In 2008, Accenture revealed the outcomes 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 report reveals a holistic image of the place underwriting has been—and the place we’re going. Particularly, it reveals us the connection between the targets leaders set over the past decade and what the tangible progress has resulted from these initiatives.

One of many key insights I gleaned from the 2021 P&C Underwriting Survey is that not a lot has improved for underwriters over the past 15 years. Regardless of leaps ahead in expertise, underwriters nonetheless face the identical challenges they did in 2008 and, in some areas, the state of underwriting as a core operate of the insurance coverage enterprise has worsened.

In my earlier posts, I mentioned the shift to automation, the consequences of expertise within the underwriting course of, and the diminishing deal with the work underwriters do. On this submit, I wish to spotlight the significance of the underwriting skillset and discover a unique method to marrying expertise to that talent set which is able to make underwriters’ jobs simpler and simpler.

Again in 2008, our survey revealed that greater than 40% of underwriters’ time was spent on non-core duties. Underwriters had been struggling to maneuver on from legacy techniques and undertake new options. Quick ahead to 2021 and the latest survey reveals that solely 35% of underwriters really feel that expertise has decreased their workload. In 2008, that quantity was practically equal, at 36%.

In each 2008 and 2021, a scarcity of knowledge integration was cited as a problem that accompanied new expertise, with 72% of respondents in each years reporting the difficulty. In 2021, 79% of respondents reported that lack of course of integration was the most important motive expertise negatively impacted their workload.

This knowledge made me mirror on the day-to-day duties of the underwriter and take into consideration why expertise hasn’t made the act of underwriting any simpler. In the present day’s responses present that there’s much less worth positioned on underwriters themselves. There’s empirical proof for this together with knowledge displaying that survey respondents largely see underwriting recruitment, coaching and retention applications of their organizations as poor.

Moreover, deal with core underwriting controls and self-discipline is down: simply 30% of an underwriter’s time is spent doing danger evaluation and producing quotes. Threat evaluation is the core competency of an underwriter. Their job is to overview knowledge throughout totally different sources and synthesize it to make an correct (and worthwhile) determination. With this lens, I see the underwriter as the unique knowledge scientist.

The status and worth positioned on the underwriting occupation has taken a dive over the past 15 years, which has left underwriters caught with the identical issues they confronted over a decade in the past. Insurers have prioritized minimizing bills and “demystifying” underwriting by automating the method or reducing the underwriter’s position in danger evaluation.

We’ve carried out this by offloading work from the underwriters, supplied new danger and pricing fashions to help determination making and tried to leverage automation to make underwriting simpler. None of those initiatives are unfavorable in and of themselves. All of them work properly for assessing easier, homogenous dangers whereas driving down value and bettering pricing consistency. However they miss the basic challenge of extra complicated underwriting.

The true problem is that underwriting remains to be a paper-first course of with necessary knowledge siloed in PDFs and spreadsheets connected to emails from brokers. To evaluate danger, underwriters nonetheless have to maneuver between totally different paperwork, on the lookout for knowledge that’s formatted in numerous methods relying on the dealer it’s coming from.

Although we’ve tried to make the processes round underwriting simpler, there hasn’t been a deal with bettering the information science side of underwriting. This requires knowledge to be extra accessible. We have to implement options that assist underwriters extract, handle and assess all their knowledge in a single place in a approach that additionally gives related context and deeper insights.

Many organizations have made vital strikes to turn into data-driven over the past 15 years. Insurance coverage has at all times been pushed by knowledge, however it’s time to rethink how knowledge aggregation and evaluation are optimized in underwriting processes. If insurers wish to see larger effectivity and improved consistency and high quality in danger and pricing selections, our focus can’t stay on offloading work from the underwriter. We have to assist underwriters do what they’re finest at analyzing data, uncovering patterns and making selections based mostly on a holistic view of an applicant.

To do that, we have to take into account third-generation underwriting platforms like these I mentioned in my earlier submit. It actually comes down to 5 easy priorities:

1. Put money into options that pull all the information underwriters want out of their silos, bringing data from PDF and spreadsheet attachments into one place, ultimately eliminating that mode of communication altogether.  
2. Set up data, information and knowledge across the crucial underwriting determination steps of triage, danger analysis and pricing.
3. Current data in context. For instance, allow underwriters to take a look at new submissions in comparison with related submissions to assist them perceive how the submission or renewal differs.
4. Combine this data-driven, analytics-first method into current workflows to make the expertise seamless.
5. Arrange the standard controls, measures and suggestions mechanisms to enhance the standard and consistency of underwriting throughout the new course of.

Fortunately, we’re already seeing insurers taking steps in direction of enchancment on this space. The 2021 survey reveals that 67% of insurers will prioritize investments in underwriting platforms over the subsequent three years. Seventy-one p.c need to add predictive analytics to their tech stack whereas 66% plan to put money into buyer and dealer portals, one other option to streamline knowledge aggregation.

If you wish to know extra about how we’re serving to corporations handle these 5 concepts, let me know. 

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