Overview

The agent appointment and licensing solution streamlines and automates the process of agent contracting and compliance. Due to state compliance rules, agents wishing to do business with a carrier, have to be appointed and licensed in the state they want to conduct business in. It becomes the carriers’ onerous responsibility to make sure that the agent is duly licensed and appointed and all the paperwork is in order. The process, although similar in its basic construct, does have state based variances related to processing rules. By streamlining and automating the appointment process carriers are able to expedite placing of new business, which has a direct impact on increasing revenues, and also are able to reduce operating costs through automation, thereby improving profitability.

Functionality

		Paperless transaction through web-based initiation of appointment request
		Support for e-Signatures
		Reflexive questions to gather additional information on “yes” answers
		Ability to dynamically populate the relevant PDF’s
		Rules based validations to reduce NIGO rate
		Electronic Folder provides the ability to upload supporting documents, including FCRA, E&O Certificate, License, etc.
		E-Forms can be made available as part of an agent portal, which can allow them to view appointment statuses and provide additional self-service features to view and update personal information.
		Dynamic email/fax confirmation back to agent upon application submittal. Reminders and ticklers can be configured both on the agent side as well as home office side.

		System provides a home office dashboard access to process agent requests. Rules based allocation of workflow to processing agents. Dynamically changing statuses and reason for action fields as the cases progresses through the queue.
		Through interfaces with the producer database system will automatically check for current status of agent, whether it is a new agent, transfer, or re-instatement of an expired appointment
		Through interfaces with new business and underwriting the system will automatically recognize whether an application was submitted along with the appointment request. This will determine the processing priority of the appointment request.
		Automatic verification of any prior history with the carrier, including new business submittals, commissions, appointment statuses, and any terminations or issue in prior background investigations.
		Setup of new agents in the hierarchy. Verification of status of the hierarchy. Ability to assign/change status or hierarchy of existing agents. The system will distinguish between a selling agent, servicing agent, marketing agency, etc.
		Case data is transported to update downstream agency management and compensation management systems

		System automatically determines and suggests what type of background checks are required. Driven by business rules, this depends on how the agent answers questions on the application, the state of appointment, and any available prior history on the agent.
		Automatic ordering of reports from GiS, Vector, and other third party vendors. Automatically determine which cases require basic background check (credit and professional) and which require a criminal background investigation.
		Interpretation of background results based on company specific guidelines. For example a company may want to flag any debt balances on Vector that exceed a dollar amount.
		Ability to send communications to agent/hierarchy for additional supporting documents in the event that any issues are found in the background check
		Provides exceptions processing capability for authorized users. Exceptions are logged into an Audit Trail.

		Provides JIT appointment processing capability depending on whether new business was submitted with the appointment requests.
		The role-based compliance processor’s dashboard dynamically generates a “reason for action” depending on the company’s rules for processing of JIT processing, and state compliance rules related to restricted and unrestricted states.
		System will automatically recognize restricted and unrestricted state processing rules for resident and non-resident licenses.
		Planet Interact integration hub provides ability to interface with third-parties including NASD, NAIC, NPIR, DTCC, etc.
		Automatically determines if the agent will be charged any fees, such as fees for non-resident states.
		System will recognize the need for supporting documents related to CE requirements for states that mandate CE.
		System provides ability for rules based processing when multiple licenses are submitted. Based on new business submittal and the carriers internal guidelines the system will automatically determine which appointments are processed right away with no fees charged back to the agent, which are pended for JIT processing, and which get processed with a fee charge back to the agent, etc.

		Terminations can be automated through company specific business rules, such as if agent is dormant for a period of time or if there are any issues in the background check
		Triggers can be implemented when Licenses are up for renewal. The system can automatically notify the agent of such renewals and the system can initiate the renewal documentation. Notifications can also be sent out the hierarchy the agent belongs to.

		Upon successful appointment of agent, an on-boarding kit is automatically generated, which includes the contract signing page, welcome letter, any non-resident fees letter, and any state specific letters or notifications.
		Automatic notification is also sent to the hierarchy.
		All paperwork and artifacts related to the case are archived
		If the agent appointment was declined, then a Decline letter would be automatically generated and sent to the agent.

The power and uniqueness of the PlanetSoft solution lies in the fact that the system is “configured” through change of meta-data. The configuration can be managed without any programming change by systems analysts. This includes, e-Forms, Workflow rules, Processing rules, State Compliance Tables, Communication Templates, etc. As an example, the business users can accomplish the following administrative functionalities without any programming change to the system:
		Configuration of workflow rules once the agent submits the application. The workflow can be based on personnel availability, distribution, capacity, experience, etc.
		Configuration of correspondence templates. The system provides an a communication module that allows user to generate template documents, such as Welcome Letters, Decline Letters, Acknowledgement letters, etc. The data in dynamically populated in the templates as user-defined events occur.
		Maintenance of state compliance requirements is done through meta-data in tables. As an example, which states require criminal background checks, which are restricted, unrestricted, etc, is managed through tables.
		Processing statuses are configured and are customized to each client.
		Hierarchy management is done through configuration by business users. The system provides the ability to add, change, move, hierarchies. Each agent in the hierarchy is stored as a single entity which enables referential integrity
		Roles, access and permissions to the system are managed by business users. Each role can have a unique access and can have restrictions on what screens and data elements can be viewed or changed.

The power and uniqueness of the PlanetSoft solution lies in the fact that the system is “configured” through change of meta-data. The configuration can be managed without any programming change by systems analysts. This includes, e-Forms, Workflow rules, Processing rules, State Compliance Tables, Communication Templates, etc. As an example, the business users can accomplish the following administrative functionalities without any programming change to the system:
Solution Schematic