Some Users may encounter a value provided from a data feed which conflicts with the policy's Annual Statement or contract. Read on to learn what the cause may be.
GA's and BGA's have the option to request data feeds directly from some carriers. When Proformex receives a data feed, our policy is to supply the information from the data feed to our Users exactly as it is received- even if that data feed has values which are in conflict with other information. We consider the data feed to be a source of truth for the policy.
There are times when information in the data feed is in conflict with information the carrier supplies in other ways: on statements, via the phone, etc. There are several reasons this may occur.
The carrier has an internal issue generating the feed.
Generating and sending the information contained in a data feed is a complicated process and errors occur. When we are able to identify an error in the data feed, we alert the carrier. Carriers then must research and confirm the error, identify the cause of the error and then prioritize the work involved to correct the error- all of which takes time.
Complicated calculations are not available for all data points- resulting in incorrect values.
Term conversion dates are a good example of this. Many carriers have rules around term conversion dates which depend on the age of the insured. The term conversion date exists- and is sent in the data feed, but the contract may have a stipulation which negates the term conversion date when the insured reaches a certain age, causing the term conversion option to automatically expire. If the carrier has not included a calculation for the conversion date which considers the insured's current age, then they will continue to pass the date- even though it is no longer correct.
The calculations and processes used to generate statements and other carrier provided information for the policy are often different from what generates the data feed, which leads to two different values: one on the feed and one on the statement.
I expect a feed for a policy, but I'm not getting one- what's wrong?
The data feed which carriers provide is an inforce data feed. If a policy has been terminated, paid out a death claim or is no longer inforce for any reason, then there will be no data feed for the policy. The age of a policy may also be a factor- many policies written in the 80's, 90's and even into the early 2000's are on legacy systems and the carrier may not have transitioned over to an electronic feed system. There are several other reasons a policy may not be getting a data feed, click here to learn more.
Timing of the feed.
Some feeds are received monthly and some feeds are received daily- it depends on the Carrier and the set up of your particular feed. If a feed is received monthly, transactions which occur during that month are not reflected in your platform until the next feed is received. For example, if a loan is initiated, a premium is changed or the face amount is reduced in a policy, the feed and the actual values will be out of sync until the next feed update. Proformex displays the date the feed information was received at the top right corner of any Policy Details page, so you always know the date the feed was updated. 
Use the Change Log on any policy to trace the history of the values provided.
Each contract has a Change Log available from the Details page of the contract. The Change Log will show you the source and date of the data values available. Click here for an article on the Change Log.
If you find a value which you believe is incorrect or which is conflict with other information from the carrier, please contact your Customer Service Manager.
They will research the issue to determine the cause. If it is an internal issue, we will fix it as quickly as possible. If the issue is with the data received from a carrier, we will contact the carrier to confirm and alert them to the issue. Until the carrier fixes the data in the feed which they provide us, Proformex will be unable to stop the feed or cease sending the feed to users.