Reading a certificate request and preparing the answer
Parsing what the requester actually asked for, checking it against the endorsements on the policy, and preparing the certificate with the discrepancies flagged.
AI automation for independent insurance agencies
A certificate request arrives as a sentence in an email, and answering it correctly requires deciding which endorsements the policy actually grants.
The agency management system is the record, and a standardised download feed keeps parts of it current. The feed is positional flat file in origin, its coverage varies by carrier and by line of business, and a policy that arrives without matching an existing record lands in a queue somebody clears by hand.
Around that sits a large amount of document work with no standard at all. Loss runs are produced per carrier in whatever layout that carrier uses, sometimes as images. A renewal submission means collecting several years of them across several carriers, alongside the applications and the current declarations page, into one package per market.
Certificates are requested constantly in commercial lines, and they carry sharp liability. A request phrased as ordinary English asks for specific endorsements, and describing coverage the policy does not grant is an errors and omissions exposure rather than a clerical slip.
What this work runs through
- Applied Epic
- Vertafore AMS360
- EZLynx
- IVANS Download
- Indio
- Outlook
- DocuSign
- Standardised application and certificate forms
- Loss runs, produced per carrier with no common layout
- Declarations page, which is the document everyone reads
- Carrier download, delivered as a positional flat file
- Renewal submission packet assembled per market
- Documents and records
- Intake and triage
- Compliance and audit
- Follow up and status
- Recurring reporting
The specific things that go wrong here
A certificate request is a judgment call in disguise
The words in the email map to specific endorsements, and whether the policy grants them is the question. Issuing a certificate describing coverage that does not exist creates liability for the agency, which is why this step keeps a person on approval permanently.
Loss runs have no standard whatsoever
Every carrier produces a different layout, some as scanned images, and some will not send them to an agency that is not the incumbent, which is precisely when they are needed.
Unmatched downloads accumulate silently
A policy arrives that does not match an existing record and waits in a queue. While it waits, the management system and the carrier of record disagree, and nothing announces that.
Download coverage is partial in ways nobody documents
Many carriers deliver personal lines but not commercial, or policy but not claims, so the management system is authoritative for some data and stale for the rest, with no marker distinguishing them.
What we would automate, and when we would not
Collecting loss runs without a person waiting on each one
Requesting, tracking what has come back, and extracting the claim history from layouts that differ per carrier.
Keeping an endorsement change from being typed twice
A mid-term change is agreed with the insured, entered in the management system, and then entered a second time in whichever carrier portal owns the policy, because the two do not talk about anything except downloads.
Clearing the unmatched download queue
Matching arriving policy data to existing records, and surfacing the genuinely ambiguous ones instead of guessing.
Checking a commercial submission before the underwriter sees it
An underwriter returns a submission for the same handful of reasons every time.
Building the renewal submission packet ahead of the expiration date
Most of the renewal packet already exists.
Checking an issued policy against what was actually bound
The policy shows up weeks after binding, usually as a PDF in eDocs, and someone reads it against the binder and the quote.
Reconciling direct bill commission statements against the policy records
Some carriers deliver the direct bill commission statement through download, so AMS360 or Applied Epic can auto match most rows against policy transactions.
Preparing a surplus lines filing so the stamping office takes it
Filing is data entry against a policy document, under a deadline set by the state rather than by the agency.
Working pending cancellation notices the same way every time
Notices of pending cancellation for nonpayment land in eDocs beside declarations pages and nonrenewal notices, then get filed against the policy with nobody owning them.
Noticing a producer licence or appointment before it expires
Licence status, lines of authority, appointments, and the dates each of them ends live in the producer database that NIPR maintains, keyed to a national producer number.
Turning a phoned in loss report into a submitted claim
An insured describes a loss in a phone call or three lines of email, and the work is picking the form and the destination.
Checking a workers compensation audit before the insured pays it
Every disputable item on a workers compensation audit sits on the worksheet rather than on the invoice, which is why the worksheet is the thing to ask for.
Catching the renewal that the carrier never sent
Every expiration date is already sitting in the management system.
Clearing an inbound submission before a market gets blocked
Two retailers send the same risk with the named insured spelled two ways, and the market clears whichever complete submission arrived first.
Reading a property schedule from a spreadsheet into the application
Nobody building a property spreadsheet is thinking about an ACORD 139.
Chasing the signed forms that have to be in the file
A file is a defence, and signed paper is what defends it.
Deciding which renewal increases are worth remarketing
A statewide rate filing and a chargeable accident put the same number on a renewal declarations page, and only one of them is worth requoting.
Producing a quote or binding coverage happens under a licence that is issued per state and per line, and separately under a carrier appointment, so a person can be licensed without being appointed. Placing business in the non-admitted market generally requires a documented search of the admitted market first, and both the number of declinations required and whether the affidavit is filed or merely retained vary by state, so this is checked against your own state rather than assumed. The binding constraint on automation is simpler than any of that: statements about coverage create liability. A quote, a certificate, a comparison, or an email saying a risk is covered can all be relied upon, which is why the work here assembles and drafts while a licensed person approves.
Related: Medical and dental practices Wealth management. Or start from the four shapes of work instead of from an industry.