Can we rate only if something important changed?

Some customers ask whether they need to re-rate everything or rate only the information that changed.

Deciding whether a change to something might theoretically impact a piece of premium associated with another object requires knowing all inter-dependencies in the rating algorithm.

For example, does the rating engine need to recalculate the premium for a vehicle-level coverage when any of the following events occurs?

• If the coverage changes?
• If the vehicle changes?
• If a vehicle modifier (such as an alarm system) changes?
• If the garage location changes?
• If some specific information about the driver changes? Some properties affect rating, some might not.
• If a multi-policy discount applies?

Many things that might at first glance seem distantly connected to the coverage might in fact cause the premium to change in real-world implementations.

Thus, it is much safer and easier to recalculate and check if anything changed. It is much better than trying to determine all possible changes that might theoretically impact a rate, and then checking only for those changes.

It is a painful maintenance challenge to ensure you record all potential dependencies as people continually change the rating algorithm over time. Mistakes due to lack of maintenance synchronization are extremely likely.

This is why PolicyCenter by default asks the rating engine to re-rate everything rather than selectively re-rating only changed data.

It is far safer to re-rate everything than try to maintain a list of dependencies that permit selective re-rating.