UNDERWRITING MEMO FOLLOW UP
 
On March 6th we sent an email containing an Underwriting Memo with changes to go into effect on March 9,, 2009. While the overwhelming response to the changes has been extremely positive we have received questions from some of you so we would like to address those questions with this memo.
 
As stated in the memo, the new billing changes address policies written on and after March 9th but that memo did not specifically address how to handle policies written prior to that date. Please read the following to learn how these policies will be handled.
 
Between March 9th and approximately April 20th all policies written prior to March 9th are not eligible for the new billing rules. As of March 9th , if the policy already had an outstanding bill, was in Notice of Cancellation status or in Cancellation status or enters into Notice of Cancellation or Cancellation status prior to April 20th the policy must go through the balance of this cycle before the benefits of the new rules will apply. We want to benefit and keep current as many customers as possible however; we have some systematic and timing limitations which apply.
 
·         If the policy effective date was prior to March 9th and the policy had an outstanding bill on March 9th and the customer is paying their bill on time you simply need to take the customer's current payment.
 
·         If the policy effective date was prior to March 9th and the policy had an outstanding Notice of Cancellation or a Notice of Cancellation is issued on this policy prior to April 20th you simply need to take the customers current payment.
 
·         If the policy effective date was prior to March 9th and the policy was in Cancellation status or enters into Cancellation status prior to April 20th  you will need to determine the number of days until the next payment is due to determine how much to collect for reinstatement:
 
·         For Reinstatement the rule of thumb about collecting one or two payments is simple.

In an effort to improve the efficiency of our system we changed how our application processing system, InsForce, retrieves policy information in "Quote Index" in New Business and "Amendment Index" in Amendments.  As of March 18, 2009, policy data will no longer automatically return a list of quotes or policies when these buttons are selected.  Instead, when selecting the Quote Index button or the Amendment Index button, the screen will look like the first image shown below. This process has not deleted any quotes you have already saved. The quotes or policies are still in the system and logged to your agency so you have not lost them.  
 
To retrieve a quote or policy, please enter the information in the fields shown at the top of the screen and select the "Search" button." This is the process already used so we don't expect this to cause anyone difficulty. You can still search and retrieve stored quotes and policy information by the applicant name, policy number, effective date and status. This will look different, but the process works the same.