In 2008, Accenture printed the result of the primary P&C Underwriting Survey in partnership with The Institutes. Because the longest-running longitudinal underwriting survey within the insurance coverage trade, this file unearths a holistic image of the place underwriting has been—and the place we’re going. Particularly, it displays us the connection between the objectives leaders set over the past decade and what the tangible growth has resulted from the ones projects.

One of the vital key insights I gleaned from the 2021 P&C Underwriting Survey is that no longer a lot has stepped forward for underwriters over the past 15 years. In spite of leaps ahead in era, underwriters nonetheless face the similar demanding situations they did in 2008 and, in some spaces, the state of underwriting as a core serve as of the insurance coverage industry has worsened.

In my earlier posts, I mentioned the shift to automation, the consequences of era within the underwriting procedure, and the diminishing focal point at the paintings underwriters do. On this publish, I need to spotlight the significance of the underwriting skillset and discover a unique method to marrying era to that ability set which can make underwriters’ jobs more uncomplicated and more practical.

Again in 2008, our survey published that greater than 40% of underwriters’ time used to be spent on non-core duties. Underwriters had been suffering to transport on from legacy methods and undertake new answers. Rapid ahead to 2021 and the latest survey displays that best 35% of underwriters really feel that era has lowered their workload. In 2008, that quantity used to be just about identical, at 36%.

In each 2008 and 2021, a loss of records integration used to be cited as a problem that accompanied new era, with 72% of respondents in each years reporting the problem. In 2021, 79% of respondents reported that loss of procedure integration used to be the largest reason why era negatively impacted their workload.

This knowledge made me replicate at the daily duties of the underwriter and take into accounts why era hasn’t made the act of underwriting any more uncomplicated. Lately’s responses display that there’s much less price put on underwriters themselves. There’s empirical proof for this together with records appearing that survey respondents in large part see underwriting recruitment, coaching and retention methods of their organizations as poor.

Moreover, focal point on core underwriting controls and self-discipline is down: simply 30% of an underwriter’s time is spent doing chance research and producing quotes. Possibility research is the core competency of an underwriter. Their activity is to study records throughout other assets and synthesize it to make a correct (and winning) determination. With this lens, I see the underwriter as the unique records scientist.

The status and worth positioned at the underwriting career has taken a dive over the past 15 years, which has left underwriters caught with the similar issues they confronted over a decade in the past. Insurers have prioritized minimizing bills and “demystifying” underwriting by means of automating the method or reducing the underwriter’s function in chance review.

We’ve carried out this by means of offloading paintings from the underwriters, equipped new chance and pricing fashions to assist determination making and attempted to leverage automation to make underwriting more uncomplicated. None of those projects are destructive in and of themselves. All of them paintings smartly for assessing more practical, homogenous dangers whilst riding down value and bettering pricing consistency. However they pass over the elemental factor of extra advanced underwriting.

The true problem is that underwriting remains to be a paper-first procedure with essential records siloed in PDFs and spreadsheets connected to emails from agents. To evaluate chance, underwriters nonetheless have to transport between other paperwork, on the lookout for records that’s formatted in numerous techniques relying at the dealer it’s coming from.

Regardless that we’ve attempted to make the processes round underwriting more uncomplicated, there hasn’t been a focal point on bettering the knowledge science side of underwriting. This calls for records to be extra out there. We want to put into effect answers that lend a hand underwriters extract, set up and assess all their records in a single position in some way that still supplies related context and deeper insights.

Many organizations have made vital strikes to grow to be data-driven over the past 15 years. Insurance coverage has at all times been pushed by means of records, but it surely’s time to reconsider how records aggregation and research are optimized in underwriting processes. If insurers need to see higher potency and stepped forward consistency and high quality in chance and pricing choices, our focal point can’t stay on offloading paintings from the underwriter. We want to lend a hand underwriters do what they’re easiest at inspecting data, uncovering patterns and making choices in keeping with a holistic view of an applicant.

To do that, we want to imagine third-generation underwriting platforms like the ones I mentioned in my earlier publish. It truly comes down to 5 easy priorities:

1. Put money into answers that pull the entire records underwriters want out in their silos, bringing data from PDF and spreadsheet attachments into one position, in the end getting rid of that mode of communique altogether.  
2. Arrange data, wisdom and information across the crucial underwriting determination steps of triage, chance analysis and pricing.
3. Provide data in context. For instance, permit underwriters to take a look at new submissions in comparison to identical submissions to lend a hand them know how the submission or renewal differs.
4. Combine this data-driven, analytics-first method into current workflows to make the revel in seamless.
5. Arrange the standard controls, measures and comments mechanisms to beef up the standard and consistency of underwriting inside the new procedure.

Fortunately, we’re already seeing insurers taking steps in opposition to development on this space. The 2021 survey displays that 67% of insurers will prioritize investments in underwriting platforms over the following 3 years. Seventy-one % wish to upload predictive analytics to their tech stack whilst 66% plan to put money into buyer and dealer portals, differently to streamline records aggregation.

If you wish to know extra about how we’re serving to corporations deal with those 5 concepts, let me know. 

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Disclaimer: This content material is supplied for normal data functions and isn’t meant for use rather than session with our skilled advisors.