On September 21, Brenda Nevil, AAI, AIS, ITP, whose day job is as assistant vice president and senior project manager of IT at Alliant Insurance Services, Inc., hosted the Applied Net 2020 session "Entering Policies in Applied Epic for Efficiency and Reporting". The goal of the virtual session was to discuss configuration impacting the policy header detail in Applied Epic, and Nevil demonstrated how to add a policy screen as well as discussed each field and how it impacts various reports.
Q: Where in configure do you add new policy (existing customer, etc.)?
A: You can add this by navigation as follows: Configure / Policy / Statuses.
Q: When would you use the Agency Defined Categories under the line tab versus the account detail tab. Is one better than the other?
A: Agency Defined Categories (ADCs) were configured to solve for a business need (e.g., we needed something to be reportable). You can create ADCs for the client, client company, employee, finance company, line of business, opportunity and vendor. We have codes. Here are some examples:
- Agents/Brokers (e.g., when does their E&O/license expirate, foreign placements, etc.)
- Client (e.g., document delivery, opt out of contingent commission/supplemental income, etc.)
- Company (e.g., Canadian co, download billing alerts, claims, DB; foreign company; et cetera)
- Line of Business (e.g., foreign placement, no revenue expected, opt out, etc.)
Q: Using Agency Defined Categories, will it multiply the book of business report if you include that field in your report?
A: You'll need to talk with a report writer about this question to confirm. I know that you can include Agency Defined Categories (ADCs) in your report criteria, but I'm unsure how it shows up on the report if there are multiple ADCs on one policy (e.g., does it show the policy line twice or add another column?). If you were unable to participate in a report session, the Networking lounge of Applied Net 2020 might be a good place to get a better response on this subject.
Q: Regarding the commission page, we receive commission from the MGA, who pays us. Now the MGU pays the MGA, who then pays us. We get 70% of the MGA's commission of 15%. Is there a way to show the 70% of 15%?
A: We've had to do the math to figure things like 40% of 35%, etc. to put on the Pr/Br Commission screen when we have Brokers and Producers sharing commission. That's simply doing a math problem to figure out what 40% of 35% is (in my example). What you describe sounds more like there is an insurance carrier who gave a quote to a wholesaler. You and I don't typically know the percentage quoted to the wholesaler unless you have an agreement that requires them to disclose this to you. They give us a quote with a percentage on it and that is what we invoice in Epic. We aren't showing them on the Pr/Br Commission tab. Applied Systems recommends that if you need to show a dollar value (e.g., 70% of the 15% that they quoted to you) that you show it as a flat commission value ($ sign) versus 15% commission.
Q: If a client does not renew, and the renewal line already auto-populates, do you use the "Not Issue" option?
A: If a policy has run its course and we don't control the renewal, Applied Epic has a Lapsed (LAP) policy status code. This code is excluded from the Expired Not Resolved report that is designed to ensure that all policies from the expiration list were addressed -- either renewed or marked that we didn't get the renewal. There is also a one-time, non-recurring revenue policy status code that we use if we know up front that we won't have the renewal/revenue after the current policy runs its course (ONE). This code is also excluded from the Expired Not Resolved report.
Q: We have a number of agencies. Is there a way to change the structure on a policy level if we made a mistake?
A: I'm with you. We have several hundred structures for multiple agencies. When users IDs are set up at our agency, they typically only have access to service in "one" structure or have one structure as their "default" which is shown in User Defined options form the Configure page. If staff have access to multiple structures and enter something incorrectly today, then the only way to correct an individual item is to use Actions / Renew -- when the renewal pop-up window is presented the structure fields are editable. Users must remember to correct the policy dates and ensure that the policy status is correct. If they invoice under the policy with incorrect structure, then they need to reverse the transactions and rebook them on the corrected policy. They can go to Attachments on the original policy and after using Shift+Click to select all Attachments, right-click and select "Move Attachment". Any open activities would also need to be recreated on the correct policy and closed out on the original policy, if you want all items addressed.
Q: If you already know the annualized premiums, why use estimated?
A: When a new or renewal policy is written, we know the estimated premium from the quote given to us by the carrier. As you invoice agency or brokerage bill items during the year and enter the mid-term effective date for changes, Applied Epic will do two things on the policy page: It will show you the billed premium and a built-in pro-rate calculator will update the annualized to show the real value of the policy. Many agencies and brokerages use this when budgeting for a new fiscal year. For our users, we grayed out the Annualized field so Epic can automatically populate with a valid number.
Q: Do you use BOP or CPKG for admitted carriers, like Nationwide and/or Hartford?
A: For traditional commercial lines staff who are completing the Acord 125 and other standard Acord applications and submitting to market, when they write the business it is considered a commercial package (or CPKG). Our small commercial lines departments typically go to the carrier's website to enter coverage information, where they are accepting what the carrier is using -- if the policy is downloaded as a BOP. This is the group that are then adding the standard lines of business, making their BOP look like a package.
Q: Don't you find that many carriers don't break down premium by line?
A: On small commercial lines they may not break down the premium, but most of our business doesn't fall into that category and our quotes break down premium and commission by line.
Q: Is there a way to "unpackage" a policy once it is set up as a package?
A: Epic doesn't give you an option to click the "simple" button and unbundle a package policy into several monoline policies. You have three options:
- Click on Actions / Copy policy, and in the pop-up window deselect the lines you don't want. Repeat this exercise for each of the lines of business that need to be a monoline policy -- this is the cleanest option.
- Go to Actions / Renew multiple times, changing the policy term back to the current term and deselecting the lines you don't want included in the "renewed" policy, or
- Grab the package with all lines of business and quickly push it through the Marketing Segment's 5 steps, where you can then push each line of business down, one at a time, into a monoline policy.
Q: When cancelling a package (PKG) policy, if doing line-by-line, do you need to cancel line-by-line as well?
A: On a package policy when you click on Actions / Cancel, the pop-up box shows all lines of business in the policy. By default, there is a checkbox to the left of each line of business marked. If you only want to cancel one of the lines of business, deselect the lines that should NOT be cancelled. If you are cancelling the entire policy (or, later, the remaining lines of business), then again the pop-up window would automatically mark all active lines of business and cancel all of them (the entire policy) unless you deselect a box as in the first example.
Q: If you renew a policy with a source included, does the renewed policy default the source listed on the expiring policy?
A: Yes, the source would copy to the renewed policy.
Q: What if you think you are doing a monoline, but then it becomes multiple lines later?
A: Great example. Say you added a monoline General Liability policy and then found out that it was going to be a package policy with Property and Auto.
- If the policy is still "in process", where the application is open and editable, then you can double-click on the policy and go to Servicing / Billing / Line. At the very top of the screen, click on the "add" icon (circle with plus) and add the new lines of business one at a time. You'll want to go to Policy in the left navigation panel and change the policy type at the top of the screen to a package policy code.
- If the policy stage was was either "submitted" or "issued", then you would need to go to Actions / Endorse/ Revise - Add Line Mid-Term to add the new lines of business.
Q: We have policies downloaded that don't show a producer. Will that information feed from the account detail if the producer information is input there?
A: Epic is architected where the Producer and Servicer from the Account Detail / Servicing tab automatically populate on any new policy that you add.
Q: I missed this during the session. How do I make a field "required" on the policy line screen, like the commission percentage and estimated premium?
A: With proper permissions, you can right-click on a field and, in the pop-up, select "Required". This will put a red box around a data field. When users follow typical workflows and try to close out without responding, a message will pop-up letting them know that required information is missing.
Q: How do you make the Pr/Br agreements copy onto the renewals?
A: You don't have to do anything. This happens automatically when you renew, either through using Actions / Renew or using the Marketing Segment of Epic (by clicking the "renew" radio button).
Q: Can the commission be entered/pre-filled if the renewal commission is different from the new business commission?
A: Yes, your agency or brokerage could choose to create Carrier Commission Agreements (the handout shows how to do this). The commission agreement for new business is then associated with all of your new business policy status codes (e.g., new business on new account or new business on an existing account). When you renew the policy and Epic updates your policy status code from new to renewal, if you have a renewal commission agreement for the carrier, Epic will automatically update the commission agreement to the renewal document and update the commission to the renewal commission. We chose not to use Commission Agreements because producers have the ability to negotiate commissions with carriers (e.g., sweeten the deal or give up points to close the deal). The process does work nicely if you choose to go this route.
Q: Do the comments in the History tab copy during a renewal?
A: Yes, the comments in the History tab will automatically copy to a renewal policy. Unlike other areas of Epic, where you can enter comments that are made permanent (e.g., a note on an Activity) and those are date- and time-stamped, the comment field on a policy is freeform and changeable at any time. Epic will not track any changes or tell you who made the change or who removed the wording.
Q: When you have a package policy, do you enter the estimated premium on both the policy and each line?
A: Our procedure for entering premium/commission on a package policy is as follows:
- At the top of the screen (in the Policy section), enter the total policy premium, excluding taxes and fees.
- For each line of business, if you know what the premium/commission is by line, you enter it on each individual line (e.g., Property is $5,000 at 10%, Liability is $75,000 at 12.5%, etc.).
- We then run the commission/premium calculator tool that starts at the line level to ensure that the commission, as a dollar value, is populated at the line level. Epic then tallies anything at the line level and shows the total premium and commission at the top of the screen in the policy section. If staff leave a field blank, the calculator doesn't have anything to work with.
- If we have a package policy but don't know the breakdown of premium and commission by line. We have staff enter the full premium in the first line of coverage, with the commission. Then, on the other lines of coverage in a package we have staff enter $0.00 premium and 0% commission.
Nevil's session is available on-demand via the virtual Applied Net 2020 platform. If you are not yet registered for the conference, sign up today to access this and more educational sessions.