Data feeds are generally available to General Agents (GA's), Brokerage General Agents (BGA's) and Broker Dealers. Read on to learn the Who, What, Why and Where of setting up data feeds.
Who can authorize a feed?
The Principal or head of the GA/BGA is the signing entity required to initiate a feed for your firm.
What is required to set up a feed?
Your agency/firm needs to have a selling contract with the Carrier. Your agency or firm may have several contracts that you have used over time with a Carrier and not all of these contracts may be eligible to receive a feed. This varies on a carrier by carrier basis. In addition to the proper contracting, some sort of Letter of Authorization (LOA) and/or carrier form is usually required, although some feeds require an addition to the selling contract with the carrier. All TIN's and business names associated with the Firm are also needed. Since the requirements for each feed are unique, our team will work with you to provide the correct documentation needed for each feed. We will them submit the forms and work with the carrier to get the feeds set up on your behalf.
Why would my Firm want to set up a feed?
Since data feeds come directly from the carrier, you will receive up-to-date values for the policy- no more waiting on an Annual Statement to update values. Feeds also allow your firm to more quickly identify policies which have gone into lapse pending status or which have had other changes which can impact policy performance.
Where do I go to see the information provided from the data feed?
Once a policy from your platform is matched to a policy coming in via a feed, the information is available on the policy's Detail page, along with the date of the information.
When can we expect a feed to be provided?
Once the required documentation is returned to Proformex, it usually takes 3-8 weeks for the request to be reviewed by the carrier, provided to Proformex and matched to your platform.
Which policies will be included on the feed?
The data feed may not include all the policies in your book of business and this can be for a variety of reasons. The most common reason is the policy's status- carriers provide inforce data feeds- so policies which are no longer inforce are not included. There are several other reasons a policy may not be included on your data feed, click here for an article with more information.