Member Reports - Acord

ACORD has also formalized its communities
by uniting groups who share goals that can
be met through standards implementation. In
2012 ACORD brought together organizations
including the Agents Council for Technology
(ACT), the National Association of Professional
Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO), the American
Association of Managing General Agents
(AAMGA), and several software providers to
develop a standard for requesting and providing
rates for General Liability that is now available
for use. ACORD published a Strategic Analysis
on electronic signatures, and is working with
independent agents, carriers, and providers to
advocate for the use of electronic signatures in
their businesses.
The relationship team hosted multiple
webinars to update members on a range of
ACORD activities including ACORD 2020,
ACE, Framework, Testing and Certification and
standards development. Team members traveled
to member companies and conducted detailed
discussions about specific challenges and
implementation opportunities.
Heading into 2013, the Relationship and
Implementation team continues to work closely
with members to ask questions, uncover
opportunities to expand ACORD’s services, and
hear their business priorities firsthand.
Life & Annuity
The Life and Annuities program serves a complex business area with useful
products and business rules. Coordinating the different viewpoints of all
participants to produce standards everyone can use is challenging but immensely
valuable. ACORD L&A standards continue to drive growth and efficiency across
the industry.
Product Modeling
Working Group
In keeping with ACORD’s agile
Standards Development principles
to develop more broadly applicable
standards, the Life & Annuity
Steering Committee became the
Product Modeling Working Group,
focused on all product modeling
within the program.
The group continued work on
Underwriting Guidelines within the
Life & Annuity XML Standards this
year with the addition of uninsurable
guidelines and location-specific
restrictions and financial guidelines
along with new transaction specs to
enable data transport. These
guidelines will improve the electronic
application submission process by
allowing producers to better predict
the underwriting class for each
carrier and product.
DOC Send
An eDocument Delivery Team
worked to update the Document
Send and Document Send Status
transaction specifications, which
provide rules for electronic delivery
of documents and improved
processes to reduce errors.
Transaction
Specifications
@ACORD_LA
The Employee Benefits Working
Group developed the census
transaction. There are more than 30
acord.org/la
draft transaction specifications in
development for Life & Annuity.
Underwriting Guidelines
The Product Modeling Working
Group took the next step to build on
Underwriting Guidelines within the
L & A XML Standards by tackling a
model for uninsurable or “outright
rejection” guidelines.
The guidelines will improve the
electronic application submission
process by allowing producers to
better predict the underwriting class
for each carrier and product.
The remaining effort includes
guidelines for financial information
and suitability, the transactions
needed to support implementation,
and clarifications to modeling of
the tables used in connection with
underwriting.
ACORD and SILA
ACORD and the Securities and
Insurance Licensing Association
(SILA) have been working together
to revise existing ACORD L&A and
P&C forms to address the needs of
both lines. SILA and the ACORD Life
& Annuity Forms and Data Mapping
Working Group are working to create
a new draft of form 821, the Producer
Information Form, which allows
producers to submit a single form
to multiple carriers whenever they
initiate or change the status of their
relationship with an insurer.
“I hope to create a
strong
partnership
with ACORD that creates
innovative
solutions
to industry challenges
and moves the industry
forward.”
- Chris McDaniel
SVP of Operations and
Technology, IRI