating characteristics of all possible risks. This heterogeneous nature often leads to the need for customized coverage. Also, larger and more sophisticated commercial risks may utilize risk managers to evaluate and mitigate their exposure to loss. To address all of that, commercial lines products require more flexibility in their rating manuals than personal lines.
Incorporating rating flexibilities into a filed commercial lines rate and rule manual can help an insurance company be more competitive, have more accurate premiums and reduce the need for rate filing revisions year over year—saving time and money.
For states that are fully exempt from filing requirements (meaning rates/rules are not required to be filed), companies have more rate flexibility than in states that require filings. Additionally, large risk filing exemptions (which vary by state and are related to number of employees, premium size, etc.) provide companies with greater rate flexibility in determining the appropriate rate for the risk. Below we have addressed the various ways companies add rate flexibility to programs that are filed with the state DOIs.

Schedule Rating Plans

This classic underwriting tool is a table of debits or credits that are applied to the manual rate to reflect the characteristics of an individual insured that are expected to have a material impact on expected loss.
It allows the underwriter to adjust an insured’s premium up or down to recognize that they may be better or worse than the average risk while remaining compliant with the filed rates and rules. Schedule rating is meant to address characteristics of the risk which are generally not otherwise reflected in the rating manual.
Most DOIs allow Schedule Rating plans, but the requirements regarding maximum overall debits and credits, maximums by risk characteristic and minimum premium eligibility vary by state. It is important to be familiar with each state’s requirements to achieve maximum flexibility while remaining compliant.

Ranges of rates

Many states permit ranges of rates within the base rates and rating factors to allow for additional flexibility in a rating plan. Although allowing this flexibility, some states will require underwriting guidance in the rating manual giving some details on how the factors within the range are selected. Note that ranges of rates are allowed in addition to Schedule Rating plans. In combination, they can provide a significant amount of flexibility.

Refer to Company Rating / (a) rates

Refer to company and (a) rating mean the same thing: they tell a DOI in an admitted filing that a particular risk is difficult to price and the premium calculations will be performed internally (generally by an experienced underwriter) and the actual rate will not be filed.
This is also very similar to (and sometimes used interchangeably with) “Individual risk rating”. While most state DOIs allow individual risk rating, the requirements for state filings vary. First, states have different requirements regarding filing the individual risk rating rule—some don’t require a rule be filed at all, others require a simple rule notifying the DOI of an insurer’s intention to individually rate risks, while some require that the manual include specific formulas and/or procedures that will be used to determine the individual risk premium.
States also differ on the documentation or requirements for state filings when an individual risk rating rule is utilized for individual risk. Some require only that the premium calculation be documented in the underwriting file, while others require that the individual premiums be filed with the DOI. There are also some additional reporting requirements in some states. It is important to be familiar with these requirements to ensure your underwriters use this flexible rating tool compliantly.

Guide (a) rates

This term is used less often in the industry and is usually described as a rating plan that has very large ranges of rates and is proposed as a rough “guide” for rating. The final charged rate is not permitted to go outside the bounds of the large ranges included in the rating plan.
Generally, the ranges are so large, it is very similar to (a) rating (described above) but gives a significant amount of additional flexibility when a DOI does not allow a certain section or manual to be completely (a) rated and is looking for some premium boundaries.

Tiering

Another method for adding rating reflexibility is tiering, which typically includes three to five tiers with factors below and above one. Criteria such as experience, financial stability and loss prevention are typically used for each tier to differentiate risk.
Where permitted, tiering can be introduced within a single company (intra-company tiering) and/or across multiple companies in a group (inter-company tiering). Intra-company tiering guidelines are required to be filed in most states, but are rarely required to be filed for inter-company tiering. The criteria used in tiering should generally not overlap with the criteria used in the Schedule Rating Plans or rating plans with ranges of rates to prevent double counting.

Consent to Rate

Once an insurance carrier has an approved filing, many DOIs allow consent to rate filings. These generally require a short form signed by the insured showing the premium they will be charged, which will be some amount above (or below, in a handful of states) the premium calculated from the filed and approved rate. In some states, support is also required for the deviation. Filing approval is generally very quick, which may make this the optimal way to achieve a more appropriate rate for the risk. 

Do you need guidance on maximizing the rating flexibilities in your commercial lines rating plans? The state filings experts at Perr&Knight are here to help.

The Time Is Now: The American Rescue Plan’s Impact on Supplemental Health Insurance

If your company hasn’t reviewed your supplemental health products lately, now is the time to refresh your portfolio. The Biden-Harris administration’s American Rescue Plan reduces healthcare costs and expands access to coverage for millions of Americans. The subsidies are technically temporary (in place for 2021-2022), but we anticipate these popular provisions may ultimately remain in place for the foreseeable future, regardless of administration.
The plan provides fresh assurance to individuals buying their or their family’s health insurance through a marketplace that they will receive a premium-reducing tax credit. As more buyers enter the health market, the need for supplemental products will expand. Marketplace-insured Americans may still be facing moderate to significant out-of-pocket costs that supplemental health insurance plans can help alleviate.

Start laying the groundwork

As the supplemental health product marketplace has expanded over the last decade, these products have faced increasing regulatory pushback. Meeting this evolving regulatory challenge requires doing your homework ahead of time. Conducting comprehensive competitive analyses, market surveys, and evaluating existing competitor pricing puts you in a stronger position to release Gap medical and other supplemental health products that match state department of insurance (DOI) requirements directly out of the gate.

Accelerate time-to-market by partnering with experts

There are no shortcuts when it comes to insurance product development, but working with experienced actuaries, product development experts, and state filing experts can help you make up for lost time. Their access to historical filings, knowledge of region-specific requirements, and particulars of each state’s DOI protect you from costly, time-consuming mistakes that are likely to delay approval. Additional support means shifting from a reactive to a proactive position.
At Perr&Knight, we have experience developing limited medical/hospital indemnity plans, gap medical coverage products, and critical illness products that are more relevant – and necessary – to today’s marketplace than ever. We can help you gauge the interest to see if augmenting your portfolio with these products is worth the investment.

Changes are likely here to stay

It’s tempting to “play it safe” and hold off on investing in insurance product development because you believe the ARP’s health insurance provisions will be undone in the event of an administration change. But if the past is any indicator, even politically fraught plans like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have withstood a barrage of threats, remaining popular with the American people.
As the saying goes, the best defense is a good offense. Failure to begin in earnest means your company is already behind other carriers who have either recently refreshed their portfolios with updated gap medical or other supplemental health products, or those who have started the insurance product development process. The time to get started is now.
Read more: New Trends in Accident & Health Insurance.

Ready to reevaluate the role of supplemental health coverage in your portfolio? Our actuarial and state filings experts are here to help.

NOAA Releases Report on Historic Year for Extreme Weather

 
There is no doubt that 2020 was a rough year in many respects. While the Coronavirus pandemic was frequently the topic of conversation, there was considerably more to talk about for those in the insurance industry.
According to a recent report published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there were an unprecedented 22 extreme weather events in the United States last year, causing 262 fatalities and totaling at least $95 billion in damages. The previous record of 16 events was set in 2011 and matched again in 2017. By comparison, 2019 saw 14 extreme weather events with $45 billion in damages. While much of the country was under quarantine and stay-home advisories, others were ordered to evacuate for their safety. Many lives were changed after the disasters of 2020.
In late August, Hurricane Laura devastated the Gulf Coast and was the costliest event of the year with numerous fatalities and $19 billion in losses. However, this was only one of the record-setting 30 named storms of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, 13 of which developed into hurricanes. According to NOAA, the average season will have 12 named storms, six of which will reach hurricane status. This was only the second time that the Greek alphabet was tapped since each of the 21 letters used in the standard naming convention was exhausted. The only other time this has occurred was during the historic 2005 hurricane season that brought Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
In addition to hurricanes, wildfires and convective storms ravaged other parts of the country. With a severe drought impacting more than a dozen states, conditions were favorable for massive wildfires that consumed more than 10.2 million acres, mostly in California, Oregon, and Washington and caused $16.5 billion in damage. Severe convective storms also contributed to the number of catastrophes last year, including a massive derecho that swept across much of the country from South Dakota to Ohio, leaving $11 billion of damage in its wake.
With the multitude of perils that we are exposed to, being responsive to the market and nimble in the ever-changing insurance landscape is critical. Whether it be rate or coverage revisions or new insurance product introductions, we have the expertise and the resources to enable you to deliver that peace of mind to your customers.

Contact us today to learn more about our services.

Digital Transformation: Old Wine in New Bottles?

So much of what we find new and exciting requires what we too often write off as outmoded.
Today’s insurance technology initiatives are increasingly motivated by our latest term of art, digital transformation. We love to throw those words around as if they represent some magical incantation that, when invoked, will produce brilliant solutions that lift us to otherwise unattainable competitive positions, as masterworks of art that evoke feelings of awe eons after their original creation.
Of course, we’ve been “digitally transforming” for decades. Setting aside the nineteenth-century innovations of Charles Babbage for a moment, modern “digital” computing is easily traced at least as far back as 1945 with the introduction of ENIAC, “the first programmable, general-purpose electronic digital computer”.[1] The intervening years have seen a remarkable explosion of computing power. Famously, the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) used to put men on the moon in 1969, with its 2 MHz CPU speed, had roughly the same computing power as a twenty-five year-old Nintendo Entertainment System (1.8 MHz). An old iPhone 4 (2010), with its 800 MHz CPU speed, outgunned the $32 million Cray 2 supercomputer (1985) by a factor of three (244 MHz).[2] And today’s iPhone 12 (2.99 GHz) and Sony PlayStation 5 (3.5 GHz) make those computing milestones seem quaint.
The growth in computing power, and therefore the number of practical applications that can be handled by affordable computers, has been astonishing. Indeed, it has made the aspirations of computer scientists who only dreamed about artificial intelligence and virtual reality just a few decades ago – dreams because they would require rooms full of very expensive hardware – available to the masses in tiny packages for very modest sums.
So it follows that today when we hear about insurers wishing to undertake digital transformation initiatives, we understand that their desire is to leverage today’s massive computing power to gain a competitive advantage. Otherwise, we’re simply talking about modernization, which was all the rage way, way back in 2015. Today’s initiatives have the far more ambitious goal of producing novel solutions, in the sense that competitors haven’t yet discovered – let alone adopted – them, and so they’re in a very real sense disruptive.
But disruption comes out of tolerance for mistakes. Disruption comes from having the wherewithal to experiment and fail repeatedly. Disruption comes from having the courage to engage in radically candid conversations laced with dissent and debate. So disruption can only happen if the company culture permits it to happen – an idea antithetical to an insurance company’s traditional mission, which is to avoid undue risk.
This frosty bit of insight begs an entirely different approach to insurance company operations that goes well beyond technology. Famously linear thinkers, insurance professionals have historically worked to place a price x on some risk y in anticipation of a positive return z. We press this button and that happens. Of course, this approach has turned out to be of dubious value, evidenced by the prevalence of combined ratios that exceed the century mark. Instead, a confluence of factors in a variety of dimensions conspire to destroy our bottom lines, if not our innocence: Geopolitics. The environment. Social movements. Generational sensibilities. Competitive moves. Regulatory constraints. Human psychology. Solar flares?! And yes, the rapid pace of technological change. After all, how popular was cyber insurance – arguably influenced by each of those factors – in 1950?
Woke (forgive me, but the term seems to work in this context, too) insurers have accepted this. And so their efforts are directed toward aggregating not just traditional datasets that populate rating algorithms or underwriting rules, but those many ancillary bits of information that influence risk selection and loss potential in a far more informed (read: non-linear) way. They utilize Big Data. They leverage artificial intelligence. They employ dedicated predictive analytics units. They automate routine operational processes. They invest in new technology. And they adopt change management programs to support those initiatives. That’s a long list of expensive undertakings for a smaller insurer. But that’s the world in which they have to compete.
Middle-tier regionals with relatively modest means must contend with tiny upstarts with tens of millions in capital investment unburdened by years of legacy operations on one end, and multi-billion dollar behemoths spinning off autonomous innovation centers on the other, for their share of the hundreds of billions of premium dollars blown skyward by the shattering of preconceived notions.
And so we arrive at the intersection of culture and technology, of art and science, of hard skills and soft skills. In an industry famously fixated on risk avoidance and profit margins, this juncture becomes an especially challenging moment in time. Indeed, a quick review of recent literature on disruption in the insurance industry makes scant mention of the behavioral changes that must accompany any radical innovation, both within an organization among its constituents and outside among its customers and suppliers.
The impact on many well-established insurers? InsureTech startups are eating their lunch. That is, unless those veteran organizations were prescient (and well-capitalized) enough to develop their own skunkworks, separate and apart from their core organizations in order to permit the risk-tolerant cultures found in their more nimble adversaries. That’s fine if you’re a major player, one of the billion-dollar insurers who can afford separately funded venture arms, or an agile start-up with fifty million smackers to burn. But what of the middle tier, those thousands of regional insurers vying for market share in the face of old threats (mainstays) and new (InsureTechs)?
The obvious answer is they need to think a little differently. With no discretionary trove of millions to casually deploy, the focus must be on manifesting beneficial change. And beneficial change begins with vision, culture, and leadership – not bits and bytes. Old wine in new bottles, you might say.
I’m not suggesting plastering office walls with poster-sized admonitions to “embrace change,” nor am I suggesting that beneficial change is a thing that happens if you hire the right consultants. I am suggesting, however, that with all of the marvels of technology available in the twenty-first century, it’s still people who matter most. It’s still paying attention to what motivates – inspires – every individual responsible for the welfare of the organizations in which they toil that separates leaders from laggards. And most importantly, it’s regularly respecting and acknowledging their contributions to ensure they stay focused and motivated, long after the paint is dry on that beautifully executed automation project.
Of course, standard “tactical” practices for operational improvements and technology deployments involving proven toolsets for workflow analysis, business process design, and technical project management are essential for a successful digital transformation initiative. But no amount of funding will replace the unbridled enthusiasm of a group of colleagues setting out to effect change for the better. It’s that enthusiasm and commitment that drive organizations to prosperity; it is rarely prosperity – and never technology – that drives individuals to become enthused if they’re not adequately engaged and committed to the work they do.

Contact Perr&Knight to support your digital transformation initiative with experienced project managers, business analysts, and process improvement experts well-versed in the ‘people part’ of transformation, who can assist with the requirements management, process redesign, and change management capabilities that are essential for any such project.

[1] Swaine, M. ENIAC. (n.d.). Britannica. Retrieved January 25, 2021 from https://www.britannica.com/technology/ENIAC
[2] Routley, N. (2017, November 4). Visualizing the trillion-fold increase in computing power. Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-trillion-fold-increase-computing-power/.

You Better Watch Out, You Better Not Cry, State Filing Requirement Changes Are Already Here!

Authors: Neresa Torres, Jessica Witvoet, API, AIS, AINS, AIT, and Diane Karis,AINS, CPCU
At Perr&Knight, we submit thousands of product filings (rate, rule and form) a year to the various state Departments of Insurance (“DOIs”) – and 2020 has been no exception. In fact, in addition to our normal annual volume of insurance product filings, COVID-19 has increased the number of state filings for pandemic-related submissions.
Throughout the course of this year, we have noticed a few trends in how states’ DOIs are reviewing product filings. Since we handle a high volume of submissions across all jurisdictions and all lines of business, we are able to quickly identify variations from previous years.
Here’s what we have discovered. 

States are getting pickier about the rules

Though states have always clearly articulated their filing guidelines, in preceding years DOIs were more likely to excuse minor deviations and process those filings anyway. DOIs in the past may have been inclined to give some leeway. This year, however, many states are opting to exercise their right to issue an objection or reject a filing outright if every detail is not spot on. Small errors that may have been “no big deal” in the past are now grounds for review or disapproval.
For example, Idaho is now closely scrutinizing the status of the filing in the domicile state. In the past, a “pending” entry or concurrent submission of domicile state was acceptable. Now, it is required that the program being filed is approved by the domiciliary state prior to submitting the filing in Idaho. Unless there is a reasonable explanation as to why, the filing will be rejected or subject to a 7-day turnaround for correction. If the information is not included at all, the filing is often disapproved without any opportunity for correction. Kansas has become more finicky, too, requiring each rule filing to have an accompanying form, or an objection will be issued. Other states have implemented guidance tools and checklists to ensure compliance with changing rules and requirements. For example, Massachusetts has created a four-part instruction guide to cover what is required for a filing to be considered acceptable.
The point is: don’t rely on DOIs being as forgiving as they have been in previous years. Make sure all your filing details are correct and complete.

Objections, rejections, and time-to-approval are increasing

Insurers are not the only ones experiencing administrative delays due to the pandemic. Many state DOIs shifted to remote working scenarios as well, and this has impacted their ability to issue speedy approvals. In California, for example, commercial, homeowners’, and other personal policies are taking longer to receive approval than in years past. The number of “pending” approvals has also increased.
Closer scrutiny by state DOIs is resulting in a higher number of rejections for minor issues. On the bright side, turnaround times for re-submitting are also faster. In many instances, we have seen DOIs allow re-submission within 7 to 10 days.
If your filing is rejected, correct the problem immediately and resubmit right away. Sophisticated software solutions like Perr&Knight’s StateFilings.com can help your teams keep a closer eye on filing status.

Other events impacting 2020

In addition to the disruptions caused by the pandemic, social unrest, and an election year, insurers are facing other challenges, such as recertification of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), which requires all companies to update their language. Travel insurance products are also changing quickly as travel restrictions are lifted and added on a rolling basis worldwide.
This year’s regulatory requirements compel insurers to take a closer look at forms to make sure each meets the DOI’s current standards, which may have been updated recently.

Keeping track of the trends

2020 has been a year of surprise rejections for some insurance companies. It makes sense: companies only submitting a few filings per year – or who haven’t updated their product in recent years – lack the macro perspective to spot trends in DOI behavior.
When a rejection is received, it is important to determine as quickly as possible if the rejection is a unique occurrence or due to a change in a procedural requirement by the DOI. When submitting new filings, comparing against historical filings is no longer enough. Instead, it will be important to keep close track of current trends, as well as to look deeper into the DOI’s reasoning. This insight will help you avoid costly, time-consuming errors moving forward.
Internally, the Perr&Knight state filings department takes note of every rejection/objection we encounter and evaluates it to discover if it is part of a larger directional shift for that DOI, or simply a one-off. When we have questions about a particular DOI action, we contact the reviewer immediately and obtain a more thorough explanation. Because we handle such a high volume of nationwide filings, we remain in regular communication with every state DOI. These strong relationships enable us to obtain clarification on department actions that guide future filings on behalf of our clients.

Work with an experienced partner

Staying compliant today presents more of a challenge than it has in years past. Because the landscape is shifting quickly (as quickly as the insurance industry can shift), insurers are at higher risk of receiving rejections – especially those who submit a relatively low number of filings per year.
This is where working with an external insurance filings support partner can deliver a dramatic difference. Experienced state filings teams manage filings day-in and day-out. Their level of intimate knowledge of each transmittal requirement, variations between states, and regulatory expectations for each line of business can mean the difference between a smooth approvals process or being sent back to square one.
As 2020 draws to a close, the winds of change continue to shift. We expect more deviations from the status quo in the coming year. We’ll keep our clients posted on what we discover and how they can stay ahead of the game.

Questions about how to improve the efficiency of your rate filings? Our state filings experts can help.

Improve State Filing Efficiency, Even Working Remotely

Authors: Jessica Witvoet API, AIS, AINS, AIT, Diane Karis AINS, CPCU, and Neresa Torres
Many insurance companies were faced with a difficult transition when state or county orders meant to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 forced some or all of their staff to stay home earlier this year. Those who weren’t prepared for extensive remote working scrambled to set up secure systems easily accessible by employees unable to return to the office where servers, desktop computers and physical files are stored.
Because of Perr&Knight’s five regional offices across the United States, we’ve already had extensive experience using digital tools to collaborate from geographically dispersed locations. Our state filings support team conducts the majority of our work online using sophisticated web-based software, enabling us to work together seamlessly from anywhere.
StateFilings.com is a proprietary software tool we use internally to provide insurance filings support for our clients. It is also available for subscription, so insurance companies can more efficiently manage their own rate, rule and form filings.
StateFilings.com enables companies to maintain the pace and accuracy of filings even when working offsite. The software includes built-in features controlling three aspects of the process: project management, research and workflow. Here’s how these tools support the entire scope of insurance product filings support. 

Project Management

Because all aspects of our form filings services are online – including access to SERFF – StateFilings.com updates all phases of the project in real-time and provides visibility to team members who have been granted access. This means an individual can create and submit a filing to a DOI and others can see exactly what has been done and how far along the filing is in the approval process.
This real-time visibility eliminates the need for lengthy internal back-and-forth communication via email and enables all members of the state filings department to provide support or peer review without a cumbersome catch-up process.
On our end, easy access and full transparency for all filings enable our state filings support team to process any countrywide filing project within ten business days. Insurance companies who subscribe to StateFilings.com for their own filings departments also report that access to a single, user-friendly filing repository has dramatically increased their efficiency.
Real-time processing also eliminates the need to regularly check with DOIs to monitor actions. StateFilings.com has access to SERFF via a secure API, so the system automatically downloads approvals or objections and updates project status automatically. Dispositions trigger automatic emails noting the filing has been closed, along with a link to the approval. This high level of automation simultaneously eliminates time-consuming batch processing and ensures individuals in filing departments always have instant access to current information.

Research

StateFilings.com can be utilized as a research tool to evaluate various historic countrywide projects. We use StateFilings.com to enhance our insurance product filings support by checking previous filings to determine particular jurisdictional nuances that may impact our clients’ filings. We can also calculate the average DOI turnaround time by state and line of business to accurately gauge the anticipated time to approval for similar filings.
The software also keeps approved forms and rates and rules on file, accessible via the web. By removing the need to house this information on location-specific servers, filing department staff can quickly review important information, even while working remotely.
Companies who subscribe to StateFilings.com have access to all these features for their own current and historic filings.

Workflow Assignment 

Activity Manager allows users to view outstanding items on a filing including the activity type, due dates and follow up dates for any state included in a project. Assignments can be divided by line of business or state, providing at-a-glance insight into outstanding issues with filings, project assignments and approval status. Work load can quickly be determined, delegated and easily reassigned within Activity Manager to one or multiple users. This functionality allows our team’s supervisor to ensure efficiency and productivity so that we may deliver the most value to our customers.
This level of organization is also helpful for quickly onboarding new members to the State Filings Department. Access to historical filings enables new employees to easily review submitted information, required materials, questions from regulators and any notes made during previous filings.
Because of our nationwide presence and focus on technology, Perr&Knight has been structured to support virtual collaboration for years now, so the shift to remote work was not disruptive to our workflow. We know many of the tools and processes we employ can help other insurance companies improve productivity and get their products to market faster, even in today’s uncertain climate. For insurance filings support, StateFilings.com has been a crucial asset to our business model and we have seen it help other companies achieve the same high level of filing efficiency. 

Perr&Knight is ready to help you add the technological assistance and advantage of Statefilings.com to your organization. Contact Perr&Knight today to talk.