The Automatic Renewal Processing screen is divided into the following sections:
Toolbar Options
Renewal Type
Bill Method
Date Range
Current Status
There are four (4) options located on the Renewal Processing For <MM/DD/YYYY> screen:
Pre-Process Renewals
Process Renewals
Reset Status
Close
Note About the "Pre-Process" Function: Your implementation can have the capability of initiating pre-processed renewals before the current automatic renewal date. This allows your company to order Third Party information and then process a Renewal Underwriting image. It is controlled by an existing system setting that allows this function to work. The setting is in Diamond System Editor (Automatic Renewals folder) and is: "Advanced Renewal Processing." This setting needs to be set to "1" (Enable). When set to "1" and the call down to the implementation code returns "True," a Renewal underwriting image is created during the "Pre-Process" functions.
This selection is a daily process. It creates an internal "Renewal Queue" for all policies that are going to be renewed based on a specified numbers of days out. The system starts at the beginning of the queue and creates a Renewal Underwriting image for each policy it finds. Next, the system then begins looking at an implementation's company specific criteria. Here is an example of how a company might set their pre-processing requirements.
First, if any policy fails the underwriting renewal criteria evaluated in the underwriting engine, Diamond sends a Diary Item to the queue of the underwriter assigned to the policy.
If no action is taken by the user on the Underwriting Renewal image, let's say 91 days (as an example) before the policy's expiration date, the policy automatically renews at 50 days prior to the policy expiration. Note that the Underwriting Engine is used to address the management authority required to process a non-renewal between 91 and 95 days before the policy expiration and also to restrict non-renewals that are 90 days or less before the policy expiration.
If the policy passes the Renewal Underwriting criteria, the policy stays in the Renewal Queue.
Diamond then creates a Renewal Underwriting image during the pre-process. The reason this takes place is due to the 125 days out. This is to ensure that all changes that are applied to the policy are re-applied when the renewal is generated. When the Renewal Process finds the Renewal Underwriting image, the system will re-rate and find any new rates that were applied. Actual rating of the new image will not occur until immediately prior to billing to ensure any new rate sets are picked up.
The Diamond (Base) Renewal Process looks at the Renewal Queue and re-rates the Renewal Underwriting image, using the new effective rates if a rate change has occurred since the pre-process period and reapplies any changes. At this time, the "Pending" Renewal Underwriting image becomes a "Pending" renewal.
For example: Policies are processed for renewal at 50 days prior to the policy expiration date.
Example: The renewal process then converts the Pay Plan to a Renewal Pay Plan. For policies with the New Business Annual pay plan, Diamond converts to Renewal Annual pay plan. For policies with New Business 3-Pay pay plan, Diamond converts to Renewal 3-Pay pay plan.
Process Renewals creates a renewal transaction. (The transaction can either be created, rated and issued or created and left in a "Pending" status.)
This process uses the "From" and "To" dates shown on the Renewal Processing screen to find policies that are going to expire between certain dates. (Note: The Renewal Days is set up in the Diamond_CXX_Static_CompanyStateLob_renewalleaddays. The Insuresoft, LLC Implementation Team sets this up. This field is used to determine the maximum number of days prior to the expiration date a policy can be renewed.)
If a policy should not be renewed, then a user must manually flag the policy for non-renewal by completing a Non-Renewal transaction.
If a Policy has any type of transaction "Pending" (e.g., Cancellation, Endorsement, Pending In Legal Cancellation) the policy will not be renewed. The reason is that Diamond puts a "Pending Renewal" image on the policy during the Renewal Process. A policy can only have one (1) "Pending" image attached to it at one time. Once the "Pending" transaction is resolved, the renewal will then generate. (Note: A control process that does not involve additional implementation specific code will be used to monitor "Pending" endorsements that are preventing Renewals to process.)
The New Bus Renewal Lead Days Field in the Pay Plan Setup screen is used to determine when an installment should roll for renewal transactions. If a renewal installment should roll immediately to be printed with the Renewal Declaration, then the New Bus Renewal Lead Days field needs to be set to at least the same number of days used in the Diamond Database Diamond_CXX_Static, Table CompanyStateLob Column renewalleaddays. The renewal invoice will generate with the renewal DEC page at 50 days. These will be printed and mailed together.
For example: Every three (3) years, based on the Inception Date or First Written Date of the policy, the Ordinance and Law offer of coverage letter is generated (legal requirement).
An error log is created for any policy that errors out in the Business Logic during processing. These would be errors generated where the user was not allowed the opportunity to correct at issuance or during rating. Examples of this would be any "Pending" image that is being transacted against during Process or Process Non-Renewals.
Resetting the current status of the process can be done via the Reset Status button.
Exits the Automatic Renewal Processing for MM/DD/YYYY screen. Returns the Automatic Renewals Main Menu.
Three (3) choices available: Renewal Offers, Renewals or Both. The default is "Both."
If your company is using the Renewal Offer transaction, you will need to set up the following:
Renewal Offer Grace Period Days: The number of days after the expiration date before a renewal offer expires.
Renewal Offer Lead Days: The number of days before the expiration date of a policy that a renewal offer may be submitted on a policy.
Renewal Offer Upgrade Days: The maximum number of days after the expiration date of the previous version in which a renewal offer may be upgraded to renewal status.
These are located in the Company / State / LOB table.
Three (3) choices are available for the Renewal Billing Type: Direct Bill, Agency Bill or Both. The default is "Both."
The From / To date range uses a pre-determined number of days set up as Renewal Lead Days. This company-defined number determines the date range in which Renewal Offers and Renewals will be processed. This also is used to determine the maximum number of days prior to the expiration date a policy can be renewed.
In Diamond Version 515, a new table (Renewal Queue Log) was added that contains a record for each time the process is run. Each record contains the unique identifier, the current status of the process, the starting date and time, the ending date and time, the total number of policies issued, the total number of policies processed, the total number of policies submitted, the total number of policies to be processed, an indicator that shows if the Automatic Renewals process was scheduled through the Diamond Scheduler, and the unique identifier for the user whose credentials were used during execution.