Policy Rating Engine

[JohnRains]

I live in the U.S. Virgin Islands and my agency uses TAM. We have several small automobile insurance companies for which we have binding authority. The biggest problem we encounter is inaccurate policy ratings by our CSR's (can you say E&O). Several years ago I developed a package I called Metrics which pulled data from TAM and reported probable errors. While the error rate dropped it was not the solution. So now I have developed a rating engine where each company's rates are entered and the program gives the exact breakdown for liability, comp/coll, etc. It has pro-rate, short-rate and short-rate 90 built in so adding, removing or cancellation are calculated correctly. I have been asked by one of the companies to make this available to other agencies which made me wonder how widely is something like this needed. If this is something you could use and you are willing to be a beta tester, please contact me at john.rains@leewardinsurance.vi.

[DebAmstutz]

This is an endorsement of John's programming capabilities - he is quite good at what he does with programming, so if you are interested, don't hesitate to contact him.

[TrishaOurs]

Is this used in lieu of waiting for an endorsement quote or going online directly with a carrier to get a quote? It seems like an interesting tool, but not sure if it would be something our agency would use.  Also, is it geared towards personal lines or commerical?

[Jeff Zylstra]

Is this used in lieu of waiting for an endorsement quote or going online directly with a carrier to get a quote? It seems like an interesting tool, but not sure if it would be something our agency would use.  Also, is it geared towards personal lines or commerical?

Just guessing, but I'd say this tool would most often be used for comparative rating on new business.   

And to answer John's question, I would say that the need would depend on how many companies an agent represents.   Since comparative rating using in real time isn't supported by many insurance companies yet, and those that do seem to have some usability issues, I would say that this program will have some appeal for years to come.  I still remember hearing that the insurance industry would have "SEMCI" in the next year or two.  I heard that in 1984, and there still seems to plenty of need for comparative rating engines.    John, you may want to write this in a way that would eventually allow it to run run from the Internet.  That way, agents could offer on-line quotes if they wanted to so.

[TrishaOurs]

Is this used in lieu of waiting for an endorsement quote or going online directly with a carrier to get a quote? It seems like an interesting tool, but not sure if it would be something our agency would use.  Also, is it geared towards personal lines or commerical?

Just guessing, but I'd say this tool would most often be used for comparative rating on new business.   

And to answer John's question, I would say that the need would depend on how many companies an agent represents.   Since comparative rating using in real time isn't supported by many insurance companies yet, and those that do seem to have some usability issues, I would say that this program will have some appeal for years to come.  I still remember hearing that the insurance industry would have "SEMCI" in the next year or two.  I heard that in 1984, and there still seems to plenty of need for comparative rating engines.    John, you may want to write this in a way that would eventually allow it to run run from the Internet.  That way, agents could offer on-line quotes if they wanted to so.

Very interesting.