Software for underwriting agencies, MGAs and Lloyd’s coverholders.
An underwriting agency writes insurance on an insurer’s behalf under a binder. Its systems have to do what an insurer’s do — take a risk in, rate it, bind it, document it, account for it and report it back — for a business of five people rather than five thousand. This page sets out what those systems are, what they are called in each market, and how Cuttleflow provides them as one.
01 · The job
What an underwriting agency system has to do.
Six functions, each with an industry name. Most agencies run them in separate tools and re-type the risk between them. On Cuttleflow they run on one record.
Policy administration
Submission in, quote out, policy on cover, then endorsements, renewals and cancellations — each on the same record. The industry calls this the policy administration system, or PAS. Everything it does →
Rating
The price, worked out the same way every time from published rules, with each step shown. A rating engine that can be replayed years later and give the same number. Try a rater →
Binder management
The delegated authority itself: carrier panel and shares, products and territories in scope, per-risk authority caps, the premium income limit by year of account — enforced when a risk binds, not checked afterwards. Controls and evidence →
Documents and wordings
Quote, schedule, policy wording, endorsements and certificates generated from the record, carrying the wording version that applied on the day. Open wordings →
Bordereaux and month-end
The insurer’s monthly report of what was written, what premium was taken and what claims came in, built from the same records the policies were bound on. How month-end works →
Accounts, taxes and levies
Stamp duty, GST and levies per Australian state, invoicing, settlement to the insurer, and the accounting that goes with holding premium on someone else’s behalf. Capabilities →
02 · The names
Three names for the same business.
The words change with the market; the system does not.
Underwriting agency
The Australian term. Around 300 agencies write roughly $12.9bn of premium under delegated authority, most of them started by an underwriter with an appetite and a binder.
MGA
Managing general agent — the UK and US term for the same role: an agent that underwrites and administers on the insurer’s behalf under a binding authority.
Lloyd’s coverholder
An agency authorised by a Lloyd’s managing agent to bind risks under a binding authority agreement. Lloyd’s stands behind more than 3,000 coverholders, and about 40 per cent of its premium comes through delegated authority.
03 · The build
What a new agency has traditionally had to build first.
A rating tool, a policy administration system, document generation, a broker portal, taxes and levies logic, bordereau tooling and a compliance framework — funded before the first policy earns anything, then one or two people hired to run the parts the software does not. Those fixed costs decide which agencies get to exist, and they have nothing to do with how good the underwriter is.
On Cuttleflow those systems already exist and are configured for the agency. A product is settings rather than code, so a new product takes weeks instead of months, and the subscription is priced by how much business you write. Getting to market →
The computer reads. People and fixed rules decide.
Cuttleflow is not licensed to bind on its own account, brings no capacity, holds no binder and does not place business. The agency brings the licence, the capacity relationship, the appetite and the underwriting judgement. We provide the systems underneath and the evidence that they behaved.
04 · Questions people ask
What is an underwriting agency system?
The software an underwriting agency runs its book on: policy administration, rating, binder control, documents, bordereaux and accounts. Traditionally these were separate tools joined by re-keying; on Cuttleflow they are one system on one record.
Is a policy administration system the same thing as an MGA platform?
Largely. A policy administration system is the core record of quotes, policies and endorsements. An MGA platform, or underwriting agency system, adds what delegated authority requires around it: rating rules, binder limits, bordereaux and the audit trail capacity providers ask for.
What is binder management software?
Software that holds the terms of each binding authority — carrier panel and shares, products and territories in scope, per-risk authority caps and the premium income limit by year of account — and checks every quote against them before it binds, with capacity headroom updated as business is written.
Do Lloyd’s coverholders need a different system from a local underwriting agency?
The job is the same. What differs is the reporting: Lloyd’s delegated-authority data standards and the bordereau formats a managing agent expects. Cuttleflow produces bordereaux to the delegated-authority standard from the same records the policies were bound on.
What does Cuttleflow cost?
A monthly subscription, priced by how much business you write. The basis is published; the numbers are agreed directly.
The platform
The four things a policy goes through, as one system on one record. The platform →
For capacity providers
What a coverholder on Cuttleflow can show you when you ask how they control the pen. Controls and evidence →
Starting an agency?
What a new agency or coverholder needs on day one — and what it no longer has to build first. Getting to market →