Nine Indicators It's Time to Replace Your Commission System

An underperforming commission system can be a huge financial drain for an insurance carrier. Overpayment rates are estimated to range from 2% to 8% which results in a loss of $20,000 to $80,000 for every million dollars in commissions paid. Lack of sufficient functionality leads to increased FTE expense as well as the introduction of manual effort into the business process, which in addition to being a direct contributor to the error rates, also results in increased FTE expense.

So the crux of the problem is this—the cost associated with managing this business function is not in line with the performance. This results in excessive personnel costs and overpayment expense, as well as opportunity cost due to an inability to support corporate strategy and improve producer relations.

If you answer no to two or more of the questions listed below there is undoubtedly sufficient ROI to strongly consider replacing your current commission system.

1. Does your current commission system integrate with existing systems to support end to end automation of the business process?
2. Are your personnel costs reflective of a fully automated environment?
3. Are you confident that your current system results in an overpayment expense of less than 2%?
4. Does your current system allow you to support corporate strategy in your commission and bonus plans? Can you easily support product or producer specific payout rates? Can creative bonus plans be easily implemented to support enhanced incentives on higher margin products or to support the introduction of a new product or geographic area?
5. Do you have the ability to differentiate yourself from the competition by offering creative commission and bonus plans, timely and accurate payout and concise producer reporting?
6. Are you confident in your performance in terms of regulatory compliance? Are all producers properly licensed and appointed? Do you have proper audit trails and transparency in the business process? Are security roles easy to define down to the most granular level?
7. Does your current system provide comprehensive web-based reporting?
8. Does the technology profile of your current system aid the organization in improving the producer experience through web-based portals?
9. Does the current business process result in enhanced producer loyalty and retention rates?

ACTEK’s ACom3 Commission and Incentive Compensation system creates a 100% automated environment that is easily managed by lightly trained business users. It supports unlimited payment schedules and bonus plans using client-defined business rules, and provides comprehensive reporting of all results delivered over the web. Strict security is maintained through role-based security and complete audit trails, which ensures compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulations.

An investment in a commission system offers the potential to drive ROI from both cost avoidance and increased revenue/profitability perspectives, which makes for a very strong business case. If your responses dictate taking a closer look, we would be glad to provide more details on our product, company and business model.