As a profession, underwriting tends to be overwhelmingly detail oriented, making it an ideal fit for those who enjoy analyzing the fine points. Good underwriters are extremely thorough. They spend their time carefully identifying and understanding exposures, evaluating risk, allocating capacity, and tailoring coverage. Even a seemingly small mistake or oversight can result in enormous, unexpected claims.
But there is a cost for agents and brokers to a purely detail-oriented approach. For every question an underwriter asks, an agent must provide a response, in some cases by going back to the client.
As an underwriter meticulously pores over an account, searching every dark corner for hidden risk, the agents must spend time chasing answers and providing explanations. This process is time consuming and must be repeated with every underwriter the agent approaches. And considering how much business is declined, much of this effort ends up producing no value at all.
Consider a hypothetical agent trying to place 100 accounts, with the following assumptions:
- Each account marketed to five carriers
- Each underwriter asks 10 questions on every account
- Each carrier quotes 30 percent of submissions
In this example, the agent will have to answer 5,000 questions and they will receive 350 declinations – simply to find coverage for just 100 accounts!
The emergence of new intelligent underwriting systems is changing this dynamic. Bringing third party data into the process—one of Joyn’s key value propositions—significantly reduces the number of questions that need to be asked. We also apply rules to ensure that each account is handled consistently and that price is matched to each client’s individual risk characteristics.
When designed well, these systems can be applied not just to individual accounts, but to entire portfolios simultaneously. This approach positions the technology to ensure that each individual account gets the attention it deserves while enabling the underwriter to look at the entire book of business and underwrite based on the big picture.
Joyn’s proprietary underwriting technology was designed and built to easily extend individual risk underwriting to evaluate a portfolio of accounts. With only very basic information—primarily name and address—Joyn pulls dozens of third-party data elements, applies underwriting rules, and returns an assessment of each location, each client, and the portfolio as a whole.
This technology is live, in production and available to Joyn agents and brokers. We are assessing leads lists to assist agents with new production. We’re also evaluating consolidation opportunities for those agents who want to combine accounts from disparate carriers. We share the results of every portfolio review with the producer, including the results of each data element pulled for each client and location individually. All of this is done at no cost to the broker.
At Joyn, we embrace the concept of underwriting on a big picture basis. Our technology and use of data reduces the need to ask unnecessary questions, enhancing our ability to evaluate books of business without compromising the details. But don’t just take our word for it: let us show you how our underwriting approach helps you manage your business based on the big picture.
If you have a collection of accounts you would like to evaluate using Joyn’s portfolio underwriting technology, reach out to letstalk@localhost. We would be delighted to show you how simple and joyful the insurance experience can be.
