How much time does it take you to process the information youreceive for an excess & surplus (E&S) lines client? TheE&S Joint Working Group is bringing awareness to the industrythat if today's systems aren't based on industry standards, theindustry is missing the opportunity to streamline its workflows,connect to a number of industry partners, and ultimately reduce itscosts.

Formed in 2008, the E&S Joint Working Group(ESJWG) is an alliance of carriers, agents and vendors working withthe American Association ofManaging General Agents (AAMGA), ACORD, Agents Council for Technology (ACT) of the Independent Agents& Brokers of America, and the National Association of ProfessionalSurplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO). ESJWG's mission is to improvethe efficiencies for retail agents, general agents, wholesalebrokers and carriers by promoting the use of ACORD standards,best-practice workflows and the electronic exchange of data amongeach of the business partners. The group comprises retailagent/general agent, carrier and Lloyd's subgroups.

In the retail agent to MGA/carrier space, there has been a 14%increase in the number of ACORD Standards-based commercial linestransactions flowing through IVANS, a division of Applied and oneof the providers of technology solutions for data exchange andintegration between insurance carriers and agencies. According totheir statistics, by the end of 2014, the number of commerciallines transactions flowing through the network had exceeded 8million; this year the growth continues.

Participants of the ESJWG have said throughout the years that80% of the data shared between an agent and Excess & Surpluslines carrier/MGA is the same as the data sent within the retailspace. During the AAMGA conference, the presenter shared oneexample, an apartment complex at a college campus. There arebuildings, equipment and liability exposures. The staff on premisesis covered for workers' compensation, and employee benefits;however, the only reason these apartments may be written in anExcess market is the location of the buildings. Most of theunderwriting data hasn't changed, only the exposure due to thelocation of the structures.

The ESJWG group has discussed that the placement of coverage orprotection of assets can involve many parties, for a variety ofreasons. A goal of this initiative is to be able to efficiently andsystematically share data throughout the pipeline of all theparties involved. ACORD Standards bring efficiency into theprocess, and this group is discussing how the current standards maybe used. The group also is discussing what is missing in thestandards and will continue to submit maintenance requests to ACORDto broaden the scope of the data standards.

(Photo: Shutterstock/Toria)

Policy issuance workflow

During a recent call the ESJWG started working on policyissuance workflow, and the group talked about three basic types ofPolicies:

• Contract Policy – The MGA has the pen, the authority to bindand issue the policy.
• Lloyd's Policy – The MGA is a Cover holder and has theAuthority to bind and customize the policy forms.
• Broker Policy – The MGA may have some authority, but needs towork with a carrier. The MGA acts like a Broker.

The goal of the group is to document the workflow to rate,collect and share all the data needed to populate and compile thepacket of policy and supporting documents for the underwriter toprocess the policy. The rating step is a beginning, but not theactual front-end process for policy issuance. The rating process,which is usually by line of business, helps the agent select thecarrier. When the underwriters are involved, they aggregate thedata, and there is an interaction between the parties to share moredata and agree on the specific coverage forms included.

There is also work being done for those MGAs or Cover holdersutilizing the London Market. The London group's current focus is onhow risks are placed and reported to London. A working group hasbeen reviewing current processes. This work has highlighted thecomplexities of getting data from retail agents. There are manymanual steps requiring individuals to key into a number ofdifferent systems for rating, quoting, Certificate issuance and toreport to London. The next face-to-face meeting of the Londonsub-group is being held in London in late September to review thesefindings and discuss future models and processes. If you'reinterested in this work, please let us know.

From a Global perspective, there is a successful pilot known asProject Tomorrow being implemented in Australia with an MGA usingACORD standards and London's central messaging hub, TMEL, to reportthe risk information. As we learn from and work together on ourindustry's efficiencies, the information that we learn from thispilot could be a useful future model for U.S. MGAs as well.

If you too don't want to use your valuable time manuallyprocessing your excess & surplus lines business, join the morethan 600 individuals following and assisting the ESJWG in takingthe next step to helping us automate and streamline the industry'scosts. Send us an e-mail asking to be added to the group bycontacting [email protected] or [email protected].