HINTS EH LP LFU

The
Insider
Issue # 55
January ~ February 2012
Heloise Has Nothing On Our Hints!
It’s a fresh, new year, so we thought it appropriate to offer some fresh filing management tips! Some you may already know, but all are important
when managing your SERFF filings:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The Filings tab is your go-to place for all things to do with, you guessed it, FILINGS! Within this tab, you will find the Workfolder, Open
Filings and Search links.
Did you know that all of the data from your messages is stored within your filing? This means you can keep your Message Center
organized by deleting messages after you read them. You can find most of the data within the Filing Log, which is a link under the state
name in the upper right-hand corner of the filing. Any other dates and information from messages can easily be found on the Filing
Correspondence tab.
“My Workfolder” is your own personal space in SERFF and allows for quick reference to your filings. You can easily move any filing you
are working on into this folder by simply opening the filing and clicking “Move to Workfolder.”
H E LP F U L HI N T S
“My Open Filings” link allows you to take a look at the filings that are currently open in SERFF. Filings can also be moved to your
Workfolder from within the Open Filings link by selecting the radio button next to the filing and clicking “Move to Workfolder.”
If you can’t find a filing you’re looking for in your Workfolder or Open Filings link, try the Search tool! This tool allows you search by
submission date, filing status, the state, or even by the company it was submitted on behalf of. You can also search based on authors
who are no longer active.
If you want quick access to recently viewed filings, the “Most Recently Viewed” link is just for you! The link is located in the upper righthand corner of the SERFF filing. When clicked, you’ll see a list of the last 10 filings you have viewed, giving you quick and easy access.
If you’re looking for more filing management tips, contact the SERFF Help Desk. They’re experts!
Fresh Year, Fresh Start for Filing Rules!
One of the SERFF Team’s 2012 New Year’s
resolutions is to take a fresh look at Filing Rules.
We will soon be calling upon the jurisdictions to
evaluate their Submission Requirements, TOIs and
Sub-TOIs, Filing Types and General Instructions in
order to accommodate any legislative changes
that may have occurred in 2011.
We will look at your Filing Rules and, with your help and guidance, will assist
you to make necessary changes. We want to ensure that your Filing Rules
are thorough, informative and easy-to-read, which leads to a more accurate
initial filing submission.
So, we ask that our state users take a “fresh” look at their Filing Rules and
start making a list of updates. We will be contacting you soon!
www.serff.com
Tips From a Fellow SERFFer - Ben Creasy
Fellow “state SERFFers,” have you
ever wanted to find something in
SERFF, but didn’t have keywords
or filing numbers with which to
search? Or, maybe you wanted
to see a list of all of the forms a
company has filed in their
Form Schedule under a
certain line?
If you’re like me, you
might find it tedious to
build a search with all of
the pieces of required
data, and then diligently
click through each filing
to look for the information sought.
Guess what? You don’t have to!
I recently discovered the Export
Tool that is available to state
users. This is not a default feature
for many users, and, in my case,
had to enabled by a User Admin
request to the SERFF Help Desk.
I was pleasantly surprised to find
that the Export Tool allows me
to build a search once, and then
download all of the data from
SERFF into a spreadsheet. Data
including Filing Descriptions, form
names and numbers,
manual pages, overall
rate impact and all other
sorts of data can be
conveniently
perused
in Excel. By typing
“CTRL+F” to use Excel’s
Find function, you can
also zero in on certain
keywords. Give it a try!
~ Ben Creasy, Alaska Divison of
Insurance
........................................................
Do you have any tips you’d like
to pass along to your fellow
SERFFers? Send them to the SERFF
Marketing Team and you may be
featured in a future issue of The
Insider!
The
Issue # 55
with the IDI Uniform Standards. For more
details, please see “Filing Information Notice
2012-1” on the IIPRC’s General Instructions
page in SERFF.
All components of an IDI
product must be filed
with the IIPRC, with the
exception of application forms, which may
mix and match between IIPRC-approved and
state-approved IDI components.
As of January 18, 2012, Oregon may be
included in IIPRC filings. This brings the
number of Compacting
jurisdictions
to
41.
Remember: You need
to submit your annual
registration fee to the IIPRC
in order to add Oregon
or any other Compacting
State to your already
approved or new IIPRC product, as well as
take advantage of the benefits offered by
the IIPRC.
Initial rates and rate revisions for IDI products
filed with the IIPRC must be submitted for
review and prior approval in accordance
More information about the annual
registration fees and filing process can be
found on the IIPRC website.
Featured SERFFer - Doreen Freiman
Say hello to our featured SERFFer, Doreen
Freiman, senior regulatory specialist
with ACE Private Risk Services. A SERFF
user since 2005, Doreen said she cannot
imagine life without SERFF.
“There are so many reasons why SERFF has
become a life saver for me and
our company. Gone are the
days of spending countless
hours photocopying filings for
duplicate or triplicate copies
to be sent to the insurance
departments. Gone are the
days of manually putting
together the stacks of
paperwork required for a
filing. Gone are the days of having to type
all the required forms needed for a filing. And gone are the days of ‘snail mail’ and
waiting to see if a filing would be accepted,
or if it needed additional information
which would require more work and more
waiting time while the snail mail crept its
way back and forth between company and
department,” said Doreen.
January ~ February 2012
Now in Que ... Matt Roberts!
IIPRC Insight
An entire suite of Uniform Standards for
Individual Disability Income Insurance
(IDI) is available for filing as of January 12,
2012, and an additional uniform standard
for individual disability income business
overhead expense insurance becomes
available for filing on February 19, 2012.
There are now 82 adopted
uniform
standards
covering all individual
asset-based product lines.
Insider
The Clone Filing tool is Doreen’s favorite
enhancement: “I love cloning. Sometimes
I may have to submit a similar filing, so I just
clone it and in seconds, I’m off and running
on the new filing. I can’t say enough about
this really great feature!”
When Doreen is not SERFFing,
she enjoys crafting and
relaxing on the weekends.
“I love making crafts of
all kinds from jewelry to
Christmas ornaments. And
when weekends roll around,
I can be found with friends
enjoying a movie or playing a
board game.”
Thank you for being a fan of SERFF, Doreen!
Do you want to be our next “Featured
SERFFer”? Send an e-mail to the SERFF
Marketing Team and tell us how much you
love SERFF. You could be featured in an
upcoming issue of The Insider!
Matt Roberts is our newest software
engineer. You may never see his face
or hear his voice, but you’ll appreciate
his hard work each time you log into
SERFF!
Matt is a true “code monkey,” as he has
been coding since his freshman year of
high school. That fateful freshman “Intro to Computer
Science” class was the catalyst that sparked him to
follow his passion for, and self-proclaimed addiction to,
computers.
After spending all day at work on a computer, Matt goes
home to (you guessed it) spend a few more hours on his
computer. Although, he does take a break now and then
to hang out with his two ferrets, Dimitri and Sierra. Matt
enjoys his pets, but tells us, “I have never seen a creature
that is so cute be able to create so much havoc in just a
few short minutes.”
A fun fact you might find interesting about Matt: Up until
a year ago, he never had tried macaroni and cheese. His
entire life, he thought it looked gross and had managed
to avoid it. So, what did he think? You will have to ask
him.
Welcome to the SERFF team, Matt!
Mark your calendars!
NAIC/NIPR E-Reg Conference
April 28 — May 2, 2012
Check out the NAIC website for more details
as they develop.
The SERFF Help Desk is available Monday
through Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Central Time.
Contact the Help Desk at 816-783-8990 or
[email protected].
If you have any article suggestions or if
there is anything you’d like to learn more
about, please send an e-mail to
[email protected].
www.serff.com
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is the U.S. standard-setting and regulatory support organization created and governed by the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, the District of
Columbia and five U.S. territories. Through the NAIC, state insurance regulators establish standards and best practices, conduct peer review, and coordinate their regulatory oversight. NAIC staff supports these efforts and
represents the collective views of state regulators domestically and internationally. NAIC members, together with the central resources of the NAIC, form the national system of state-based insurance regulation in the U.S.