After working with agents for the last six years, we’ve learned what’s necessary to include in ACORD forms and have built that knowledge into our own ACORD-specific Smart Forms: the Enlightened ACORDs. For agents looking to place small commercial policies that require ACORD forms, our Enlightened ACORDs are a digitally-forward solution available to all Broker Buddha customers and serve as the basis for our new Broker Buddha Lite offering.

Right now, completing ACORD forms is painful work. While access to digital insurance has been increasing, 75% of customers who attempted to purchase insurance online still report problems. This is particularly a problem for agents looking to help small businesses procure standard insurance policies like General Liability, Commercial Property, Workers’ Compensation, and Umbrella policies that encompass multiple types.

Completing an ACORD form is beyond the capabilities of almost all of an agency’s clients who are often unfamiliar with their nuances and details. Knowing what is required by underwriters and how to answer many of the questions on the forms necessitates a level of knowledge that only agents possess. Therefore, with clients unable to complete the forms themselves, agents are left with unnecessary administrative work to get the forms completed accurately.

As a result, to get a commercial quote, agents are forced to collect exposure data through multiple emails, phone calls, and questionnaires with clients. Next, they have to manually transpose those exposures into the ACORD form or to their AMS to generate the forms and deliver them to carriers.

It’s a lengthy process subject to errors and inconsistencies. What’s more, full digitization has been slow across the industry, and almost 50% of US agents surveyed by McKinsey said they were dissatisfied with the level of digital signature capabilities from their primary carrier.

An alternative to this scenario is using the Enlightened ACORD forms. Our intuitive design reduces the complexity of the form, with initial inputs determining which questions are displayed next to the user. Completion can only occur when clients have filled in all the required fields so Enlightened ACORD forms include helpful tooltips to ensure the correct information is delivered. Our forms also dynamically produce a final PDF version on completion by the client automatically, making the process even simpler.

The data collection process is further streamlined as fields related to the broker remain hidden from the client, and clients are only required to answer questions that appear on multiple forms once. Enlightened ACORDs can also leverage Broker Buddha’s natively integrated eSignature capabilities to accelerate response time, reducing the time it takes for agents to place a policy and increasing client satisfaction.

Enlightened ACORDs are just the latest in a series of new product announcements designed to speed up and simplify the commercial insurance placement process.

If you’d like to learn more about using our Enlightened ACORDs or sign up for Broker Buddha Lite, get in touch to book a demo via our website.

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