Motorists Insurance Tames Ceded Reinsurance Info

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Oct 10, 2014) - As The Motorists Insurance Group's ceded reinsurance program became more complex, its system for tracking reinsurance claims with Excel and Access became more time-consuming and less productive.

"We had disparate systems and labor-intensive processes," says Tom Brock, assistant vice president, finance. "To ensure accuracy, we maintained a lot of downstream checks and balancing routines that were very inefficient."

Motorists insures various personal and commercial property/casualty risks and pays about 60,000 claims a year. Claims must be monitored to determine amounts recoverable under reinsurance treaties. Compiling the data took a staff member about four hours a day.

The Columbus, Ohio, carrier ($680.8 million net written premiums, $2.2 billion of assets) wanted an integrated system that would provide increased access to reinsurance data, stronger controls, and a better way to process, report and analyze information.

"Effisoft USA thoroughly understood our needs and exhibited a level of technical knowledge that differentiated it from the competition," Brock says.

The biggest challenges revolved around how Motorists accounts for its catastrophe-related claims. "Effisoft's effort went far beyond the usual," he says. "Their team overcame every obstacle."

Customizations included aggregate excess calculations, new catastrophe management, and enhanced cash call functionality. The Effisoft team also built interfaces to the COSMO claims system used by Motorists' main operating carriers. WebXL would administer all ceded reinsurance for Motorists' personal property/casualty, commercial property/casualty, workers' compensation, catastrophe, and boiler & machinery claims. Effisoft completed development in three months and then led a training session for Motorists' staff.

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Three full-time-equivalent employees (FTEs) were managing the reinsurance program. Now 1.5 FTEs handle it easily because WebXL has eliminated spreadsheet drudgery.

Finding crucial information fast is another key benefit. "For instance, if we're facing a situation where a reinsurer is going through insolvency or poses a notable credit risk, we need to assess our exposure," Brock says. "Now we can get our hands on that information so much easier and faster."

Motorists now has a centralized repository for all reinsurance data. WebXL's reporting tools help isolate claim experience and identify weather trends and severity. They also help Motorists work more effectively with outside parties -- rating agencies, reinsurers, brokers, external auditors and state examiners.

One of the biggest benefits will come in late 2014/early 2015, when Motorists prepares Schedule F for its operating companies. "It's a very time-consuming process with a fair amount of complexity," Brock says. "WebXL will help us."

"The project has been successful from both operational and financial standpoints," he adds. Hardware costs were minimal because WebXL runs on an ordinary PC.

"We're extremely happy with Effisoft and WebXL today, and we have a lot of opportunities to get greater use out of the tool tomorrow," Brock says.

For more information about Effisoft USA see www.effisoftusa.com.