Conn. Underwriters: Thinking Inside the Box

Bill Kiley is well aware of the need to think outside the box in any business but the New England insurance wholesaler has hit upon a hot idea by doing just the opposite.

For the past few months Kiley has been focused on insurance products that fit inside a box—those that require minimal information and underwriting and can be quickly and efficiently quoted online.

Those are the type of products his excess and surplus lines agency, Connecticut Underwriters, is making available to retail agents throughout New England on its new Multiple Insurance Calculator Kit, nicknamed MICK, a web-based system that produces three quotes within seconds.

Connecticut Underwriters writes excess and surplus lines in all New England states from its mansion-like main office in Middletown, Conn. and through its affiliates in Massachusetts- Conexco Insurance Agency Inc. in Westborough—and up north, New Hampshire Underwriters Insurance Agency Inc. in Portsmouth. The agency has been around since 1964 and is one of the region’s largest wholesalers.

Kiley started MICK with 1-4 family homeowners and then added 25 classes of contractors. MICK accepts only new business, not renewals.

What these products have in common is that it’s easy to determine upfront whether a risk qualifies. After checking just a few boxes, an agent knows whether the product is a fit, before even inputting any application detail.

“We wanted it to be easy for agencies in every way,” the agency president says of the goals in developing MICK. He told the programmers he wanted the system to be easy for agents to use, to require minimal input and to produce multiple quotes quickly. After a year of brainstorming, programming and testing, MICK was born.

The system prints multiple quotes for qualifying risks in seconds, with just a few keystrokes. So agents can respond to clients while they are still on the phone or in their office. They can even include premium financing in the quotes if they want.

“Why wait a week?” asks Kiley, referring to the time it can take to exchange information and get quotes from multiple sources
the old-fashioned way. “Agents don’t have to call us. MICK is available 24 hours, every day.”

The response to MICK has been terrific, “exceeding our expectations,” he says, citing 1,600 users in the first five weeks. Better than 20 accounts a day are being bound for just these two product lines— and it’s all new business.

So now Connecticut Underwriters is adding special events, which he says also “fits in the box” of a web-based system.

As great as MICK is, it’s not for every product, Kiley insists. In Kiley’s view, it makes no sense to change the conditions or guidelines for products to fit what a web-based system can do. It’s not automation for automation’s sake. He intends to confine his web-based system to those products that make sense because they are straightforward enough in their underwriting and pricing to “fit in the box.”

“We will not compromise our underwriting to make a product fit this system,” he insists. Products that do not fit will be handled by underwriters as before.

Some risks like roofers and general contractors may always be too complex to fit in the box, but others like daycare or vacant dwellings are possibilities down the road. MICK will grow but a product at a time.

While Kiley hopes the system saves agents time and frustration, he already knows it’s working for his agency. Since the system prevents incomplete applications, once a MICK form is sent his underwriters have everything they need to issue a policy right away. They spend less time tracking down information on these accounts, leaving them with more time to focus on accounts that do not qualify or are more complex.

In addition to attracting new business, MICK is also luring some new agents and some agents who haven’t used Connecticut Underwriters for awhile. “We’re getting repeat users and returning retailers,” Kiley says.

MICK is available at www.ctunderwriters.com.

Topics Agencies Underwriting Connecticut