Automation. There’s no question it’s impacting nearly every industry, and we’ve all experienced it in our daily lives--whether self-ordering at a kiosk, letting a car parallel park itself, or trying to navigate a chatbot menu while online shopping.
But for insurance brokers whose focus is client services--there’s a fine line between creating efficiencies and removing key elements of human interaction that drive business relationships. Brokers can’t afford to get left behind as the insurance industry continues to adopt new technologies, but at the same time that personal connection is vital for creating a great client experience.
Insurtech solutions cannot fully automate a broker’s job. Brokering successful risk transfers requires higher levels of thinking and human problem-solving than tech can provide on its own. Instead, insurtechs should deploy artificial intelligence and other technologies to remove administrative and burdensome paperwork from brokerage’s daily workflows so that their talented staff can spend the majority of their time serving their clients, solving complex problems, building relationships, and growing their book of business.
That’s the approach TrustLayer is taking - and it’s why we’ve seen such enthusiasm for our solution from leading brokerages across the country. We’re excited that dozens of the top 100 brokers are using our AI-powered risk management solution. Just last week, we signed a partnership with Acrisure, a top-10 global insurance broker and fintech services provider.
We’re already successfully working with several Acrisure Agency partners, including PentaRisk, a leading brokerage that specializes in serving the construction, manufacturing, real estate, hospitality, habitational and staffing services industries. We recently caught up with Jim Untiedt, President of PentaRisk, to understand his experience with TrustLayer. Here’s what he shared with our team about what makes our solution so valuable to his brokerage.
1. We eliminate unnecessary back-and-forth on COI reviews.
This is a particular pain point for brokerages working with clients in high-risk industries like construction, property management, or manufacturing where each client might have as many as 30 subcontractors for every job they take. Instead of clients scanning and faxing or emailing COIs to the broker every time they need additional help reviewing, TrustLayer’s platform lets subcontractors directly upload COIs, saving time for the client and the broker. All parties can then review the COI right from TrustLayer.
2. We automate the COI review process.
Our artificial intelligence and robotic processing automation (RPA) technologies allow TrustLayer to check key certificate data points automatically, including dates, policy limits, aggregates, and waiver of subrogation endorsements. The software flags items of concern for the client, so they know to review -- saving the broker time and unnecessary effort correcting COIs. Additionally, TrustLayer sends expiration notices and follow-up emails to subcontractors and their brokers for timely renewal compliance, helping reduce the risk of any coverage gaps.
3. We’re affordable.
We charge our customers by the number of subcontractors or vendors they work with, instead of the number of certificates processed, putting our solution in reach for most clients. Additionally, this pricing structure helps save time down the road, because once a subcontractor is in the TrustLayer system with an approved certificate, the next time that sub is used on a project the approval process can be streamlined even further.
4. We leave decision-making to the broker and their clients.
TrustLayer does not automatically approve a subcontractor’s certificate without input from the broker and their client. This facilitates important relationship-building between the parties as well as maintaining relationships with subcontractors.
5. We support better communication flows between brokers and their claims teams.
Claims teams can access certificates and endorsements right in the TrustLayer platform, making it easier for them to notify subcontractors and their carriers when incidents or claims occur.
6. We help reduce client claims.
Over time, as clients adopt TrustLayer and formalize a systematic risk management and certificate review process, they also substantially reduce claims filed against them. One of PentaRisk’s clients, who does about $100 million in business every year, has gone 5 years without a general liability claim after implementing our solution. Reducing claims can help brokers secure better rates for clients as they become more attractive risks to carriers.
7. We help brokers prospect new business.
TrustLayer flags when subcontractor or vendor certificates have insufficient or expired coverage. By identifying companies in need of better or different lines of coverage, TrustLayer helps brokers find prospective clients among their current clients’ network, and enables them to make recommendations for how they can improve their coverage.
By outsourcing manual, administrative tasks to TrustLayer’s AI technology, you have more time to better serve your clients, while helping them improve their risk profiles and identifying potential business leads. Jim said that TrustLayer saves PentaRisk an average of 50 percent of the time they used to spend dealing with certificates of insurance. That’s a lot of time back in his team’s schedule they can dedicate to higher-value work.
Jim summed it up better than I ever could: “There are some other products on the market that completely outsource risk management, and are very expensive. If you’re looking for a software that’s efficient, saves people time, and is cost-effective, there is no better product than TrustLayer.”
If you’re an Acrisure partner or customer and want to learn more about how TrustLayer can help you, you can find more information here.
