Selecting an underwriting company in a submission

Large insurers can license more than one underwriting company to underwrite policies on their behalf. The primary reason for having these multiple underwriting companies is to accommodate jurisdictional regulatory requirements. Many jurisdictions do not allow insurers to have more than one set of rates per underwriting company. Therefore, if an insurer wants to offer multiple sets of rates in that jurisdiction, they must file each set of rates under a separate underwriting company for that jurisdiction. Underwriting companies may also offer different coverages or limits.

Underwriters typically profile an account to determine what segment an account falls into, and therefore which underwriting company would actually underwrite the policy. By extension, this determines the set of rates the account is eligible for. The appropriate set of rates would then be used to quote the policy. For example, a workers’ compensation insurer may segment accounts into three different groups: high hazard, medium hazard, and low hazard. The insurer has three underwriting companies that correspond to each segment. To generate a quote for the policy, an underwriter uses the underwriting company automatically selected by PolicyCenter or selects a different underwriting company. The rating engine calculates a quote for the policy based on the underwriting company.

In the Policy Info screen, you can select a different underwriting company.

Segmentation can determine which underwriting companies are available for a given submission, since underwriting companies may be able to accept only certain types of risks.