WATERLOO, ON, July 12 2007 – Manulife Financial is launching the Canadian insurance industry’s first New Business Notification feed that meets new national standards for delivery of information to agencies and their advisors dealing with the company.
The feed, once processed, allows agencies and their advisors to view the underwriting status of policies on a daily basis, greatly reducing time spent on inquiries and follow up calls about their clients’ applications. The process is the first to meet new guidelines outlined by the Canadian Life Insurance Electronic Data Interchange Standards (CLIEDIS).
“This is a significant advance in service to our Managing General Agencies and National Accounts. These organizations are focusing on improved technologies to increase their office and business efficiency so they can spend more time working with clients,” said Andy White, AVP, Distribution Systems, Manulife Financial.
New Business Notification feeds provided through this new standard contain current advisor, policy and underwriting status of new business pending policies, based on the Canadian Insurance Transaction Standardization (CITS) Pending Case Status Implementation Guide from CLIEDIS.
A distributor’s feed will be available for download to its back office system through a phased launch on Manulife’s advisor website.
The Canadian Life Insurance Standards Association coordinates development of public standards for the Canadian life insurance industry. To learn more about the association or its standards, please visit www.cliedis.ca.
About Manulife Financial
Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 19 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia, and primarily through John Hancock in the United States, the Company offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$426 billion (US$370 billion) as at March 31, 2007.
Manulife Financial Corporation trades as ‘MFC’ on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under ‘0945’ on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.
About CLIEDIS
CLIEDIS, the Canadian Life Insurance Standards Association (www.cliedis.ca) coordinates Canadian interests in the development of public data standards for the life insurance industry to the benefit of all stakeholders, including carriers, distributors, associations and business partners. CLIEDIS partners with the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD – www.acord.org), a global standards body for the insurance industry. ACORD is a non-profit standards developer that maintains the XML for Life international electronic commerce standards that CLIEDIS uses. CLIEDIS works to assure that future development of these standards meet the requirements of Canadian members. CLIEDIS is not-for-profit and funded solely by its members.
Tags: CLIEDIS, Manulife, pilot program
