This put up is a part of a collection sponsored by AgentSync.
Insurance coverage compliance is critical enterprise. Falling out of compliance can have actual penalties for everybody from insurance coverage companies, carriers, MGAs, and MGUs, to particular person producers, adjusters, and dually licensed broker-dealers.
Whom you select to accomplice with in your compliance wants issues. Choosing the proper know-how accomplice can rework your insurance coverage licensing compliance practices from a nightmare right into a dream-come-true.
Selecting the fallacious accomplice, alternatively, can result in undesirable outcomes, equivalent to:
- Spending an excessive amount of cash on one thing that’s not assembly your wants
- Risking compliance and information safety mishaps
- Failing to attain organization-wide adoption and the continued use of guide and error-prone processes
- Shedding workers and distribution channel companions due to how irritating it’s to work for – or with – you
Whereas the trade urges insurance coverage companies to undertake extra trendy practices, many insurance coverage compliance know-how distributors nonetheless haven’t any qualms doing enterprise the way in which they’ve at all times accomplished it. Usually, this consists of committing some critical “crimes” towards their very own clients. No, we’re not speaking in regards to the sorts of crimes that land anybody in jail, however these transgressions are irritating, pricey, and simply plain fallacious nonetheless.
On this three-part collection, we’ll cowl among the most typical “crimes” we see insurance coverage compliance tech distributors committing towards their buyer base. We’ve already coated crimes of the financial variety in addition to support crimes. On this third and last installment, we’re looking at know-how crimes. For those who’ve fallen sufferer to any of those tech-related crimes, then we’re sorry to say it, however the vendor you’ve invested your cash and assets in is a complete dud.
When insurance coverage compliance distributors commit know-how crimes
You would possibly be capable of forgive the crimes that price what you are promoting more cash and even those that create friction in your consumer expertise, but when the know-how itself doesn’t work, then what are you actually getting out of your compliance tech spend? Investing your time, vitality, and cash into an answer that doesn’t pay dividends is extra than simply irritating. It could actually negatively influence each side of what you are promoting, out of your information safety and repute to your skill to scale and develop sooner or later.
Set your self up for long-term success by avoiding these generally perpetrated know-how crimes:
1. Soiled and rancid information
Making good business decisions relies heavily on your access to good data. The standard of your information is on the core of whether or not your compliance administration answer is benefiting you or simply costing you. Whether or not it’s resulting from technical errors that enable lacking or inaccurate information into your system, or intermittent syncs together with your information supply, inaccurate producer and adjuster licensing and appointment information will trigger issues for each a part of what you are promoting.
Insurance coverage compliance requirements and laws are consistently altering and updating. If the answer you sought particularly that will help you sustain with this stuff isn’t offering you with correct and full information, you would possibly as effectively nonetheless be managing issues by hand. Whereas most compliance instruments in the marketplace today sync to the trade’s one supply of reality for producer data, do not forget that not all syncs are created equal. Think about how typically the sync happens, the standard of the information acquired, and the way discrepancies are dealt with.
Buyer confession: “We’re discovering that our present answer’s PDB sync isn’t occurring. There’s this fixed defect they appear to be combating and the data out there by means of the product doesn’t appear correct.”
2. Nonetheless requiring spreadsheets
Some insurance coverage companies put up with know-how crimes like unhealthy or stale information and compensate for them by conserving inner spreadsheets to double-check the information that’s of their system. That is fairly probably the most important know-how crime of all of them!
You seemingly went in search of a compliance vendor within the first place since you wished to exchange your spreadsheets with a extra trendy tech answer. So why accept a “answer” that primarily places you again at sq. one? No group ought to pay for know-how so unreliable that workers must hold their very own data and constantly cross-reference for accuracy. Speak about defeating the entire objective of digitization.
Buyer confession: “We often want copies of licenses. I can’t get that from the product, so I’m retaining copies of licenses in one other system.”
3. Outdated, siloed tech
Your tech stack ought to create efficiencies that assist modernize what you are promoting, not make your workflows clunkier. Trendy insurance coverage infrastructure means being adaptive and making fixed enhancements to your compliance ecosystem. Any answer that stops enhancing the second the contract is signed ought to elevate a right away purple flag.
Options constructed on mainframe code don’t provide the identical flexibility as those who leverage a cloud-native architecture. They’re usually tougher (and even unattainable) to combine with the opposite software program you utilize for day by day enterprise operations and might trigger main downtime and value inefficiencies once you’re able to scale what you are promoting.
4. Processing unhealthy transactions
Some producer license administration applied sciences have inbuilt checks and balances to cease an invalid transaction earlier than it occurs. Others… don’t. Incomplete producer functions or license renewal types can lead to the state canceling the appliance, however nonetheless conserving the related charges. With out a system that may flag a probably unhealthy transaction, you’re left with the chance of processing and paying for transactions that wanted additional human intervention earlier than going by means of.
On the very least, your compliance tech ought to provide the choice to construct warnings, alerts, and “arduous stops” into your workflows to maintain transactions from being processed when a producer doesn’t meet sure standards. The appropriate compliance administration answer will save what you are promoting cash in the long term, not add further (and utterly avoidable) bills to your backside line.
Buyer confession: “The notifications in our present answer are fairly lackluster, and we’re billed per transaction. Typically we find yourself paying for a similar transaction a number of instances though it solely went by means of as soon as.”
5. Exposes you to greater safety dangers
The info-driven nature of the insurance coverage enterprise means trade gamers have extra cybersecurity considerations than most. The success of your group’s information safety is determined by the safety and preparedness of any third-party distributors or software program you utilize. For those who’ve taken the required steps to make sure your individual cyber hygiene, don’t let your compliance know-how vendor take you down with their very own lax safety practices.
By vetting compliance know-how distributors for his or her cybersecurity practices, you possibly can cut back the chance of a knowledge breach and shield your repute. If a vendor isn’t up-to-date on their cybersecurity necessities, they’re placing you in danger, and that’s simply not the recipe for a superb partnership.
Keep away from falling sufferer to know-how crimes out of your compliance vendor
For those who’re at present working with an insurance coverage compliance know-how that isn’t treating you the way in which you deserve – in these methods or others! – see how AgentSync is totally different. AgentSync’s dedicated to the thought of Buyer Love. This implies truthful and clear pricing, assist that’s really supportive, and a tech platform that delights its customers and receives common updates and enhancements.
See how totally different insurance coverage compliance might be at your group; check out an AgentSync demo today.