Managing Program Policies

Certain business scenarios require a hierarchical structure of insurance policy terms, commonly referred to as Master / Underlyer policies. This allows for the layering of multiple policy terms to meet specific business needs and/or regionally mandated legal requirements.

This section provides an overview of the Program Policy feature supported by the Bridge Specialty Suite. This functionality provides a structure with which to manage Master / Underlyer policy links through the interdependent concepts of Parent Policy and Child Policy terms. A Parent Policy is a policy term that has been designated to accept links to Child Policies, while a Child Policy is a policy term that has been linked to a Parent Policy.

Viewing and Managing Policy Programs

Click the Program Policy option in the Common Screens widget to open the Program Policy window. Note that the Program Policy link is only available if the Allow Program Policies checkbox has been checked in the Master Cover regulating the current policy submission.

The Current Policy panel is used to designate a Parent Policy. Fields marked with a red asterisk * are required.

The Current Policy panel contains a grid displaying pertinent information from the policy term through which the Program Policy window was accessed.

The last three columns (Premium, Taxes, and Currency) are only populated if the user also has the ViewPremium security right.

The Save button is only available to users with the ManageProgramPolicy security right, and is used to save the values in the Current Policy panel.

The Child Policies panel is only displayed if the current policy has been saved as a Parent Policy. It displays the high-level program view, listing all immediate Child Policies that are currently linked to the Parent Policy and to which the user has the appropriate data management rights. By default, ten rows are displayed per page. Pagination is supported to navigate between multiple pages where necessary.

Select an action. Note that the options to Add Child and Delete Child are only available to users with the ManageProgramPolicy security right. Additionally, the Add Child button is only available when the current Policy Term Status is either Incomplete, Quoted, Referred, or Bound.

1. Click a link in the Term ID / Policy No. column to navigate to the most recent transaction of that Child Policy term. The first screen of the submission opens in the current browser window. Note that transactions of Rescinded Status, as well as transactions resulting from an Out of Sequence Adjustment / Endorsement that are not Bound, are excluded.

2. To add a Child Policy link, click Add Child. The Add Child window opens.

   

   1. Using the Child Policy combo-box field, select the policy term to be designated as a Child Policy of the current Parent Policy. The policy term can be optionally identified by entering the Term ID / Policy No., Client Name, or Client Country in the search bar. Click the search icon to initiate the search.
   2. Select an action.
   • Click Save & Close to save the Child Policy link and return to the Program Policy window.
   • Click Save & New to save the Child Policy link and remain on the Add Child window to add another Child Policy link.
   • Click Close to return to the Program Policy window without saving the current Child Policy link.

   Notes:  

   Only policy terms that meet the following criteria are made available for selection as a Child Policy link.

   • The Allow Program Policies checkbox is checked in the Policy Settings page of the appropriate Master Cover.
   • The Master Cover regulating the policy term uses the same Workflow as the Parent Policy.
   • The Master Cover Status (Test or Live) of the policy term matches that of the Parent Policy.
   • The policy term Status is either Incomplete, Quoted, Referred, or Bound. Note that New Business and Renewal transactions that have been deleted are not eligible for selection.
   • The Effective Period of the policy term overlaps with that of the Parent Policy by a minimum of one day.
   • The policy term is not already designated as a Child Policy in any Program Policy.
   • The policy term is not already linked as the Parent Policy in the current Policy Program, nor is it the current policy term through which the Program Policy window was accessed.
   • The user has the appropriate data management rights to access the policy term.
3. Check one or more boxes in the first column of the grid and click the Delete Child button to delete existing links. The Delete Child button is only available when one or more Child Policies are currently linked to the Parent Policy.

The Parent Policy panel is displayed if the current policy term has not been designated as a Parent Policy, or if the current policy term has been designated as both a Parent Policy and a Child Policy within a multi-level hierarchical structure. This panel displays the Parent Policy for the current policy term.

Select an action. Note that the options to Add Parent and Delete Parent are only available to users with the ManageProgramPolicy security right. Additionally, the Add Parent button is only available when the current policy term Status is either Incomplete, Quoted, Referred, or Bound.

1. Click a link in the Term ID / Policy No. column to navigate to the most recent transaction in that Parent Policy term. The first screen of the submission opens in the current browser window.

2. To add a Parent Policy link, click Add Parent. The Add Parent window opens.

   

   • Using the Parent Policy combo-box field, select the policy term to be designated as the Parent Policy for the Current Policy term. The policy term can be optionally identified by entering the Program Name in the search bar. Click the search icon to initiate the search.

   • Select an action.

     • Click Save & Close to save the Parent Policy link and return to the Program Policy window.
     • Click Close to return to the Program Policy window without saving the current Parent Policy link.

     Notes:  

     Only policy terms that meet the following criteria are made available for selection as a Parent Policy link.

     • The policy term has been designated as a Parent Policy.
     • The Master Cover regulating the policy term uses the same Workflow as the Child Policy.
     • The Master Cover Status (Test or Live) of the policy term matches that of the Child Policy.
     • The policy term Status is either Incomplete, Quoted, Referred, or Bound. Note that New Business and Renewal transactions that have been deleted are not eligible for selection.
     • The Effective Period of the policy term overlaps with that of the Child Policy by a minimum of one day.
     • The policy term is not already linked as a Parent Policy of another policy term in the same hierarchy as the current Child Policy term.

     • The user has the appropriate data management rights to access the policy term.

3. To delete a Parent Policy link, click Delete Parent. A warning message is displayed to ensure that this action is intentional. Click OK to continue and delete the link to the Parent Policy, or click Cancel to close the warning message and return to the Policy Program window without deleting the link to the Parent Policy.

Warning: Parent and Child policy terms must overlap by a minimum of one day in order to be eligible to be linked within a Program Policy. Any action that would alter the Effective Period of the Parent Policy term and subsequently invalidate an existing link to a Child Policy term is blocked.

The system also blocks any attempt to Void, Delete, Decline, or Mark as Lost a Parent Policy term when a Child Policy term is actively linked.

These actions may be initiated directly by the user, through the execution of one or more Calculated Fields, or through an external service. An error message is displayed under these circumstances to advise the user that a requested action has been denied.

Program Policy Functions

There are five functions that directly support the Program Policy functionality, each of which can be used in multiple ways within the context of a Master / Underlyer association. This section provides a brief introduction to each function, as well as an example use case scenario.

These functions do not require parameters. Instead, they return the contextual value appropriate to the policy term in which they are evaluated.

IsParentProgramPolicy()

IsChildProgramPolicy()

ProgramName()

ParentProgramName()

ParentProgramPolicyTermStatus()

For additional information on these functions, see the Full Function Reference List section.

Program Policies & Policy Term Renewals

A policy term renewal can either be manually triggered through the Actions Widget, or automatically through Automatic Processing, or an external service. The system applies the following rules when a Child Policy currently operating within a Master / Underlyer association becomes eligible for renewal.

1. When a Child Policy term is deemed eligible for renewal, the system evaluates the Parent Policy. The Child Policy term can only be renewed if the Parent Policy also has a Renewal term that meets the following criteria.
• The Effective Period of the Parent Policy renewal term overlaps with that of the Child Policy renewal term by a minimum of one day.
• The Status of the Parent Policy renewal term is either Incomplete, Quoted, Referred, or Bound.
2. When a Child Policy term is renewed, the system verifies whether the selected renewal term from the Parent Policy has been designated as a Parent Policy.
   • If the renewal term from the original Parent Policy has also been designated as a Parent Policy, the system automatically creates the Master / Underlyer link between the Parent Policy renewal term and the Child Policy renewal term.
   • If the renewal term from the original Parent Policy has not been designated as a Parent Policy, the system does not create a link between the two renewal terms. The two new renewal terms are considered to be independent from one another. The implications for Program Policies and policy term Cancellations are described in further detail below.

Note: In the event that a Child Policy can not be renewed because an acceptable renewal term within the Parent Policy does not exist, the system returns an error message advising the user that the Child Policy cannot be renewed.

When a Parent Policy renewal term and Child Policy renewal term are automatically linked, the Program Policy links are automatically carried forward. If necessary, the association can be deleted by removing the Child Policy link in the Program Policy window. The Program Name can also be edited. Both actions require the ManageProgramPolicy security right.

Program Policies & Policy Term Cancellations

Due to the general nature of Master / Underlyer policy term associations, it is most often the case that a Child Policy term should be cancelled upon the cancellation of the Parent Policy term. This behavior can be configured to run automatically using the Automatic Cancellation feature available in the Automatic Processing section in the appropriate Master Covers.

The ParentProgramPolicyTermStatus() function discussed above was specifically introduced to address this business need. This function can be configured within a field to be used within a Trigger to drive the Automatic Cancellation of Child Policy terms when the Parent Policy term is in Cancellation - Quoted status. The system will regularly evaluate this trigger which, when evaluated to True, will drive the system to either rescind or confirm the cancellation according to the configuration.

Due to the fact that triggers used in Automatic Processing are evaluated outside of the context of the individual policy terms, any field(s) containing the ParentProgramPolicyTermStatus() function must be indexed in a Cross-Policy Data Configuration before this Trigger will be available for selection.

For additional information on the Automatic Cancellation feature, see the Automatic Processing section.