Advisors have long requested that insurance carriers standardize their application processes and systems. It should be easier, many say, to monitor the progress of their clients’ applications in the processing queue.

So, it’s no surprise that firms with the best rating in the technology tools and advisor desktop and the back office and administrative support categories in Investment Executive‘s 2008 Insurance Advisors’ Report Card — managing general agencies IDC Financial Inc. of Mississauga, Ont., and PPI Financial Group Inc. and World Financial Group Inc., both of Toronto — are doing what they can to improve efficiency in this area. Mostly, they are achieving this by improving staff response times and delivering Web-based tools to their advisors.

One of the ways IDC’s back-
office staff reduces delays is by using a Web-based program to monitor how long it takes each carrier to submit an application and have it approved. And a software tool, entitled Submission to Approval Time, calculates the average for all the carriers, says IDC president Ron Madzia, which helps IDC’s back office pinpoint carriers that aren’t doing the job quickly.

Since the software was launched five years ago, IDC’s average STAT has been reduced to 20 to 25 days, down from almost 40 days.

“It’s a good way for our staff to measure their own efficiency,” Madzia adds. “We want to catch people doing something right. So, if you give people a chance to measure themselves, it makes them feel good.”

An IDC advisor in Ontario agrees: “The quality of service and the speed of response positively affects turnaround time.”

Another IDC advisor in the province calls the back-office staff “superior, efficient, detail-oriented and willing to work with you, not against you.”

PPI, for its part, provides its advisors with an online library of support tools, but that is not all. The MGA also has a team of three senior underwriters whose job is to cut the time it takes to deliver front-end underwriting medical information.

“When agents, who are working on their own, send a large policy to an insurance company, there is lots of frustration,” says Jim Burton, PPI’s chairman and CEO. “They end up with delays getting a follow-up; it takes months. But by working with us, our team expedites the underwriting process by making sure clients are in for the medical follow-up tests and that they are getting statements from physicians.

“This is a very important back-office function,” Burton adds. “They package each application before sending it out.”

PPI representatives also meet with carriers once a month and deliver seminars on how PPI and its agents work. And the MGA further reduces the amount of time it takes for applications to go through the underwriting process by focusing on clear, old-fashioned communication with its agents.

“So, instead of just sending things to advisors, we’d rather have a credible relationship between our agent and the underwriter,” Burton says. “It’s that experienced communication to say, ‘Here’s what we’re trying to do’.”

A PPI advisor in Ontario says: “The back-office staff are very proactive, and I can rely on them.”

A PPI advisor in Quebec adds: “They provide good access to information and are pretty efficient.”

IDC and PPI are not the only insurers working to reduce delays when processing applications. WFG is implementing a new online system later this year or early in 2009 that will allow processing of life insurance applications directly with its product partners.

“This platform will significantly shorten the time that it takes,” says Richard Williams, WFG’s president, “from application submission to issue to settlement.”

London, Ont.-based Freedom 55 Financial which focuses on delivering Web-based tools to its dedicated sales force, did not garner the same results as its MGA counterparts.

Although Freedom 55 rolled out electronic delivery of statements earlier this year and processes about 80% of its applications electronically, the firm saw a considerable drop this year in the ratings of its technology tools and advisor desktop and in back office and administrative support from last year’s Report Card. Many Freedom 55 advisors complain that the technology is archaic, slow and behind industry standards, while the back office is short-staffed.

“The contact management system is miles behind,” says a Freedom 55 advisor in Ontario.

Another Freedom 55 advisor in the same province describes the firm as “a first-rate company with third-rate equipment.”

@page_break@The firm is working to replace its present CM system. IE