Life & Annuity Program and Implementation Activity

Transcription

1 Life & Annuity Program and Implementation Activity (PAIR Report) September 2014 ACORD is a non-profit membership standards development organization (SDO) which develops and maintains forms and data standards and provides professional and technical support to the global insurance industry. This Activity Guide is prepared to regularly inform ACORD members and other interested parties on the standards development efforts underway in a non-technical manner. This publication is produced quarterly with the first quarter introducing the priorities for the year, the mid-year reports providing status and the year-end reporting a summary of accomplishments. Any and all comments and questions are appreciated. Please contact either the standards program at [email protected]. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 1

2 Contents Introduction... 3 Purpose of this Guide... 3 The ACORD Life & Annuity (LA) Program... 3 The ACORD Life & Annuity (LA) Program Steering Committee Members... 4 What s New in the ACORD Life & Annuity (LA) Program... 6 Objectives L&A Program Key Activities & Work Streams... 8 Program Initiatives... 8 Working Groups... 9 Architecture Claims Employee Benefits Product Distribution Forms & Data Mapping Product Modeling Program Working Group Transaction Specifications Standards Communities and Industry Associations Appendix: Program History & Achievements Achievments 2014 we will detail 2014 accomplishments in the 4th quarter PAIR report Achievements ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 2

3 Introduction Purpose of this Guide This guide provides quarterly updates to all standards participants and interested parties regarding the current activities, issues and accomplishments in the ACORD Life & Annuity Standards Program. The ACORD Life & Annuity (LA) Program The ACORD L&A Program was established in 1996 to provide insurance process, messaging and data standards for the life, annuity, disability and long-term care marketplace. The scope of the standards includes all insurance products which have as a product component the risk of death (mortality), disability (morbidity) or longevity (annuity) of people. It focuses on the entire insurance value chain from product design, selection, presentation, sale, policy issuance, in-force policy activity and through to benefit and claim management. This program also includes related non-product activities such as commissions, distribution management, licensing & appointment in general any shared information need between two or more segments of the Life & Annuity insurance community. It involves all constituencies in the life insurance community including agents & brokers, distributors, insurers, service providers, software providers, and regulators. The Program manages two specific three sets of standards; two data - the LA XML Standard and the LA EDI DTCC Standard as and one form - LA standard forms. Other key deliverables include Transaction Specifications Standards as part of the LA XMl Data Standard. All are available at in the Standards publication area. For more information and resources be sure to check out the L&A community page on the ACORD website L&A Program Implementation Director Rick Heil [email protected] L&A Program Manager new person pending L&A Steering Committee Chair Marianne Sherman, AXA Public Program Information Public Standards Site Member Collaboration Site (Teams) ACORD Governance Documents ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 3

4 The ACORD Life & Annuity (LA) Program Steering Committee Members The following committee members have been appointed by the ACORD Standards Committee (ASC) to lead and provide oversight to the Life & Annuity Program. Insurance Carrier Members: Marianne Sherman, AXA Committee Chair Brent Osborne, Lincoln Financial Committee Vice-Chair Ken Leibow, Genworth Joseph P Murphy (JP) II, Nationwide Frank Norton, Pacific Life Daniel E. Wojcik, Protective Life Christopher Poisella, Prudential Financial ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 4

5 Association Liaison Members: Gord Willms, CLIEDIS Randi Gordon, DTCC Christopher McDaniel, IRI ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 5

6 What s New in the ACORD Life & Annuity (LA) Program The following items are recent updates and or accomplishments: For the first time in ACORD Life Program history approved, executed and published a full iteration of the base standard v 2.32 in one month! This is a significant milestone in both providing the industry with needed new model elements - supporting the new Policy Administration Transaction (113) AND establishing a precedence & capability for ACORD Life Standards to agilely, quickly respond to industry needs! Successfully completed Cycle 1 of 2014 DTCC L&A XML Release which included 69 Maintenance Requests. Published the following 7 new or updated transaction specification during 2 nd Quarter which can be found on the following data standards webpage: Public L&A Specifications & Standards: Link Member L&A Specifications & Standards: Link o ACORD LA Bank Account Verification Transaction Specification m2.31v1.0 o ACORD LA Policy Administration Transaction Specification m2.32v1.0 o ACORD LA Distributor Profile Transaction Specification m2.31v1.0 o ACORD LA Fund Transfer Transaction Specification m2.30v1.1 (agile update!) o ACORD LA Investment Profile Transaction Specification m2.31v2.0.1 (tech update) o ACORD LA First Notice of Loss Transaction Specification m2.31v1.0 o ACORD LA Security Credential Administration Transaction m2.30v1.2 (agile update!) We now have 20 Transaction Specification Standards available. Furthermore we now have 9 certifications of implementations using these Specs. There are an additional two dozen new specs in the pipeline. Certified nine member transactions as valid to a specific transaction specification standards (a first!). This became a requirement for awards for 2014 AIF conference. The Program is experimenting with formal business process modeling defining what the basic process is and where expected transactional specifications fit within the processes. We are using the OMG Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) formal standard modeling notation which is proving to be a very good fit expressing process in a formal method that is easily understood and critiqued by subject matter experts. This approach is proving effective in level setting understanding and identifying where organizations use similar terminology to meaning substantively different tasks, or, different terminology but doing the same thing. It is also assisting in understanding where each Transaction Specifications clearly fits in a larger process. Over a dozen process models are now in development and being used to understand the scope and role of each Transaction Specification. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 6

7 Objectives 2014 This Program Activity Implementation Report focuses primarily on current activities. The overall objective is to refine and enhance the standards and support implementations by continuing to improve the standards development processes. The 2014 L&A Goals and Objectives are listed in the following table. These are unchanged as of this quarterly report though progress continues on each Goals Focus Areas Objectives Expected Outcome Refine and Enhance Standards & SDO Processes Build Awareness & Expertise of Standards Improve the consistency and usability of the standards by ensuring enhancements requests are clear and complete. Continue aligning L&A efforts with the ACORD Standards Development Organization s (SDO) agile and performance improvement initiatives. Improve the clarity and specificity of the transaction specifications to ensure the needs of the user are met. Improve the progression and evolution of standards. Grow and strengthen member engagement in the standards development process and activities. Provide greater awareness on the resources used to obtain standard deliverables and information (i.e. acord.org website). Improve consistency in message model. Improve efficiency and effectiveness of standard development processes. Utilize Message Forge to document transaction specifications. Develop roadmap and impact analysis for standards major version. Establish communication goals to build awareness. Promote New L&A ACE s in 2014 Submit (and review) Maintenance Requests to ensure improvements are made toward the consistency and interpretation of the message model. Deliver new L&A XML Standards in Spring and Fall Release. Deliver new DTCC EDI Standards in Spring and Fall Release. Publish at least 2 new, and or updated transaction spec per quarter. Documented approach to include list of desired enhancements, timeline and impact analysis for standards migration. Increased awareness and usage of ACORD deliverables and resources (i.e. Transaction Specifications). Refine & Enhance Communication Collaborate with members and industry groups to improve communication and gain a better understanding of needs. Share value and direction of ACORD standards. Collaborate with industry groups and partners to balance working groups and priorities. Hold face-to-face meetings with membership at ACORD LOMA and/or AIF. Clear communication of ACORD's direction and strengthened relationships with industry groups and members. Provide a face to face forum for open member dialog and interactions. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 7

8 L&A Program Key Activities & Work Streams The L&A Programs activities fall into two major categories; Program Initiatives and Working Groups. Work in each of these areas is described below. A note from Program Chair, Marianne Sherman, AXA - October, 2014 Greetings! Dear fellow member of the ACORD Life Standards Program. There is a tremendous groundswell of activity within the Life Program, ranging from a phenomenal growth in our colleagues seeking ACORD Certified Expert designations (ACE), to the growing catalog of Transaction Specifications - now approaching two dozen published new standards this year all coming from our working groups, members and partner associations, to the wonderful rigor around which our seven active working groups are applying business process modeling (BPMN) to their transaction specification work in solving members modeling requests all now in record time. We even produced a complete base model specification v2.32 in a single month from request to publication! With so much great activity and accomplishment to report, perhaps the best message I can share with you is that I, the other Program Steering Committee Members, the Working Group Chairs, and in fact all your fellow ACORD members are all here to help. We love to share! So during working group calls, in the community forums (you are following, right?), at the forthcoming ACORD Implementation Forum (AIF) or simply via & phone please be encouraged to reach out. We have so much wonderful work to share to help our individual organizations to effectively leverage standards we build & maintain together. We are all volunteers, all enthusiastic drivers of change in our industry and fellow journeyman in this grand adventure of driving consistency in process, forms and data exchange via industry consensual standards. Program Initiatives The L&A Program Steering Committee has set up several major initiatives independent of day-to-day standards maintenance responsibilities and the working groups activities (details following). These include; The Agile Standards Development Organization (SDO) ACORD has been developing standards for over 40 years. Throughout our history we have implemented innovative improvements in how we develop, manage and deliver new and updated standards. In 2011 we examined how we might develop and deliver standards to ensure we are effectively involving the right people with the right information to solve industry issues at the right time. This effort, which is being managed across all programs, is shaping the way we evolve and publish our standards. Transaction Specifications The Life Program has realized it now manages and develops two important standards resources; the Life Data Model Standard(aka ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 8

9 Help File) and the (newer) Transaction Specification Standards. The Model provides a vocabulary for expressing insurance information however it may be needed, especially useful intra-organizationally. Transaction Specifications provide a detailed exacting recipe uniform exchange of information across systems and organizations. The principle focus of all standards activity in the life Program is on developing these more exacting Transaction Specifications while continuing to manage the underlying data model to support the Transaction Specifications. Communication With so much activity and production both within programs and globally across programs continually creating and improving communication is a vital task. The Program continues to improve the content as well as delivery of standards development information. Working Groups The driving force of standards maintenance is our working groups made up of industry volunteers who spend valuable time understanding gaps & issues and developing the optimum solutions for each within the standards. Get involved it s easy. Contact the facilitator for more information or simply join in any one of the recurring conversations to add your voice! Visit the L&A Communities site and FOLLOW working groups at this link! Working Group Status Indicator Definitions: Good Group is meeting regularly, with representative attendance, has defined objectives it is achieving on schedule. Warning Group is correcting its issues and expected to be Good next report. Critical Group is lacking in attendance, defined objectives or progress On Hold Future direction is being determined. The current groups are listed below in alphabetic order. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 9

10 Architecture Chairs: Gary Parent, Vertex William Stallings, CNO Facilitator & Business Architect: Karen Mottley Latest Status (updated Sept, 2014) Green This group focuses on providing architectural enhancements to the L&A XML standards. This group submitted a total of 15 Maintenance Request (comprised of hundreds of items) to address architectural needs and clarifications to the standard. LAWG continues to improve the clarity of the standards with a focus on clarifying documentation and applying documentation conventions to model elements. The group continues to resolve issues presented to it for each cycle. It is doing invaluable work continually improving the quality of the semantics of the model. There is an active effort to grow expert participation within the group with peers seek one another out and reaching out to solution provider, carrier and distributor partners to bring their expertise to bear on the standards. This group reviews architectural issues it discovers or that are presented to it by members and makes resolution recommendations; it acts as a technical conduit between the other ACORD Standards Programs and the Life Program and provides technical refinements / improvements to the Standard. This is an ongoing group continually providing technical expertise to the L&A community as well continually addressing technical gaps and issues in the standards. Key objectives include: Give architectural advice regarding referred problems by individual member companies or by Working Groups. Develop proposals for enhancements to the standards that do not fall within the scope of any active Working Group. Documentation of best practices in areas of the model that currently cause confusion. Suggestions for improvements to the ACORD Life Standards documentation to clarify use of the standard. Create MR items to correct problems identified during LAWG activities. Responsibilities include: 1. Representation of the L&A program on the Common Services Joint Architecture group and actively influencing the direction of that group. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 10

11 2. Assist with Framework development by representing the Life and Annuity perspective on any technical issues that arise. 3. Modeling support to resolve business issues raised by other working groups, in order to allow those groups to focus on content rather than modeling. 4. Determine direction and assist with architectural issue resolution for ACORDbased web services. 5. Coordination of architectural needs and issues across the L&A XML, EDI (DTCC), and Forms standards. Benefits of Participation: Participants in the L&A Architecture Working Group will gain insight into the architectural and technical issues facing the ongoing maintenance and future development of the Standard. By lending their experience and expertise, participants will be able to guide the Standard towards greater efficiency and ease of use by applying the techniques learned in the field and in so doing broaden their own education through this exposure to the wisdom of their knowledgeable colleagues. Meeting Frequency: This working group meets every 1 st and 3 rd Monday of each month from 2:00pm-3:00pm ET. Schedule & Objectives: Key items/topics of focus this cycle (in addition to support of other groups Q&A and technical MR review where appropriate) Oversight of base Data Model (aka Help File) cleanup efforts; includes completion of documentation for elements that are undocumented, have poor semantic definitions and enforcing established conventions for existing documentation. Documenting conventions that are considered tribal knowledge to enable consistent implementation of the standard and provide references for ACE candidates. Review the narrative sections of the data model (sections 1 through 4) for accuracy and update as appropriate. Naming and Design Rules - Apply L&A XML Standard Naming and Design Rules (much of which is undocumented, so documenting) and address corresponding NDR issues such as compatibility guidelines, rules for developing and maintaining Lookup Tables, cleaning up the sublist documentation, etc.). The group leverages the ACORD General Naming and Design Rules (NDR) to provide guidance with design patterns not yet established in the Life Standards. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 11

12 Claims Chairs: Chad Loomis - Nationwide Harish Patil - MetLife Facilitator: Rick Heil [email protected] Business Architect: Karen Mottley [email protected] Latest Status (updated Sept, 2014) Green The group has documented the use case needs for the unclaimed property process which was used to create the Notification Process Transaction Specification. This is a Party Inquiry Transaction that is used to do a search on Death Notification services, such as the Social Security Administration s Death Master File (DMF), or other databases or vital record sources to see if a potential match appears for any deceased owners and or insured/annuitants. The group has also begun working on a BAU (Business as Usual) Death claims business process modeling diagram to outline the various processes and messaging needs throughout the claims lifecycle. A business process modeling diagram will also be created for the Notification Process to outline the entire process and identify further messaging needs. The group is well underway in defining the first of several claims related messages; an ACORD LA Death Inquiry Service Transaction Specification. This is a form of Party Inquiry Transaction that is used to do a search on death inquiry services, such as the Social Security Administration Death Master File (DMF), or other databases or vital record sources to see if a potential match appears for any deceased owners and or insured/annuitants. The focus of this group is to refine the modeling of claim information in the ACORD Life & Annuity standard by standardizing the handling of claims across lines of business for Life, Annuity, LTC and Health. This is one of our first groups to base its work from the start on more detailed and explicit business process modeling using the formal Business Process Modeling Notation standard BPMN. This is proving to be an extremely valuable exercise to level set and document where each transaction fits in the business work flow. Benefits of Participation: Participants from your organization will gain advanced and practical knowledge about the detailed development of ACORD standards for all aspects of claims. Participants will gain advanced insight, and be able to directly influence the direction of the XML message development as it pertains to claims data. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 12

13 Meeting Frequency: This working group meets every 1 st and 3 rd Wednesday of each month from 1:00pm-2:30pm ET. Schedule & Objectives Prioritize and resolve issues to address claim modeling needs. Document use case and data element needs. Develop visual BPMN models for how claims processing process works Identify gaps and submit Maintenance Requests (MR) as needed Produce Transaction Specification(s) to document business requirements, data element needs, sample XML, etc. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 13

14 Employee Benefits Product Distribution Chairs: Edie Bice - Unum Facilitator: Rick Heil [email protected] Business Architect: Karen Mottley [email protected] Latest Status (updated June, 2014) Green This group is a new group in 2014 which has fit full stride quickly with great carrier sponsorship especially with Unum, Standard and Guardian with many others contributing. This group is co-sponsored by The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB). It is documenting the enrollment process (via BPMN) to ensure solid understanding and agreement of the various aspects and main tasks within the enrollment process, and to identify the various messages and scope of work to be addressed by this group. While this group focuses on the process, a core sub-group is more frequently as well as face-to-face to define starting requirements and initial modeling of data element needs to create transaction specifications in preparation for the full group to review and validate. The main focus this past quarter is on a new Employee Benefits Enrollment Transaction Specifications. The working draft is nearly complete in respect to participant modeling and is now resolving product/policy enrollment information modeling- pre-enrollment and resulting annual (and new) enrollment. This specification is being designed to actively meet the needs of participating carriers for immediate implementation in projects within their firms; providing them immediate value and the industry validated standards put into actual practice. The focus of this effort is standardization of group insurance data exchanged with Third Parties; e.g., Private Exchanges, Public Exchanges, Benefit Administration Providers, Broker Partners. Benefits of Participation: Participants from your organization will gain advanced and practical knowledge about the detailed development of ACORD standards for all aspects of employee benefits. Participants will gain advanced insight, and be able to directly influence the direction of the XML message development as it pertains to employee benefit data. Meeting Frequency: This working group meets every 2 nd and 4 th Wednesday of each month from 3:00pm-4:30pm ET. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 14

15 Schedule & Objectives Gather and prioritize issues to address employee benefit needs. Document process, use case and data element needs. Identify gaps and submit Maintenance Requests (MR) as needed Produce Transaction Specification(s) to document business requirements, data element needs, sample XML, etc. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 15

16 Forms & Data Mapping Chairs: Rolando Rodriguez John Hancock Pam Simonds VERTEX, Inc. Facilitator: Rick Heil Business Architect: Karen Mottley Latest Status (updated Sept, 2014) Green The group has drafted a proposal for the NAIC to consider for clarification and simplification of the ACORD 759 Replacement form. The group has asked ACORD to contacting the states for their feedback, which is underway. The group completed signature and contact information section of the 759 Replacement form for the model states to the 760 CA Replacement form to ensure consistency and come up with guidelines on form development as it relates to roles and certain language used on the forms. The group also devised adjustments for uniformity and simplification of the Washington State Replacement form. A newly identified opportunity the group is eagerly exploring is working in a renewed partnership with the IIPRC Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission to see how we can work together to coordinate development of product standards in parallel with ACORD data and form standards much earlier in the product filing process. Both groups are working together to explore ideas with a focus on initial eas(ier) wins to establish positive practices going forward. The group will be discussing and prioritizing the next focus for form development and will be scheduling the ACORD 951 Exchange/Rollover/Transfer form for review in a future meeting. A major focus of the group is to better understand why forms adoption has been a challenge and work to resolve identified issues, barriers or communication issues to increase form adoption and use. A session at ACORD Implementation Forum is focused on this effort. With the growing success of adoption of the ACORD 951 Exchange Form, the group is determine success factors and how to apply them to other forms adoption efforts. This group s objective is to address the form development and maintenance needs for the Life & Annuity program. This consists of the review of existing forms, and the development of new forms as determined by the group. The group will also work with ACORD to ensure that mappings to the LA XML Data Model are provided to ensure electronic portability of the forms. Benefits of Participation: Participants from your organization will gain advanced and practical knowledge about the detailed development of ACORD standards for form development. Participants will gain advanced insight, and be able to directly influence ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 16

17 the direction of the XML message development as it pertains to mapping from forms to data, as well as the continued forms development efforts. Meeting Objectives: This working group meets every 1 st and 3 rd Thursday of each month from 2:00pm-3:00pm ET. Schedule & Milestones Standardize State Specific Replacement Forms o NAIC States Prioritize and address high priority issues to address form development needs. Produce and submit Maintenance Requests (MR) as needed ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 17

18 Product Modeling Chairs: Gary Parent, Vertex Stephen Isar, Lincoln Financial Group Facilitator: Rick Heil Business Architect: Karen Mottley Latest Status (updated Sept, 2014) HOLD The group is on hold for third quarter as other groups (Employee Benefits, Claims) continue their work building requirement for product modeling of Disability/Health type products. With more detailed requirements the group will then determine documentation and modeling improvements desired in the model to expand Product modeling for these products. The group also is reviewing common narrative to share across product related specifications (PPfA, PPfL, PPfTerm, PPfH) to insure uniform implementation. Other issues related to Product modeling are being collected for when the group resumes, in the interim the PWG is able to resolve simpler clarifications arising day-to-day. This is a critical core group of expertise in the complicated and complex area of Product modeling, maintaining and growing the group expertise is a long term objective. When restarted the group plans to proactively recruit fellow architects, modelers and product experts to further refine and enhance the Life model. This group provides ongoing support and guidance regarding the development of all products within the ACORD Life & Annuity model. Much work has been done to enhance the existing Product Profiles for Life ACORD LA 1201 Policy Product Transmittal to include better defined product functionality and also correlation to the suggested enhancements to the New Business for Life ACORD LA 103 New Business Submission Transaction to ensure end-to-end compatibility. The group continues to focus on defining the business needs and prioritizing the development of enhancements to the ACORD Life Standards relating to all products included in the L&A Standard, with considerable current focus on Disability/Health products (supporting Claims and Employee Benefits WG). The group continues to assist members in the implementation and updating of transactions related to products, as well as product development. Benefits of Participation: Participants implementing and enhancing the ACORD LA 103 New Business Submission Transaction for the purpose of supporting pre-issue, issue, and post-issue processing will benefit from this working group. Participants implementing and enhancing the ACORD LA 1201 Policy Product Transmittal in order to define their products electronically to support internal and external systems will also greatly benefit from this working group. The information and resources gained from participation in this group will help companies improve efficiencies between insurance carriers and ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 18

19 distributor partners via the use of a standard. Use of the Policy Product Transmittal helps to define a consistent automated method for new business submission; thereby reducing numerous errors and ambiguities within applications submitted through manually intensive processes. Participants gain insight on how to achieve great cost savings to companies while providing a consistent method for exchanging information with trading partners. Meeting Frequency: This working group meets every 1 st Friday of each month from 12:00pm-1:30pm ET, and every 3 rd Friday from 10:30am-12:00pm ET. Schedule & Objectives Address MR s and questions referred to the group regarding product modeling. Prioritize and address issues related to product modeling needs. Gather product details for transaction specification development. Address remaining Disability and Health Products based on priorities of the group. Coordinate with other LA groups; specifically the Program Working Group, to align product modeling with new business and other common issues. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 19

20 Program Working Group Chair: Sandy Hampel, EbixExchange Nancy Pica, Prudential No Picture Available Facilitator: Rick Heil Business Architect: Karen Mottley Latest Status (updated Sept, 2014) Green The 3rd quarter was primarily devoted to reviewing the LA Maintenance Request (MR) for the LA XML cycle in preparation for plenary and voting. A total of 65 MRs have been received with just over a third reviewed and approved this cycle. All are expected to be reviewed and ready for submission to the full membership for voting on the 2.33 standard on schedule in November, A Program - and ACORD - first was the on-demand, versus normal on-schedule, production of a new version of the base standard (v2.32) in just one month! Upon request from several members for a version of the base model to support the new 113 Policy Administration Transaction Specification to support multiple vendor, carrier and distributor implementation projects a unplanned, new incremental base model XML standard was recommended; v2.32. The PWG agreed, worked out the details, requested the Program Steering Committee to approve, which they did, and proceeded to manage a full accelerated cycle with review, approval, voting ballot, candidate release and publication in exactly one month while meeting all SDO requirements. This major milestone not only addressed an immediate opportunity but establishes a new best practice and capability for supporting any industry standard need going forward in an agile, rapid proactive and still SDO compliant fashion. A total of seven (a new record) transaction specifications were approved by this group during the 3rd quarter to coincide with publication of the supporting base 2.32 and 2.33 data model specifications. Which includes the following: o ACORD LA Bank Account Verification Transaction Specification m2.31v1.0 o ACORD LA Policy Administration Transaction Specification m2.32v1.0 o ACORD LA Distributor Profile Transaction Specification m2.31v1.0 o ACORD LA Fund Transfer Transaction Specification m2.30v1.1 (agile update!) o ACORD LA Investment Profile Transaction Specification m2.31v2.0.1 (tech update) o ACORD LA First Notice of Loss Transaction Specification m2.31v1.0 o ACORD LA Security Credential Administration Transaction m2.30v1.2 (agile update!) A tremendous amount of momentum has been increased due to the recent approvals. The Transaction Specification Review Team (a subset of the PWG) is thoroughly reviewing all Trans Specs in preparation for PWG approval. The Transaction Specification Review Team meets every Monday from 4-5pm ET. The group has completed the review of the items on the Future Version List for major release consideration, so that ACORD staff can draft a road map which will include a preliminary of items that will be in the major release. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 20

21 The Life & Annuity Program Working Group (LA PWG) is a core working group of all members responsible for the execution of activities within the Life & Annuity Program. It provides a single point for all major decisions, resolving disputes at working group level, creating (sub) working groups and teams as needed for focused work and rapid issue resolution. A key role of the PWG is the management of issues within the LA Program ensuring all issues are addressed in a timely manner, supporting use of the standards. The LA PWG also provides a forum for reviewing and approving iteratively-produced draft specifications, and recommending adoption by the LA Program Steering Committee. Benefits of Participation: Participants new to the ACORD Standards and the Maintenance Request (MR) process will gain valuable insight by directly participating in the SDO standards processes in action. By sharing in the review process participants are exposed to the broad scope of the Standard and the nuances associated with the art of development through consensus. Participants are able to keep tabs on the direction of changes to the Standard and pilot the Standard in support of their and the industry s needs. Meeting Frequency: This working group meets when there are MR s to review and usually meets on Thursdays from 10:00am-11:30am. Additional Friday meetings may be scheduled as needed. Schedule & Objectives Review MR s to ensure the submitter needs are met and MR s are well-formed and optimal improvements to the standards in preparation for full member vote. Manage, prioritize and address issues for the program. Produce and submit Maintenance Requests (MR) as needed. Review and recommend for approval, by the Program Steering Committee, each Transaction Specifications Standard. Review and prioritize major release enhancements on future version list to create a major version roadmap. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 21

22 Transaction Specifications Standards One of the primary findings of our agile SDO initiative was the need for defining detailed specifications for how a consistent standard or consistent message should be crafted from the overall LA data model vocabulary. Nearly all members and users of the standard expressed a need and desire for greater consistency in the implementation of messages, so ACORD developed formalized Transaction Specifications, as an addition to the Data Model Vocabulary Specification (aka Help File), that defines precisely how a message should be designed in support of a specific business process or activity (and aligned to a capability in the Framework Capability Model). Said differently, the ACORD LA XML Standards are now expressed in two sets of specifications (each open standards in their own right); a general vocabulary / data model specification (aka help file) and detailed transaction specifications. Going forward these now represent a significant new resource for standards users to develop to a well-defined benchmark and express precisely what their system supports or needs. We support the 103 has no precise meaning, however support of a ACORD LA New Business for Long Term Care TS NBFLTCm2.30v1.0 has a very precise design that may be validated to a precise schema, a defined set of data elements and even code list with no private extensions. Trans Specs now are a formal, consistent way of doing a specified task. As of the end of September, 2014 there are two dozen Transaction Specifications in progress as active in progress drafts (19) are on hold capturing edits as we answer user questions or as next iteration of published specs (33). Transaction Specifications are the major focus of working groups and staff efforts now complimenting and often driving maintenance requests updates to the base standard model vocabulary. Catalog of Published Transaction Specification Standards Sept Published Transaction Specifications PUBLISHED TRANSACTION SPECIFICATIONS Description ACORD IRI LA Product Profile for Annuity Transaction Specification (PPFA- IRIm2.30v4.0.2) - TransType 1201 : ACORD LA Arrangement Administration Transaction Specification (ARRANGEADMINm2.30v1.0) - TransType 107 ACORD LA Bank Account Verification Transaction Specification (BANKACCTVERIFICATIONm2.31v1.0) - TransType 230 : 23000/23001 ACORD LA Distributor Profile Transaction Specification (DPm2.31v4.0.1) - TransType 1204 : ACORD LA Document Send Requirement Status Transaction Specification (DOCSENDSTATUSm1.28v1.0.xml) - TransType 1122 : 1122 ACORD LA Document Send Transaction Specification (DOCSENDm1.28v1.0) - TransType 121 : ACORD LA Fund Transfer Transaction Specification (FUNDXFRm2.31v1.1) - TransType 102 Published v v v v v v v.1.1 ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 22

23 ACORD LA Investment (Fund) Product Profile Transaction (IPPm2.31v2.0.1) - TransType 1202 : ACORD LA LIMRA Annuity Survey Transaction Specification (LASMm2.29v1.0) - TransType 180 : ACORD LA LIMRA Life Survey Transaction Specification (LLSMm2.29v1.0) - TransType 180 : ACORD LA Life Census Transaction (CENSUSm2.28v1.0.1) - TransType 130 : 130 ACORD LA Life Census Transaction (CENSUSm2.29v1.1) - TransType 130 : 130 ACORD LA New Business for Long Term Care Transaction Specification (NBFLTCm2.30v1.0) - TransType 103 : ACORD LA Policy Administration Transaction Specification (POLICYADMINm2.32v1.0) - TransType 113 : ACORD LA Policy First Notice of Loss Transaction Specification (POLICYFIRSTNOTICELOSSm2.31v1.0) - TransType 810 : ACORD LA Quote Term Transaction Specification (QUOTETERMm2.30v1.0.1) - TransType 111 : ACORD LA Security Credential Administration Transaction Specification (SECCREDMAINm2.30v1.0) - TransType 520 ACORD LA Security Credential Administration Transaction Specification (SECCREDMAINm2.30v1.1) - TransType 520 ACORD LA Security Credential Administration Transaction Specification (SECCREDMAINm2.31v1.2) - TransType 520 ACORD LA Withdrawal Transaction Specification (WITHDRAWALm2.30v1.0) - TransType v v v v v v v v v v v v v.1.0 The full current catalog of completed, pending, draft and outline transaction specifications - updated Weekly - can be found from the main menu of the LA PWG Community (and in Shared Documents on the LA PWG Community Site). All members are highly encouraged to regularly download this growing resource, now exceeding 250 megabytes (ten times the data model standard) of implementation focused content. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 23

24 Communities and Industry Associations ACORD s mission includes aid and support of implementers. This is accomplished through Communities. These communities may be created as standards (SDO) efforts or they may be created independently by members and/or non-members, together seeking to solve one or more business problems. The activities of these groups may result in traditional Program Working Group (SDO) efforts, or may be educational or advocacy communities. ACORD staff and resources are a vital component of these communities. ACORD Communities focus on specific issues and opportunities. They set which include goals to support standards usage, initiatives and promote consistency of implementation. Industry Associations may also host communities that ACORD participates on to assist with implementation and development of ACORD Forms, Data Standards and/or the ACORD Reference Architecture (Framework). Sponsor / Community CIAB - Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers CLIEDIS - The Canadian Life Insurance Standards Association DTCC - Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation IIPRC Key Objectives and Activities (relating to ACORD Insurance Standards) Sponsoring the Employee Benefits Distribution working group along with Unum, Standard and Guardian to address employee benefit processes and XML messaging needs. Supports the ACORD Life Standards use in the Canadian marketplace. CLIEDIS coordinates Canadian specific standards requirements with its members, providing them to ACORD LA PWG for resolution within the LA XML Standards. Their efforts have ten carriers exchanging a core set of base new business and policy status information across dozens of distributors/agencies in the Canadian insurance marketplace a model for a localized community leveraging standards. DTCC Insurance Services and ACORD collaborate deeply on a number of fronts as they fully leverage the ACORD LA data model and Transaction Specifications in their insurance services. Efforts of late are focused on expanding use of existing services within other communities (IRI, LBTC, NAFA and others) and across the industry. The Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission (IIPRC) serves insurance regulators, consumers and providers by improving the efficiency and effectiveness in the ever-changing insurance marketplace. ACORD and the IIPRC are investigating ways to work together to compliment and leverage each other s standards setting efforts; theirs being in product definition, contract language and filings and ACORD s in the accompanying data, forms and process standards in support of insurance products. In the initial early exploratory stages ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 24

25 IRI - Insured Retirement Institute LBTC - Life Brokerage Technology Committee LIDMA Life Insurance Direct Marketing Association LIMRA Life Insurance Marketing Research with the forms WG taking a lead in finding easy wins from which to discover and establish great patterns to work together on going forward. IRI and ACORD have a very successful, effective relationship, with IRI leveraging ACORD Standards for all its annuity and retirement income product processes messaging and forms efforts. The IRI Framework and Conformity group identifies and defines business issues (typically around reducing NIGO) and hands off the needs for ACORD PWG to promptly resolve. There is a continuous flow of innovation and standards refinement & capability expansion in our work together. The LBTC, in support of NAILBA (National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Association) and independent brokerage generally, has a number of initiatives which involve ACORD LA standards. Specific efforts involving detailing transaction specifications: - edoc Send (and Status) with support for signature and other delivery requirements. Version 1.0 is published and being used now by several carriers and vendors. We are supporting questions as well as additional requirements as encountered. - Two Commission activities: First, a Commission Statement Settlement Transaction Specification providing all the remuneration detail for an agent & agency. It is a significant update and greater clarification/refinement of an earlier NAILBA Commission Guide. Second is a new Trans Spec for detailing how to exchange commission rate details (using Tabular data). - New Business for Term Quick Ticket defines & provides a consistent set of data sufficient for a carrier to accept initiation of a term order (quick ticket). Several carriers have committed to LBTC that they will accept the single, standard message. These initiatives are making progress and ACORD is providing regular Transaction Specification updates. Progress in 2014 has been slow to start but incrementally moving forward as common members review and enhance their implementations. LIDMA has done extensive work on process definition & improvement to optimize direct marketing of insurance (primarily term insurance). Historically this work loosely used ACORD LA XML open standards, however our two organizations are now engaged in bringing these non-standard (from an industry perspective) into more alignment with the formal LA XML standards, eventually including Transaction Specifications (they now have their own). Progress to date has been positive but still in the relationship phase. LIMRA is actively implementing two ACORD Transaction Specification messages for collecting sales and production activity data (aka production survey). Together we developed and published two detailed trans specs; one for Life Insurance and ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 25

26 Association NAFA - National Association of Fixed Annuities NIPR - National Insurance Producer Registry SILA - Securities and Insurance Licensing Association Southern Africa Life Long Term Implementation Community another for Annuities to collect sales survey data. These are now in production, with version updates as required. ACORD is providing Transaction Specifications and new process Diagram (using BPMN) in support of their STP initiative for fixed annuities sold by Independent Marketing Organizations. This initiative is in the earlier stages, and currently focused on overall process requirements focusing on IMO needs. NIPR continues to emphasize the need to use ACORD standards. They are working with us to develop new messages and promote their implementation. At present, all messaging being designed by NIPR is using the ACORD AML data model rather than LA XML. The ACORD 821 form has been updated and SILA is now advocating its usage. Two chapters have been added to the SILA Best Practices Handbook as a resource of industry approaches to specific securities and insurance licensing issues to help members improve efficiencies while remaining compliant. Going forward wherever data or form information is needed SILA is proactively engaging with ACORD. This community has been added to provide ACORD Members and non-members with an opportunity to exchange ideas about the Life and Annuity Standard. They are leveraging the ACORD LA XML standard in a number of projects & initiatives including a substantial hub for sharing insurance information between brokers and insurers (STRIDE). ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 26

27 Appendix: Program History & Achievements Achievements 2014 we will detail 2014 accomplishments in the 4th quarter PAIR report. Achievements 2013 To see a listing of achievements for please refer to the achievement section of the December 2013 PAIR link Standards Development: The L&A Program successfully completed a total of six releases this year which consisted of the following: 3 DTCC ACORD EDI releases 2 L&A XML releases 1 ACORD 951 Form release Over 100 Maintenance Requests were submitted throughout the year with a total of 46 approved during the ACORD L&A Spring voting cycle for version L&A XML, and a total of 48 Maintenance Request were approved for the Fall 2013 voting cycle for version of the L&A XML standard. The L&A Program continues to provide standards update webinars after each release. Improvements to Standards Deliverables: A tremendous amount of progress has been made in the area of transaction specifications both in volume and improvements. A total of six transaction specifications have been published this year with seven nearing completion. Additional reports have been added to provide status of development, and information about how the data is used within the various transaction specifications. There are over three dozen transaction specifications and support shared reports, with almost 100 megabytes of content. This is ACORD s direct response to critiques about lack of exactness, consistency and specificity in the standards. Now, being valid to a specific Transaction Specification assures you are consistent to a much higher bar to the code level of detail and validated to a very rigorous schema (not just the general full model) Working Groups Forms & Data Mapping This group completed edits to the Exchange/Rollover/Transfer Form and the new version was published as of October Final edits were applied to the 759 Replacement Form; however no MR has been submitted pending feedback from the states. ACORD compliance staff is reviewing the proposed form edits with key states to get feedback to relay back to this group prior to submission of the MR. The group updated and reviewed the replacement matrix to determine the next form development priorities. The group decided to focus on NY and CA replacement forms. Based on review of the NY forms the group recommends ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 27

28 that ACORD remove the ACORD NY forms from the ACORD library of forms because of the carrier s use of the LICONY form requirements. As of December 2013, the group is in the process of reviewing the ACORD 760 CA replacement form. Illustration & Quotes This group has been focused on reviewing and updating the illustration transaction specification for term quotes. The Quote Term Transaction Specification has been updated to include use case examples and data elements needed for term products and is ready to be reviewed for approval by the Program Working Group. As of December 2013, this group is on hold to allow time for ACORD to receive data requirements to further development of an Illustration Transaction Specification. The plan is for ACORD to collect requirements to be used to create an initial draft, and then resume working group meetings to review and finalize. L&A Architecture This group continued to focus on reviewing and preparing Maintenance Requests (MR s) that have an architectural impact. A total of 12 MR s were submitted by this working group during the 2013 cycle 1 and, 17 MR s were submitted by this working group during the 2013 cycle-2 which consisted of updates to the Arrangement object, XTbML, the Registration Exam table, and other miscellaneous inconsistencies reported by the membership. As the architectural experts for the standard, LAWG has been actively managing the Standards Migration Topics list along with the Program Working Group. The group also continued efforts to document tribal knowledge The MR s address the following types of changes to the standard: o Help File Clean-up items for naming conventions, updates to Introduction section (1 and 1.1) of the help file and miscellaneous items. o Architectural updates such as data type changes and corrections. o Implementation Convention updates o Transaction Updates and clarifications o Deprecations Product Modeling This group continued to address various product modeling issues to improve clarification within the data model which resulted in several MR submissions throughout the year which consisted of: o Documentation updates to Policy Product transaction to be consistent with the new business submission transaction documentation o Added modeling to support allowed percentages on CovOptionProduct o Clarifications to arrangement modeling o Entity recognition clarifications The group has been reviewing and updating the Product Profile for Term Transaction Specification. The group has also reviewed the issues log and ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 28

29 determined priorities for the 2014 cycle-1 which will consist of addressing Product Modeling needs for Disability products. Program Working Group Over 100 Maintenance Request were submitted throughout the course of the year to update and enhance the standards and a total of 6 plenaries were completed this year. A total of 57 MR s were reviewed by the Program Working Group during the 2013 XML cycle-2. Delegated/created a sub-group or team to focus on the review of Transaction Specifications prior to PWG approval. This team has completed the review of the Arrangement Administration specification and is in the progress of finishing the review of the Withdrawal Transaction Specification. The group reviewed and approved the following transactions specifications during the year: o ACORD LA Document Send Transaction Specification o ACORD LA Document Send Status Transaction o ACORD LA LIMRA Annuity Case Survey Transaction Specification o ACORD LA LIMRA Life Case Survey Transaction Specification o ACORD LA Security Credentials Transaction Specification o Updated version of ACORD L&A Census Transaction Specification The group held an open in person meeting during the ACORD Implementation Forum on October 28th to provide input on the working group focus and get input from others. The group has prioritized its issues for the 2014 cycle 1 and a major focus will be to complete the review and prioritization of the items on the list for a major version as well as work with LAWG and the steering committee to provide a roadmap. Concluded Working Groups: Long Term Care This group was previously on hold pending completion of the ACORD Business Analysis review of the New Business for Long Term Care transaction specification. The BA review has been completed and will now be referred to the PWG for approval. Therefore, this group has completed if s efforts and future LTC standards development issues will be presented to the Program Working Group for prioritization and direction. ACORD Standards Program Activity Implementation Report Page 29