DTCC Launches Pilot Program for InsurExpress.

NEW YORK -- As the next significant step in its efforts to automate the sales and processing of life insurance policies, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) on June 30th launched its pilot program for InsurExpress. Leveraging DTCC's infrastructure and established network of connectivity, InsurExpress integrates key insurance industry service providers to support communications between insurance companies and participating distributors of insurance products, providing all necessary functionality for life insurance application processing.

Firms participating in the initial pilot testing include Genworth Financial and Piper Jaffray. In the coming months, DTCC intends to expand the program to include multiple financial advisors in various geographical locations, together with an expanded product set and carrier list.

"Our goal with InsurExpress is to help insurance carriers and distributors increase life insurance revenue by simplifying the management of a life insurance application and significantly reducing the time needed to complete a policy sale," said Randy Grespin, managing director, DTCC Distribution Services.

InsurExpress is an extension of a comprehensive suite of automated services offered by DTCC Insurance Services that streamline the sale, servicing and processing of insurance and annuity products -- and reduce processing costs for participants. "InsurExpress expands what DTCC can offer to insurance carriers and distributors as part of our vision to deliver a complete cost-efficient, straight-through processing solution through all stages of the insurance sales life cycle," added Grespin.

Streamlining the Application Process

Historically, managing an application for a life insurance policy has been a labor-intensive, cumbersome manual practice, taking several weeks to complete. InsurExpress aims to expedite and streamline this process by linking together all the necessary components to assist a financial advisor in initiating and completing a life insurance application and in managing all the requirements necessary to produce an issued policy while keeping the advisor informed at all times. These components include:

--Quote engine: provides advisors the ability to view and select from a list of broker-dealer approved carrier products;

--Electronic Submission: allows advisors to enter and submit a life insurance "ticket" and initiate the fulfillment/underwriting process;

--Application Completion and Requirements Ordering: Provided by a call center, it involves finalizing the application process by gathering all required customer information and underwriting requirements based on a carrier's individual rules resulting in a final package for the proposed insured's review and signature.

--Case Processing: also performed by an independent service provider, offers complete assistance to the advisor in collecting all the necessary outstanding requirements and forms, submitting a complete application package to the carrier and managing the underwriting process through policy issuance.

--Status Reporting: delivers secure, 24x7 on-line access to the financial advisor of all cases pending with multiple carriers

Other services DTCC expects to add to InsurExpress in the future include licensing and appointment validation as well as all of DTCC's traditional post-transaction functionality such as premiums and commissions settlement.

Current strategic partners whose services have been integrated into InsurExpress include, Examination Management Systems Inc. (EMSI), Internet Pipeline, Integrated Insurance Technologies (iiT), and AgencyWorks. Beyond this initial group, DTTC plans to work with other leading third party service providers and individual insurance carriers to add their services to the system as appropriate. "To further strengthen our ability to deliver a more robust selection of services to our customers, InsurExpress has evolved from its initial conception to be designed as an open architecture platform which can easily integrate an expanding number of leading service providers at the request of our customers," said John Ziambras, vice president and manager, DTCC Insurance Services.

Benefits to Users

In providing an efficient, centralized point for the processing of insurance policies, DTCC Insurance Services is helping insurance carriers expand their product sales potential in new market channels through the broad network of distributors utilizing its platform. The service will enable distributors to reduce the operational costs related to managing an insurance policy and minimize risk by offering an automated solution in a safe, secure compliant environment. In addition, by offering individual sales representatives access via their desk-top to a user-friendly system that provides complete access at any time to pertinent information related to a pending policy, financial advisors will be able to expedite life insurance sales and focus on selling products and servicing customers.

Leveraging its years of experience in bringing better efficiencies to the operational processing for equities, fixed income and mutual funds, DTCC entered the insurance market in 1997 to provide similar benefits to carriers and distributors of annuity, life insurance and long-term care products. Its current roster of services include: Applications & Subsequent Premiums, Asset Pricing, Commissions, Financial Activity Reporting, Licensing & Appointments and Positions & Valuations.

"By streamlining, automating and centralizing the processing and management of insurance applications, InsurExpress is helping insurance carriers and distributors connect more efficiently," said Ziambras. "We see this as a strong value proposition for our customers as this service is intended to make the processing of a life insurance trade as easy for the financial advisor as that of a stock, bond or mutual fund."

About DTCC

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), through its subsidiaries, provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, government and mortgage-backed securities and over-the-counter credit and equity derivatives. DTCC's depository also provides custody and asset servicing for more than two million securities issues from the United States and 100 other countries and territories. In addition, DTCC is a leading processor of mutual funds and insurance transactions, linking funds and carriers with their distribution networks. DTCC has operating facilities in multiple locations in the United States and overseas. For more information on DTCC, visit www.dtcc.com.