All insurers need to keep their fingers on the pulse of their book of business, effectiveness of processes and tools, and underwriting decision-making. Carriers deploy many of the same mechanisms (audits, metrics, and such) to track, monitor, and verify these areas. Robust and targeted usage of these mechanisms is critical to ensure that the articulated underwriting strategy and related content components are successfully and consistently operationalized. Additionally, the data gleaned from these processes can lead to useful insights about underwriter behavior and opportunities for process improvements.

However, some carriers open themselves up to pitfalls when they conduct each monitoring action in a vacuum. Without the data to determine whether a problem is driven by, for example, guideline usage or process non-compliance, they are ill-equipped to appropriately focus their attention on the areas of greatest need. Furthermore, without coordination, disparate mechanisms create compliance redundancies and hurt staff retention. To pre-empt these potential pitfalls, it is imperative that all monitoring be treated as an integrated system.

I. Understanding tools