RGA Reinsurance Company
Managing Risk Exposure with e-Underwriting Solutions

As competition in insurance markets is intensifying, cost savings and customer retention has become critical, forcing insurers to look for ways to leverage multiple distribution channels for reaching out to customers and providing them with a consistent, positive experience. With the emerging new regulations in nearly every quarter of the globe and the expense of opening new channels, underwriters spend more time on data collection, validation, case triaging and post-issuance activities. Life insurers are quickly realizing the need for an automated underwriting tool to better manage their risk, grow their business, increase efficiencies, improve underwriting profitability, and enhance customer service. Aimed at identifying possible ways to promote individual protection insurance products, RGA Reinsurance Company—a reinsurance service provider—offers its innovative e-underwriting solution to keep pace with the changing customer requirements and accurately manage risk assessment.

RGA adapted the reflexive application questions and decision-making rules to build a technical platform for real-time underwriting— Automated Underwriting Risk Analysis (AURA). It is more than an automated underwriting tool, which is specifically developed to speed and simplify the underwriting requisites of health and life insurance and reduce internal risk management. The latest version of AURA is available as a hosted service or as an on-site installation to minimize the technical work required by clients and reduce the total cost of ownership. AURA Hosted is ideal for insurers wishing to streamline end-to-end underwriting processes with a rules engine that can be integrated into an existing or new sales channel.

In addition, the firm’s Management Information (MI) module within AURA assists insurers to manage their business smartly and efficiently. The MI module captures valuable information from multiple sources including insurance application questions and disclosed answers; disclosed impairments and underwriting risks; to transmit audit information for reinsurers, as well as options for detailed data analysis reporting.

Our approach to successful client relationships is based on mutual trust and respect, as well as a collaborative problem-solving

The company’s e-underwriting tool provides full user security administration and an audit trail for all rules changes.

“Our approach to successful client relationships is based on mutual trust and respect, as well as a collaborative problem-solving,” says A. Greig Woodring, CEO, RGA Reinsurance Company. RGA believes that the power of shared underwriting knowledge and expertise has helped its clients to copy and edit the RGA underwriting rule sets that come with AURA, or build rules to reflect their underwriting philosophy.

For instance, Ageon—a life insurance company needed an automated underwriting solution that could best cover its product range– permanent health insurance, life, critical illness and total permanent disability products–and its multiple sales channels. Leveraging RGA’s AURA, the client was able to translate its own underwriting philosophy into consistent, correct decisions. With AURA in place, Ageon could reach target markets better with reduced cycle times and operational cost, increased acceptance at the point of sale, and improved customer service. Apart from this, “AURA Management Information is helping us identify trends and hone in on pinch points, referral rates and acceptance rates to make real improvements,” says Nigel Kirkpatrick, Automated Underwriting Development Manager, Aegon.

AURA is currently available in 10 languages and has been implemented in 17 countries to improve underwriting turnaround times. Building on this success, RGA is working on to expand into every global market in the coming years. The firm will also continue to stay true to its philosophy—enhancing clients’ prosperity by supporting their financial and risk management capabilities.