Underwriting authority
Underwriting is the process of examining, accepting, or rejecting insurance risks and classifying the ones that are accepted, in order to charge appropriate premiums for them. Underwriting authority in PolicyCenter provides an extensible underwriting infrastructure and a user interface for creating underwriting rules. In certain policy transactions, underwriting rules trigger the creation of underwriting issues on a policy transaction. Underwriting issues can block progress of a policy transaction. Underwriting authority profiles determine the types of underwriting issues that a particular underwriter can approve. When the underwriter approves an underwriting issue, the policy transaction can proceed.
The underwriting rules specify such things as jurisdictions of coverage and minimum or maximum amounts. For example, when an agent creates a new policy, certain terms of that policy may need underwriting review before the policy can be bound. The underwriting rules of the insurer require that an underwriter approve any vehicle valued over $100,000. When an agent adds a car valued at $200,000 in a personal auto policy, an underwriting rules triggers creation of an underwriting issue. The underwriter must approve that issue before the agent can bind the policy.
Underwriting authority in PolicyCenter provides features for creating underwriting issues on a policy and for reviewing and approving those issues.
Underwriting rules specify the different kinds of underwriting-related issues. The rule specifies when to raise that issue on a policy. Underwriting rules also specify the point at which policy transactions are blocked by unresolved issues. One or more authority profiles are assigned to individual users. These profiles allow the user to approve blocked issues within the levels specified in the authority grants for each specific issue.
The base configuration contains authority profiles for agents, underwriters, and an underwriting manager. You can modify the authority profiles and create new ones. You assign authority profiles to each user.
As part of the underwriting process, agents can pass policies to underwriters to obtain approval for issues. In the default configuration, when a policy is passed to an underwriter, the agent can no longer edit it. The policy is in the Under UW Review state. If the policy has an issue that blocks quoting or quote release, the agent cannot view the quote. The quote is not visible until the underwriter approves the issue and releases the policy back to the agent. The agent can then view the quote, then bind and issue the policy. Or the agent can edit the policy, potentially raising new issues.
In addition to the agent requesting approval for issues, in the default configuration
there are two other ways that a policy commonly can enter the Under UW
Review state. A policy can enter the Under UW
Review state when an underwriter takes a policy by clicking the
Lock for Review button. A policy can also enter the
Under UW Review state when a user with the
editlockoverride permission quotes a policy that is not already
locked. For example, the user receives a call from an agent to approve an issue, rather
than receiving a request for approval in PolicyCenter.
PolicyCenter raises issues automatically based on policy choices such as the types of vehicles on a policy or coverage amounts. This is accomplished either by defining the rule condition in , or by writing Gosu code to raise the issue. The user can also raise issues manually by adding them to the policy. External systems can also use an API to add underwriting referral reasons to a policy. Underwriting referral reasons cause underwriting issues to be raised the next time a policy transaction is run on that policy.
See also