5 Ways Insurance Distribution Licensing Software Makes Life Easier for Insurance Agencies

This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync.

Investing in technology can be daunting. The thought of setting up an entirely new system, or migrating from an old one, is enough to stop progress in its tracks for many organizations. Obviously, the benefits need to outweigh the costs, both in monetary terms and also when you consider the time spent.

Luckily, implementing insurance distribution licensing software doesn’t have to be a major disruption to business. With AgentSync, which is built on Salesforce.com (although you don’t need to be a Salesforce customer to use it), automating the producer licensing process requires minimal startup and implementation time.

With that out of the way, it’s time to reap the benefits of a distribution management system. Here are five ways doing so will make life easier for those working at insurance agencies. If ease of doing business is important to you (spoiler alert: it should be!), then each of these aspects of your distribution licensing software will enhance the experience and give your agency a leg up over those still doing it the old way.

While AgentSync isn’t the only distribution licensing system out there, we think these five components are vital to reaping the benefits of any system you may choose.

Self-service onboarding

What better way to lighten the workload than to distribute it across more people? With self-service producer onboarding, each producer is responsible for his or her own set-up, with carriers able to automate reminders for upload and sync agents’ personal information changes directly with NIPR and the states.

This makes life easier for producers, agency HR staff, and insurance carrier partners. Rather than fill out endless forms in different places, a producer licensing management system that offers self-service onboarding provides producers with the ability to enter their information once, into one location, and be done with it!

On the other end of all that paperwork producers won’t be filling out are the insurance agency HR staff members who won’t be responsible for accumulating information from various sources to get each new producer onboarded manually.

For insurance carriers who partner with your insurance agency, having a single source of truth makes life simpler, as well. With a streamlined process, producers are up and running (and selling!) more quickly than ever before.

Bulk licensing with real-time NIPR sync

Getting your agents licensed and ready to sell is one of the most important, and also most time-consuming, parts of the business. With the right technology, it doesn’t have to be!

Thanks to real-time, two-way syncing with NIPR’s Producer Database, AgentSync can provide bulk producer onboarding just by entering the producer’s national producer number (NPN) – either individually or by uploading a CSV with up to 5,000 NPNs at a time. If one upload sounds better than 5,000 manual entries, then a producer licensing management system that syncs with NIPR is for you.

Not to mention, the real-time NIPR sync also means you can keep an eye on the status of those agents’ licenses – for example, monitoring changes to contact information, appointments, and even regulatory actions. If you’re wondering whose life is easier thanks to this feature, just ask the folks in charge of monitoring compliance at your agency.

Built-in contracting via Docusign

A time-consuming producer contracting process is a thing of the past. In as little as one click, or no clicks if it’s set up as part of an automated workflow, insurance carriers can generate producer contracts that are auto-populated with accurate information. No one will have to hunt down the producer’s information, including their W9 form and E&O policy. Everything captured during self-service producer onboarding (see above) feeds straight into the contract.

With an integration into Docusign or your contracting vendor of choice, automated reminders and redlined contracts save in your system and let you know when your agent is greenlit to sell – or flag trouble spots in the process – without the manual checklist.

Compliance monitoring and enforcement

Never again wonder if a producer’s license is valid, near expiration, or in any other state of noncompliance. Each producer who is assigned to a Producer Assignment within the producer licensing management software immediately gets a compliance scorecard.

Using this compliance scorecard, insurance agencies can get an instant bird’s eye view of their agency’s compliance health. Any agents with upcoming license renewals will be flagged, as will agents without proper appointments for each line of authority, in each state.

Automated license verification

With real-time communication between AgentSync and NIPR, each producer’s license status can be instantly verified. No more waiting to make sure a producer’s license is valid: As soon as the producer completes their onboarding tasks, the agency and any carrier partners will be assured of their license’s validity.

While traditional methods of verifying licensure rely on the honor system, an annual license check, or a complex web of spreadsheets, they leave you wide open to legal liability. While everyone in the sales channel bears some responsibility for producer licensure, carriers are ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance of their sales teams, period. AgentSync’s unique daily sync with NIPR and our Scorecard feature give your team daily assurance of your license situation, with at-a-glance data.

These five features are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how the right producer licensing management system can make life easier for insurance agencies and insurance agents. That’s not to mention everything it can do to give the same time (and sanity) saving advantages to other members of the insurance distribution channel.

To learn more, see what AgentSync Manage can do for you.

Topics Agencies