At Applied Net 2023, I was fortunate to sit on “The Good, The Great and The Challenges of Acquisitions” expert panel. Here are the most commonly asked questions I received after the presentation.

How do I effectively manage the timing of contracting?

Sarah Golick (SG): One of the biggest pain points that can happen in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) is the contracting timing. If you move codes too soon, you will have acquired policies coming in your daily download without clients loaded to assign them to. Time the contracting poorly and you will spend loads of unnecessary time managing policy renewals, commissions and eDocs between two systems. We developed a timeframe that allows us to notify our carriers of the acquisition without any of the daily operations changing until our data is ready.

• Within 30 days of the sale date, we notify carriers of the transaction in writing while requesting that nothing else be changed at that time. No consolidating codes, no change of where or how commissions are paid — nothing that affects how the policies are serviced or managed should be adjusted at that time.
• Within 30 days of our post go live date, the contracting team sends a second communication out to initiate the process of rolling agency codes where needed, sends new ACH/EFT documents and follows up with the carriers until the process is complete.
• We manage the data coming in via download between go live and the carrier’s completing contracting changes by loading the oncoming agency’s IVANS Y account into our Applied Epic and managing their mailbox and ours. This ensures the least impact to processes, daily workflow and accounting practices.

What has been the simplest change you implemented to improve data accuracy and completion in the M&A process?

SG: Order initial download. While we do pull in policy and the line screen details during conversion, we also now request initial download for every policy we acquire, wherever possible. Our data download specialist schedules this with each carrier in the final weeks before the go live date. The specialist is typically able to complete initial download within 10 business days for all carriers. This gives us control and process management over the cleanup, completion, and issuing of policy screens. A few of our last Applied-assisted conversions were “basic,” meaning client and policy header information came over, but none of the policy application details converted.

Starting the life of each policy in our system with an initial download gives us not only completion of key data fields we want for reporting and operating, but also ensures each policy line is set up the way we want for data consistency. Additionally, it brings clarity to clean-up opportunities quickly for any policy line types that may have mapped in from the legacy system differently than that specific carrier sends download. For example, a RENT vs a HOME policy or a (BOP) business owners policy vs a package with a general liability and property line instead. This makes a huge difference in our post go live clean-up process and the initial year of books of business in Epic.

What are other suggestions you would make to someone involved in their first few M&As?

SG: Here are a few of my suggestions:

• Develop a cadence. The timing of the process will change with each M&A depending on the size of the acquisition, the data conversion method you choose and many other details, but the main steps, order and processes should be consistent. Developing a cadence within the various key pillars of the team — accounting, contracting, data, technology, training — allows us each to operate within our individual processes and dance as effortlessly as possible around each other’s needs and timelines.

• Update your security settings. If you are involved in an Applied-assisted conversion, I would advise you to check the box in the data conversion workbook (DCW) data validation tab, allowing for “security settings to be retained” in your sample data and giving all users access.

Do not be afraid of handling the sample this way because the benefits and time savings outweigh any cons in my opinion. This opens the sample database to all employees which gives some cause for concern, but we have never experienced any issues. If you are concerned, time the step of going through and removing the sample database from each employee structure while you are adding the newly acquired branch structure.

I advise handling it in this manner because it does bring over the structure, individual user configured settings and all of your reports into “My Reports.” We have reports we use during sample review, pre-conversion and post-conversion processes already built, and we use them during each data conversion. Nothing is worse than receiving your sample data back and realizing you need to spend time setting up each user involved in reviewing the data and rebuilding all of the reports you need to run. One simple “Yes” in your DCW allows you to avoid that entire additional time expenditure.

• Create standards. Build agency standards in regard to key decisions that must be made with each data conversion. Simple standards you can implement are timeframes around the data and historical data you are bringing in, as well as data markers.

Our standard timeframe for data is two years. We convert two years’ worth of prior policy screens, activities and attachments prior to the go live date. We also established data markers we use for reporting in the future. We utilize the policy source and document “M&A Acquired” to identify acquired vs. organic lines. We also have a line servicing role indicating “M&A Acquired Agency,” which we complete with the additional employee file we build and dedicate to that agency purchase. This allows us to see which lines within the policy are acquired vs. organic and ability to drill down to which M&A it was acquired from. We frequently share clients with acquired agencies and this give us insight and reporting ability into acquired vs. organic.

• Form realistic expectations on timelines. Converting data into your agency management system quickly is vital but should never be done at the expense of accuracy. The quote “garbage in is garbage out” applies strongly to the conversion process. Trying to report around and find inaccuracies after bringing it all in is far more work in both effort and time than just trusting the process and the time each step should take. You can rush the data in but cleaning it up after comingling it with your current book takes far more time in the end. Review the data, map it, test it and perform the process well the first time.

• Utilize reassignment utilities. Learn how to use them efficiently and it is a game changer on the post-conversion clean-up. We have very detailed servicing roles based on department and profit centers in Epic and it is frequently being mapped from a system that looks at those from a completely different perspective. We can’t always map them perfectly on the initial go live, but we have found mapping into Epic in a way you can strategically reassign roles and PRBR’s in post go live, has been a huge time saver. Let me save you the “oh no” moment — you cannot reassign from a BPAY (broker payable) to a PPAY (producer payable) in the PRBR reassignment utility. That is a lesson I only had to learn once!

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Sarah Golick is the operations software administrator for TRICOR Insurance. TRICOR has more than 300 employees and 34 locations across Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and beyond. Starting her career at TRICOR in the individual life & health arena, her love for the data and processes drove her to transition roles. Sarah has been a critical leader inside TRICOR for more than 17 years and has worked directly across TRICOR's technology ecosystem for the last seven years. She is also our merger and acquisition team's lead data and system analyst. Sarah has in-depth knowledge of the technical side of our agency management system, Applied Epic. She is responsible for our connected technology, such as Indio, Applied Epic for Salesforce, Personal, and Commercial Rating Systems, and Applied Marketing Module. Alongside her responsibility for the system and reporting analytics, she works directly with the team responsible for workflows and training for all insurance departments across the agency. Sarah shared her expertise in Applied Net expert panels in 2023 and is involved in the local chapters of the Applied Client Network, the Large Agency Client Network and the Applied Client Network education committee.