AURA Underwriting Decision Management

AURA NEXT

AURA NEXT has been a global leader in automated underwriting for nearly 20 years, with more than 50 implementations across 20 countries and multiple languages, and processing more than 5 million applications annually. As part of RGA's Underwriting Solutions, AURA NEXT is a decision management platform that enables immediate, accurate and comprehensive underwriting decisions and optimizes outcomes.

The underwriting decision is the most important component of the new business process and as such demands technology singularly focused on rendering the most comprehensive, accurate and quick decision at the point of sale. Provided in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, the AURA NEXT software is always current, featuring the latest capabilities and technology available to support automated underwriting. From providing advanced reflexive interview questions on any web based device to providing an underwriting rules engine and rule set able to support multi-variate decisioning, AURA NEXT is the underwriting platform that supports the future of data-driven underwriting.

AURA NEXT intentially focuses on the growing complexity of underwriting decisions that require the utilization of new and emerging evidence sources to meet the consumer and agent expectations for a quick and less intrusive new business and underwriting process. While also enforcing the underwriting discipline necessary to ensure the long term success of the business. Domestically and globally AURA NEXT integrates seamlessly with leading e-application, in-house portals, and workbench solutions to enable a best in class new business process.

The client experience, particularly during and since the pandemic has become a key focus area of all carriers. In today’s market, with next generation of life insurance purchasers being a focus area for carriers, these purchasers will not often offer a “second” chance if the client experience is not satisfactory. AURA NEXT will render consistent decisions immediately on simplified issue through fully UW complex cases.

The AURA NEXT solution specifically enables clients to provide their customers with a new business process that is truly end-to- end by extending the digital capabilities expected by the consumer through the underwriting decision to an immediate accurate point of sale decision if desired. As the life insurance consumer continually pushes for a more seamless and less intrusive new business process, it is critical that carriers also maintain the underwriting discipline to ensure risks are assessed accurately, considering all available evidence sources.

Key Features of AURA NEXT include:

• AURA NEXT's singular purpose it to facilitate and render the most comprehensive and accurate underwriting decision at point of sale to agents and/or consumers. AURA NEXT decisions are immediate and enables the carrier to determine how best to relay the decision to agent or consumer.
• AURA NEXT is delivered to clients with the specific regional rule set for both disclosure (interviews) and associated underwriting rules. These rules reflect the global and regional underwriting experience of RGA. During the implementation, the AURA NEXT team in conjunction with the carrier, will customize these rules to reflect the underwriting discipline of the carrier. A key feature of an AURA NEXT implementation is the ability of the carrier to maintain and further customize their rules without requiring RGA assistance.
• RGA has invested in the further advancement of behavioural science in the new business underwriting process, enabling more complete and accurate disclosure data being captured at point of sale
• The architectural signifigance of AURA NEXT is a key feature and cannot be overstated. AURA NEXT was completely re-architected in 2016 to support what RGA anticipated as the data driven nature of underwriting that was developing, and has since been accelerated through the Pande
• The strategic and intentional seperation of disclosure data from a direct connection to underwriting rules is unparalled in the market. This enables such key capabilities as:

  • •Disclosure data captured without a persistent “spinning of System clock” while user is entering data. This also significantly improves maintainance of the rules as the maintenance of decision trees (which required the vendor to maintain) has been removed, and AURA NEXT clients are able to be self-sufficient

  • •The separation of the disclosures data from UW rules also enables carriers to have multiple question/interview sets (by product type SI and Final Exp, and Fully UW for example) but only maintain one consolidated Underwriting rule set. Allowing for much great efficiency in rules management and consistent decisioning across a carrier’s portfolio

    •The separation of disclosures from UW rules in data entry also enables the case to be analyzed in its entirety as AURA NEXT is able to combine disclosure data with external evidences and send the complete package to the underwriting rules for immediate assessment.

    •NIGO’s are also reduced as AURA NEXT is able to review external data (such as MIB and RX…) while the disclosures are being answered. If a conflict arises AURA NEXT is able to reflex a question in real-time to allow client to clarify.

Key Benefits of AURA NEXT

• Delivered in a seamless Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, hosted globally on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Updates and enhancements to the AURA NEXT platform are provided on a quarterly basis and managed and implemented by the AURA NEXT Technology team. The new SaaS model ensures our clients are always current on the platform, with a lower total cost of ownership.

• Client self-sufficiency for the management of their specific underwriting rules and interviews is a stated objective of AURA NEXT implementations. Clients do not need to depend on the AURA NEXT technology for rules maintenance. Training to support self-sufficiency is part of standard projects.

• Advanced technology and architecture of AURA NEXT enables clients to effectively utilize new and emerging evidence sources, with the ability to utilize these evidence sources in more accurate and complex multi-variate decisioning. AURA NEXT is designed to support the future of underwriting and the new business process in the Digital Age

• Separation of reflexive questions from underwriting rules, allows the interview data to be utilized by the decision engine as another evidence source enabling a more comprehensive analysis of the individual being underwritten and allows for reflexing questions from external evidence.

• Incorporating behavioural science into the interviews improves the quality and depth of the disclosure information captured, improving NIGO rates and more comprehensive and accurate underwriting decisions