Approvals of underwriting issues

Automatic approvals

You can specify that PolicyCenter will approve issues of a specific type automatically if the current user has the correct authority. These issues are auto-approvable issues.

Issues defined as auto-approvable are given automated approvals during issue evaluation, provided that all of the following are true:

• The issue does not already have an approval or rejection.
• The approval will unblock progress.
• No non-auto-approvable issues block progress.
• No other issues block progress.
• The user has the authority to approve all blocking, auto-approvable issues to their default values.

If the preceding conditions are true, then PolicyCenter automatically, and transparently, makes that set of approvals as the user progresses the policy transaction.

Auto-approvable issues provide automatic approval of issues that arise during normal policy transaction activities, so that the user does not have to approve the issue every time it occurs. An auto-approvable issue can be the general authority to write policies under a certain premium level or in a given jurisdiction.

When auto-approvable issues are automatically approved, the issues are approved to the default levels specified for that underwriting rule. Auto-approvable issues are not automatically approved if there is a manual approval on the issue.

In an underwriting rule, use the Auto-approvable field on the Advanced Info screen to specify whether this issue is treated as a auto-approvable issue. Auto-approvable issues can be automatically approved if the user has an authority grant that permits an approval at the default level. If PolicyCenter can approve all blocking auto-approvable issues at the default level, then PolicyCenter approves all blocking issues. Otherwise, PolicyCenter approves none. The default level is the amount in the authority grant plus any Default Value Offset Amount from the underwriting rule.

Set Auto-approvable to No if you want an underwriter to explicitly review and approve the issue, even if they have the authority to approve it without a referral. Set Auto-approvable to Yes if you want an underwriter with sufficient authority to not explicitly be required to approve the issue. Auto-approvable has no affect on approvals when the current user lacks the authority to approve the issue.

Set Auto-approvable to Yes for issues that, while they prevent unauthorized users from progressing the job, they are not unusual if the user is authorized. Automatically approving common issues allows the user to focus on the more important and unusual issues. For example, you may want to automatically approve issues raised to confirm the jurisdictions in which an agent is licensed or authorized to write business. Thresholds on sizes or types of policies or changes might also be automatically approved.

An automated approval has an AutomaticApprovalCause which you can use to identify these approvals in the user interface. In the default configuration, this value is jobNumber@BlockingPoint for automated approvals that happen during normal job processes.

Auto-approvable corresponds to the UWIssueType.AutoApprovable property.

See also

• Configuring authority grants

Automated renewals and policy changes

In automated renewals and policy changes, all issues are treated as auto-approvable issues.

Approval duration values

Certain user actions in the current or future policy transactions can invalidate an approval. For each issue, you can specify whether to remove an approval if the user edits the policy before binding.

If any change to the policy transaction requires that the approval for this issue be removed, set Allow Edit to No. If the approval remains valid even if the user makes other changes to the transaction, set Allow Edit to Yes.

Use Approval Duration to specify the default duration of an approval. For example, an approval can remain in effect until the next change, until the end of the term, for one year, for three years, or until rescinded. For each underwriting rule, you can configure the default duration. While approving the issue, the underwriter can change the duration.

In an underwriting rule, the Duration specifies the default duration on new approvals. Use this property to indicate when an approval will expire.

Values are:

When determining the validity of the approval, PolicyCenter looks at the effective date of the current policy transaction and of future policy transactions. For example, suppose you have a one year approval at the beginning of a six month policy. This approval extends through any policy changes in the current term, the six month renewal, and any policy changes in the following term. It does not cover a second renewal.

This specifies the value of the DurationType property on new approvals. The UWApprovalDurationType typelist defines these values.

Default values for approval

The underwriting rule specifies default approval values for the associated underwriting issue. PolicyCenter uses these default values in the following ways:

• As an initial setting in the user interface for approvals that do not already have an approval present
• As automated approvals for auto-approvable issues and issues in automated processes
• For determining availability of the Approve button, which indicates that you can approve a specific issue to the default level

PolicyCenter creates approvals that use the default values for auto-approvable issues and automated processes, such as automatic renewal. All blocking points except Non-blocking can stop progress of the job pending manual approval. You need to carefully consider the impact of setting the default approval to block or not to block.

In the Underwriting Rule, the default approval fields are:

• Default Duration
• Default Approval Blocking Point
• Default Edit Before Bind
• Default Value Assignment Type
• Default Value Offset Amount
• Default Value Offset Currency