The Agents Council for Technology (ACT) has released its industry recommendations for carriers and agents on commercial lines downloads aimed at making the process more accurate and effective for independent insurance agencies and brokers.
ACT's advice from its Commercial Lines Download (CLDL) Work Group is contained in the report, "ACT CLDL Work Group Review of Accomplishments & Next Steps: Recommended Agency Testing Process."
Working with ACORD and agency management system user groups, the guide was developed to address five major commercial lines: businessowners policies, property, general liability, business auto and workers' compensation.
The guide identifies, for both carriers and vendors, the minimum data elements agents need to receive in the CLDL process. The guide also informs agents what they can expect when they receive commercial lines downloads.
Another major component of the work was development of prototype documents, which are easily adaptable to individual carrier and vendor processes, to help assure agents receive the information they need to implement a particular carrier's downloads in their specific systems successfully. The documents are included in the report.
ACT said the working group's next step will be development of education and training programs to assist agencies in implementing CLDL successfully.
"Our accomplishments to date demonstrate the industry's strong interest and commitment toward fixing past problems and working toward successful implementation of commercial lines download," said Donna Barr, assistant vice president, Marsh USA Inc., Private Client Services Division, co-chairwoman of the ACT Commercial Lines Download work group, and chairwoman of the ASCnet Interface Committee for Applied Systems users.
Cyndy Smith, vice president of technology at Haylor, Freyer & Coon Inc. and co-chairwoman of the working group, said, "A major finding of our study is that carrier implementation of an agency testing process as part of the CLDL implementation process is critical to assure that the commercial lines downloads being sent are accurate, complete and appear where agents expect to see them."
Ms Smith is also chairwoman of the CLDL Committee of the AMS Users Group.
Jeff Yates, ACT executive director, said, "We had the broadest participation in the CLDL Work Group of any of our work groups, attesting to the interest within the industry to make commercial lines download work more effectively for independent agents and brokers."
Mr. Yates added, "It is highly important now for carriers to implement the agency testing process as approved by ACT so that they send agencies the very best downloads. It is also time for agencies to take a fresh look at commercial lines downloading because of the improvements being made in these downloads and the significant efficiencies they can bring to the business, just as personal lines downloads have."
The guide is available in the technology reports section of the ACT Web site at www.independentagent.com/act.
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