Initially the broker contacts INSURECORDS.COM (register@INSURECORDS.COM) with contact information (First and last names, Organization, position, address, email, phone number) and they will be contacted by email and invited to register as an administrative user. This is simply done by clicking on a link contained in the invitation email. Then entering a password and user name, the nominee becomes the first Administrator for that broking firm. That Administrator can then add however many Broker Administrators, Editors and Readers as may be required, including subsets (For example Smith & Co Lawyers Practice, Smith & Co Property Damage Team, Smith & Co New York. Users can appear in as many lists as required). Each user that is added will receive an email inviting them to register.
The various roles that can be allotted are Reader, who can look at all the appropriate records but cannot add to or alter them; Editor who is able to add records and alter them and an Administrator who can do everything an Editor is permitted to do and add other users.
When the Broker (Administrator or Editor) creates a risk record the Insured Administrator will be nominated as well as the Carriers, Monitoring Counsel or other claims manager and excess and surplus lines broker as appropriate, each with their associated users. The Carriers and claims managers will be selected from the Master Party List (See the answer to What is a Master Party List? below). These will be pre-populated with users if appropriate.
An Insurer or Carrier needs to register with INSURECORDS.COM and agree to pay a small fee. (see What is the fee agreement? below) Then the Carrier User will have access to all the risk records that they participate on. This includes any claims records and they will then be able to receive claims notices online via NOTICECLAIMS.COM. When a claim is notified online it creates a claims record that can be updated and used as a resource in the effective management of the claim. Documents can be attached to the claim’s record such as pleadings, bills and correspondence. In addition there will be a defense counsel evaluation device where the primary claims handler is invited to give detailed opinion and cost estimates regarding the various facets of the claim’s process and its eventual success. This offers a unique and valuable method of monitoring a claim and warning as to a claims likely outcome and cost.
When a user logs onto INSURECORDS.COM on the first screen you see you are asked what you want to do. Press “See my list of risk records” button and a list of available risk records is displayed. The user can access any of them by clicking on the appropriate name.
The only users who are normally able to create a new risk record are Broker Administrators or Broker Editors. They are able to create a record by selecting the button “New Risk”, selecting “Insurance Type” and then completing the form (there are a number of fields that are compulsory in order to compile a viable record) and pressing “Save”. The minimum information required to create a valid risk record in the INSURECORDS.COM system is: the Insured’s Name and the Insured’s contact name and email. The Brokers name and contact email. Primary inception date and expiry date, total limit and retention/deductible and the Insurers’ names line, order reference and their nominated monitoring counsel or claims manager. This is the minimum information required but the more that is entered the richer will be the data available for you to analyze in the future.
Normally the only Users who can amend a risk are Broker Administrators or Broker Editors. The only exception being that Insurers can amend their reference and nominated claims professionals. Once a risk has been submitted on the INSURECORDS.COM system it can be amended by pressing the “Edit” button in the top left hand corner of the screen. Make the amendment and press “Save”. A box will appear asking ‘Please provide a reason for the midterm adjustment’. Give the reason, for example misspelled name or date changed by endorsement and so on. Once this has been entered press “Save” in the top left hand corner of the screen. When you view the risk record it will now have a small symbol above the amendment and if you click on it a box appears showing who amended the record, when and why. It also shows the previous value before amendment. Thus an audit trail has also been created.
Attachments are any documents that are relevant to the risk or claims. These can be uploaded onto the system and be kept with the risk record. Simply click on the “Attachments” tab in the middle left of the screen between “Details” and “Claims” tabs, on the left is a button “Add Attachment”. Press this button and a new screen opens. Press the “Browse…” button and select the file that you wish to upload. When you have selected it, press the “Upload” button in the bottom left of the panel. Attachments that can be uploaded include any word documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, power point presentations or scanned documents. They might contain the application, schedule of locations, loss record, policy wording with endorsements, loss adjuster’s reports, legal complaints etc.
Although normally the only users who are able to create or amend a risk record are Broker Administrators or Broker Editors, it is possible to use INSURECORDS.COM including NOTICECLAIMS.COM without a Broker’s participation. You can register as a Docent by emailing support@insurecords.com, explaining what you want to do and asking to be registered. A Docent has exactly the same access and authority as a Broker, they can create and amend records and in addition they can create, update and amend claims. The Docent can omit contacts for any or all other parties such as Insured, Claims Professionals or Brokers. It should be noted that if the Docent includes contacts for the Broker, that Broker User can still operate in the normal way including amending records. Even if the Broker doesn’t want to use the system they still have the option to do so once the Docent has created the record and included a contact. If the Broking firm is entered onto the risk record by the Docent but no contacts are specified then the broker cannot access the risk record.
The Docent role allows for INSURECORDS.COM including NOTICECLAIMS.COM to be used in a number of situations where either a Broker doesn’t exist or is unwilling to participate. For example a captive Insurer may want to use INSURECORDS.COM including NOTICECLAIMS.COM or a claims auditor might want to create a number of risk records and their claims records even though the original placement was not entered onto the system.
If the Docent is an Insurer or an Insurer’s agent they would still have to pay a small fee to use the system.
A risk record can be seen by the broker that creates it and the Insured, other broker (for example an excess and surplus lines broker), Insurers and claims professionals that he nominates. Each of the nominees can in turn grant access within their role. So an Insured (Administrator) nominee can add other users to be Insured Administrators, Insured Editors or Insured readers. Insurers can only access Policy details that relate to their layer. So if they do not participate on a layer they cannot see the Insurers on that layer or its premium. They can see all other information. Everyone who has access to a risk record is listed under the tab “Access Control” and a log of who has been viewing the risk record can be generated using the tab “Activity Log”.
An e-application is an online application that is pre-populated with the previously captured information so that all the Insured needs to do is update the information that has changed. So if there is a long list of locations or a list of insured professionals this will be reproduced and just needs to be altered to update with current information. Where financial or numerical data is required over several years for comparison purposes, for example annual revenue, the information from prior years is shifted to the left to leave space for the new information and the prior years’ figures are kept. When completed the e-application can be submitted to the broker or printed out (Partially completed e-applications can be saved as drafts until finalized). Once it has been completed it is possible to add attachments. The broker can make the e-application available to Insurers by either sending them the link or emailing it as a PDF. When a placement is complete, the e-application can be converted to a new risk record. The risk record will need additional information such as Policy details but the information from the e-application is automatically transferred.
A Master Party List is a list of names and email addresses for certain Users of the system: Brokers, Carriers and Claims Professionals such as monitoring counsel. This information is held by the system as lists that allow simple editing. For example, if a new employee joins a broker, the Master Party List allows a single entry of the new person’s name to grant them access to all the relevant risk records. No Master Party List exists for Insureds as their details are risk specific.
A firm may have more than one Master party list. For example, a Monitoring Counsel may divide their users to preserve confidentiality and have lists for certain Insureds. A broker may wish to have a list for a specific subset of employees on a regional basis, so the New York Risk Management team may have a different list to the National Retail team.
The initial Master Party List entry is created by ROREN.IT. The broker initially contacts INSURECORDS.COM (register@INSURECORDS.COM) with contact information (First and last names, Organization, position, address, email, phone number) and they will be contacted by email and invited to register as an administrative user.
You can amend any entry on the Master Party List that you appear on (assuming you are an Administrator or an Editor). Any Administrator or Editor can add a New Party. Click the tab “Parties” at the upper right of the screen, when the new screen appears check the Party isn’t already listed. If not, click the “New Party” button on the upper left of the screen. Select the type of Insurance, e.g. Lawyers’ Professional Liability and the role, e.g. Broker. Fill in the name and contact details of the firm and go down to the “Add contact” button near the lower left of the screen and press it. Add the first and last name of the contact and their email address. You must also select the new contact’s access level from the drop down box and what notifications they wish to receive. These notifications are emails automatically generated that are sent regarding matters concerning Underwriting, claims and accounting matters. When that has been selected you simply press “Save” button. Once you save the new party entry it can only be edited by an Administrator or Editor who is listed as a contact on that entry.
In order to access INSURECORDS.COM a user must register, their registration being confirmed via email. The user will have a user name and password. A user of any status (Administrator, Editor or reader) can be added by an Administrator for their specific type. So an Insured Administrator can add other Insured users and a Broker Administrator can add other Broker users and so on. When a risk record is originally created the User who creates the record nominates the initial Users by entering the Insured’s contact person (The Insured Administrator), then selecting from the Master Party Lists they add their own Broker users and those of the Monitoring Counsel and Carriers.
It is the person who adds a user who has the responsibility to ensure that they behave appropriately and that when their access should cease, either through termination of employment, change of job or position or any other reason it is their responsibility to ensure the authority to access the Site is withdrawn. ROREN.IT has no way of knowing when such authority should be withdrawn, so it is important that access is controlled by the Administrators. This can be seen at the Master Party List level or at an individual risk level as appropriate.
At the top of the risk record page there is a button “New Claim” (This is also present at the bottom of the claims tab on the risk record and at the top of each claims record). Press the “New Claim” button and a screen will open up which the Insured can complete. It should be completed as thoroughly as possible as that will prevent the need for Insurers to reply with more questions. It can be saved, and then further information can be included until fully completed. When it is completed it can be submitted. This will send it to all parties and it then forms a part of that risk record. The claim record can be updated after that including editing it
Go to the “Claims” tab near the top right of the screen, press and select from the list of your claims the record that you wish to update. Press the “EDIT” button at the top left of the screen. Go to the section that you wish to update. Enter the update and then go to the first section that can be opened that is entitled “Claim Updates”, write here the reason for the update. For example “Payment of Defense Counsel retainer bill dated June 4th # 23-4445” then press “Save” button at either top left or bottom left of the screen and the update is automatically date and time stamped. The “Claim Updates” section can also be used to provide commentary and notes on the progress of the claim.
If you are an Administrator you can add users to the system with the same level of access as you have (or less if you make them an Editor (This means they can enter information and change it but not appoint new users) or Reader (they can view records but not enter or amend them). So if you are a Broker you can add new Broker Users, if you are an Insured you can add new Insured Users. Insureds and Second Brokers (Excess and Surplus Line Brokers or local retail brokers) are both added on a Risk specific basis. So you go to the risk record and press edit and add Contacts including their email address. The new contact will receive an invitation email from INSURECORDS.COM to which they respond and register. In the case of Claims professionals, which includes monitoring counsel, adjusters and third party Administrators, Brokers and Insurers these can be added on a system wide basis. So adding a Broker user gives them access to all the records for that Broker. The same is true for Insurers, by adding an Insurer user they will have access to all that Insurer’s records. For all types of Users an Administrator can add or remove a User for a specific risk by going to the risk record, pressing the “Access Control” tab half way down the screen and pressing the “Manage Access Identities” button. The type of access can be amended and denied all together for an individual. The only proviso is that there must always be one Administrator for each type of Use; so a Broker Administrator, an Insured Administrator and so on. Thus, if the only Administrator for that type is removed from accessing the record they must be replaced by an alternative Administrator before the change can be saved.
For most users, the Brokers and Insureds as well as their claims managers, adjusters or monitoring counsel there is no cost for using the system.
Carriers, Insurers and Reinsurers, are charged a small fee for using the system. (see What is the fee agreement? below) This charge is based upon a relatively conservative estimate of the savings made by the Carriers by using the system. For example, by using NOTICECLAIMS.COM, which is part of the system there will be no need for an initial claim report to Insurers and that will offer an immediate cost saving. INSURECORDS.COM offers not just the opportunity to have a record that can easily be accessed, a claim notification system that gives an efficient, undisputable record of the claims notified and a simply-assembled renewal application but it also offers a database of information that will add up to even more than the “sum of the parts”. As a rough guide an Insurers would be charged between 0.3% and 0.5% of their Gross Premium for each risk record on the system that they can access. The amount would vary depending upon the volume of risk records.
Carriers, Docents (See How do I use the system if the Broker doesn’t want to do so?), Insurers and Reinsurers, are usually charged a small fee for using the system and the standard agreement for this is shown below:
