16 Brokers to Use New Single-Entry Commercial Lines Insurance Exchange

Sixteen insurance brokerage firms have agreed to be the first to use a new Internet-based single entry submission system to transact commercial lines business with carriers, a system that will be made available to all agents and brokers and their carriers early next year.

The LexisNexis Insurance Exchange, as the new submission and transaction system in known, promises to reduce workload, facilitate access to new markets, and improve collaboration among all parties involved in middle market and some large commercial insurance business.

This new transaction system is the result of an alliance formed through LexisNexis Risk Solutions, The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB) and Marketcore Inc. and it comes after decades of talk and trials throughout the industry around developing a workable a single-entry platform.

The 16 insurance brokerages that have signed on include: AmWINS Group Inc.; Brown & Brown Inc.; BB&T Insurance; John L. Wortham & Son LP; BancorpSouth Insurance Services Inc.; Rutherfoord/MMA; EPIC Insurance Brokers; Van Gilder Insurance; McQueary Henry Bowles Troy LLP; RCM&D; Sterling & Sterling Inc.; M3 Insurance Solutions Inc.; Early, Cassidy & Schilling Inc.; Roach Howard Smith & Barton; Oswald Cos.; and Cook, Hall & Hyde Inc.

The brokers are joining the Insurance Exchange as early adopters and will start using it Oct. 12.

Officials have not yet identified the participating carriers but said that they hope to have about a half dozen for the initial phase. Getting carriers to participate in a single system has been a challenge in past attempts to streamline the transaction process for agents and brokers.

This select group of brokerages and carriers will provide feedback to LexisNexis in advance of an industry-wide launch in early 2011.

Agents and brokers will not have to be CIAB members to use the exchange when it is launced industry-wide. Carriers will be also able to participate as non-subscribing members, although subscribing carriers will receive more benefits including analytics and market reports.

According to Frank Sentner, technology director for CIAB and a veteran agency technology developer, the way the industry handles transactions now is outdated. “The LexisNexis Insurance Exchange will be the platform by which commercial insurance agents and brokers will send all of their submissions to all of their markets,” he said.

Topics Carriers Agencies Commercial Lines Business Insurance