Top Mutual Insurer Adopts End-to-End Wealth Management Software

When one of the nation’s largest mutual life insurance carriers (more than $500 billion in assets under management) established a new product group, the company emphasized its commitment to faster product introduction, ease of doing business, lower unit cost and product flexibility.

To both serve this group and streamline operations throughout the organization, the company launched an enterprisewide systems simplification initiative. The effort included implementing key technologies that would not only standardize and reduce process steps but also empower the insurer to offer its customers greater variety with unparalleled speed.

Simplifying a Complex Environment

As part of its initiative, the company consulted with CSC about strategies for integrating multiple policy administration systems to eliminate redundancy and create a common processing front end throughout its operations. CSC helped the company develop a reference architecture that would provide all users with access to common functions, while consolidating enterprise-level data.

“Our reference architecture served as a foundation for our systems and product strategy, helping us ensure a consistent experience for our customers and producers — no matter what part of the organization they’re engaged with,” said the company’s IT manager. “From an operations standpoint, this new environment is helping to consolidate our servicing resources and improve our agility.”

Under the modernization program, the company chose CSC’s Wealth Management Accelerator®, a life and annuity policy administration system that simplifies processes and IT maintenance by providing a comprehensive solution for both asset accumulation and disbursement. Built with a flexible service-oriented architecture, Wealth Management Accelerator enabled the carrier to combine policy activities and repetitive payment systems onto a single platform.

The company, which was an existing CSC client, was a primary contributor during the development of software.

Addressing Changing Demographics

“Wealth Management Accelerator was essential for us as a growing number of baby boomers approach retirement age,” said the company’s IT manager. “We now have more flexibility to meet our customers’ demands while reducing back-office effort and expense.”

The software manages group and individual, qualified and non-qualified, fixed and variable life and annuity products and includes functionality for general ledger accounting; premium billing and collection; and customer service, such as value quotes, loans, withdrawals and benefit payments.

By bundling policy information — such as values, funds and coverage — in a series of tabs, Wealth Management Accelerator gives the company’s customer service representatives the latest technology at their fingertips and improves their ability to provide customers with accurate information quickly. An associate in the company’s U.S. customer service center described the system as “user friendly and easy to navigate.”

The transition effort involved two large-scale projects of similar scope: an upgrade from VANTAGE-ONE^® to a 2008 version of Wealth Management Accelerator for universal life and a migration of a 2005 version of VANTAGE-ONE to Wealth Management Accelerator 9.0.

To complete both projects in a timely manner, CSC took a follow-the-sun approach. Global CSC professionals worked around the clock in multiple time zones. The insurer did not have to use its own resources.

Improving Product Introduction

Another key issue facing the company was the need to standardize the product configuration process. In most cases, the introduction of new products dragged on for months, with the IT department often standing in the way of timely testing and modifications. These delays often hampered product innovation.

To address these issues, the company opted to license CSC’s Product Accelerator®, a product configurator that provides an end-to-end business process approach for product creation. The company implemented the solution as an early adopter, being among the first to use the software in a production environment.

The initial phase of the project involved introducing four products and a variety of complex riders onto the company’s illustration system. Later phases built on this solution by adding additional complex functionality for the company’s distribution channels. Now, the company’s product development team can quickly reuse product attributes while introducing innovative product features. Time to market was shortened from months to days.

Under the reference architecture, Product Accelerator integrates with the carrier’s illustration system — ensuring that rules and illustrations are centrally stored and maintained. “With Product Accelerator, we have a centralized calculation rules engine that gives us reusability across multiple applications and servicing functions beyond this initial illustrations implementation,” said the company’s vice president of new business.

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