Paul O’Keefe, vice president of AURA business development for RGA, discusses how the company plans to continue to develop and enhance the new SaaS-based underwriting platform called AURA 15.x. The following are excerpts of an interview that was first published in Best's Review, where visitors can listen to the full interview.
I think quick accurate disclosures of information from the applicant, ideally at the point of sale to make an instant decision, is one of the most useful and critical elements in underwriting. Access to real time underwriting data at the point of sale is also critical.
This data includes motor vehicle records, medical bureau information, prescription drug history, and then an avalanche of new data sources that are coming on stream to assist in underwriting.
See also: More than Skin Deep: Designing a New Business Underwriting Process To Meet Customer Expectations
RGA’s 45 years of facultative underwriting experience is embedded within the AURA rules, which are constantly updated and refreshed with cutting edge research. A good example is RGA’s proprietary prescription drug score. The service scores thousands of drugs and is updated every quarter. AURA customers send case files electronically to AURA and receive an instant decision as well as the score for all drugs. RGA constantly turns research into products that benefit our customers. RGA’s recent mortality study on the effects of driving record on a person’s mortality has led to RGA’s groundbreaking new way of making automated decisions on MVR’s.
See also: Managing Risk, Assessing Opportunities
We believe we’ve made AURA so-called "future proof" in a number of ways. First of all, we have revolutionized the delivery of the traditional underwriting engine by turning it into an underwriting service. We now provide AURA exclusively as a SaaS-based solutions, which removes the need for clients to budget for upgrades while always remaining on the latest version. Clients benefit from enhancements that are made by other users of the solution worldwide. I think most importantly, is that AURA is supported and maintained by RGA. RGA is committed to continuing to use this underwriting platform we call AURA to deliver innovation in electronic underwriting for years to come. Some of those innovations include Integrating new evidence sources such as True Risk Life as they become available.
For a deeper look at this topic, please see: E-Underwriting Technology: How to Accelerate Return on Investment
The latest release of AURA has a brand new user interface and it’s built using responsive design, which means that the user interface senses the device that it’s being displayed upon and repaints itself accordingly. AURA’s new Business Intelligence service will allow customers to understand their business on a daily basis. This insight will allow AURA customers to adjust rules and introduce products quickly and easily.
See also: Strategic Considerations for Automated Underwriting
