PRODUCT: CNA Small Business Quote Advantage

COMPANY: CNA

BEST RATING: A (Excellent)

AVAILABILITY: Coverage is available through independent and captive brokers and agents appointed by CNA.

FOCUS: As agent-focused carriers compete using ease-of-use and online tools, CNA has cut its online submission process to one page with 10-15 data points while adding behind-the-scenes processing capabilities. The result: streamlined online quoting for its flagship small business product to deliver two bindable quotes within 45 seconds for nearly 200 focus classes of business, including health care, technology, professional services and financial institutions. The company plans to add workers compensation in the coming months.

CNA Connect®, the company’s flagship BOP service, already existed through the company’s agent portal at cnacentral.com, but Quote Advantage offers faster speed, says Greg Dasher, assistant vice president, product and underwriting at CNA.

Agents can even place Quote Advantage on their own websites as an online application form. The tool delivers the application information to CNA Central, the carrier’s platform, and then returns the quote to the agent’s website.

By improving agency efficiencies, “we are trying to be a champion for the independent agent as the marketplace evolves,” Dasher says. He adds that by shaving the three or four pages of required data input for the typical CSR-based quotation down to just one page, Quote Advantage removes costly page-processing time, and estimates that the overall time savings is as much as four minutes per quote. “Agents like that,” he says, especially if the service “is going to be customer-facing on an agent website.”

An agency can control which of its agents can access Quote Advantage and offer it as a future privilege to newer producers. After rolling out Quote Advantage to its base of 3,300 agents, “feedback from agents has been overwhelmingly positive,” Dasher says. “They are finding they like that ease of processing and are using it in ways they hadn’t originally thought of.”

UNDERWRITING: Multiple limits and coverages are available through the new capability, which delivers two bindable quotes so the agent can present their customer with a choice. The first quote is based on standard coverages for the customer's business while the second is based on the specific exposures of the customer’s business and offers a “customized coverage option which includes choice endorsements for that particular risk,” Dasher says. The customized quote is “based on data we track from a claims standpoint,” he says, and “might quote them a higher GL limit.” Once the agent receives the initial two quotes, the final policy can be an edited version of the choices.

Quote Advantage works on the assumption that the customer has a single-location risk and has had no loss in the previous three years. The tool maintains underwriting discipline as agents are presented with guidelines for risk acceptability. Contract and appointment process for Quote Advantage is managed through CNA’s local branch offices.

MINIMUM PREMIUM: Varies by risk.

TARGET: Independent agents who write small business insurance.

COVERAGE TERRITORY: All states except Alaska and Hawaii.

CONTACT: Greg Dasher, assistant vice president, product and underwriting; CNA, 333 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL 60604; 312-822-7796.

Ronimarie Acord is an IA contributor.