Once a registered letter has been sent to a customer, there may be some scenarios that require you to reinstate the policy.  

 

Here is an example:

 

• There is a policy pending registered letter cancellation as the customer has not made a payment.
• The policy is indicated by the yellow font, shown here: 

 

 

• The insurers confirm the policy will cancel from a date in the future, February 4th, 2022, in our above example. 
• For Agile Sprint, they will set that date from their side and this will update in your platform (as shown in above image).  The update will not appear instantly, that job runs hourly and so will show after that time has elapsed.

 

• There will be a TOR (time on risk) on the Payments screen ($85.16 in the below example), this is what needs to be paid for the payments to be up to date and cover the time that the customer has been insured.  

 

 

 

• As the above image shows, this payment is on HOLD, along with any NSF fee payments that are due. 

 

Now let's say that the customer called and paid their payment, and the policy is ok to be reinstated.

 

• Collect the TOR. This can be by any of the payment methods that are available.

 

• Collect by current payment method: You can allow the payment processor to collect the payment, including the NSFs, by taking the payment off HOLD to Unpaid. If you do not change the date in that payments calendar, it will run that night and try to collect the payment.
• Collect by current payment method on a future date:  If you have agreed a payment date for the payment processor to run for the customer (BEFORE the cancellation date), take the payment off HOLD, then change the date in the payment calendar and it will be collected on that night.
• Collect by Manual payment: You can also use the 3 dots (action) icon to select Pay and mark it as paid via another method.

 

Once that payment has been collected, you can request the reinstatement.

Do not forget that there will still be the rest of the premium to collect from the customer, once its reinstated and monthly pay will no longer be available.

 

• You can go to the Reinstate icon, which is located on the right hand side panel, shown here:

 

 

If the Reinstate icon is grey in bond OR it is not available, this could be because the insurers haven't actioned/accepted the registered letter.  They will need to do this, before it appears. Call them and request it, then you will be able to reinstate.

The job runs hourly to update reinstatements, so if the insurer has confirmed they have reinstated their end, it will not reflect in your platform for about 1 hour after.

 

• Select Reinstate. A message will appear asking:  'Are you sure you want to reinstate this policy?'.
• Select Submit to answer Yes or Cancel to say No.

 

There will then be some time whilst the insurers have the reinstate notice and need to accept and action from their end.

 

• For Agile Sprint policies, once they have selected Reinstate there a job that runs hourly and, when it does, the status will reflect in your platform.

 

The outstanding premium payments will update on the Payments section and it is set to the date that the reinstatement was processed. It will be on HOLD and will stay on HOLD until you action it. The date for the collection can be amended by you (or a user with the permission to move payments), if required. 

 

 

Once they have reinstated, you will see this:

 

• The activity regarding registered letter cancelled is closed.
• The messaging in RED is removed from the Policy details section. 
• The payment for the remaining balance of the term is set to the date the reinstatement was transacted. (for example, if the policy is reinstated today, the remaining balance payment will set to be collected today - but will stay on HOLD).  If you have agreed a payment date for the payment processor to run for the customer, take the payment off HOLD, then change the date in the payment calendar and it will be collected the night you have changed it to, automatically. If you do not change the date, the payment will run that night. You can put this payment on hold until you want to collect that remaining balance. 
• Transactions section reflects reinstatement (REI code).
• Underwriting tab shows the Reinstatement version.
• Reinstate documents are available Under Policy Documents.
• The full term of the policy returns, no longer showing the cancellation date, like here: 

 

 

• Reinstatement activity confirms date its reinstated and is informational:

 

 

 

• The action icons (like Change Policy) are not available while the policy is pending cancellation.  If a change needs to be made before the cancellation date it would need to be reinstated, payments collected and then you will be able to proceed to change the policy. 
• The policy cannot be reinstated AFTER its been cancelled. It is only eligible if the status is Pending Cancellation.
• Reinstatement varies by market – Agile Sprint, Wawanesa and SGI are automated within the system once the underwriter reinstates on their end. But for MyMutual the user must select/confirm when the MyMutual underwriter agrees to the Reinstatement. 

 

 

The platform allows registered letters to pass into the renewal term (if released) HOWEVER if it needs to be reinstated the user will need to wait until renewal to reinstate.  The issue here is if the pending cancellation date is the same date or near the date of renewal as it will give little time for the user to request the reinstatement.. especially if it falls on the weekend.  See this article for more information: Registered letters and Renewals.

 

 

If a policy is pending renewal and the registered letter is sent and will cancel before the renewal date, the current policy is effectively cancelled and the renewal policy is also cancelled, without having to cancel that policy term too.

 

For example, if the policy is due for renewal on December 31st 2021, and a registered letter is sent with a cancellation date of December 20th 2021, once cancelled the current policy term will send on December 20th AND the renewal that was due to start on the December 31st 2021 until December 31st 2022, will also cancel.

 

If the current policy is pending registered letter cancellation and the policy is reinstated then the renewal policy is NEVER cancelled and will continue in the renewal policy term too.

 

Important Notes - before sending a registered letter

 

When a policy is sent on a registered letter for cancellation and the client is subsequently reinstated, our system now requires that:

 

• Time on risk is collected.
• The full payment for the remainder of that term is collected.

The system will automatically require that full payment be collected and there will no longer be an option to put them back onto monthly pay.

 

What you need to know moving forward

 

• Currently, if you choose to send a registered letter for non-payment, it removes the capability for monthly payments. We are working on a solution — we anticipate this to be addressed for our next release, which is slotted for early 2022.
• How our system works for registered letters issued for non-payment also impacts registered letters issued for underwriting reasons. This was an unintended side effect of our recent release. For example, if one of our carriers issued a registered letter to collect information from a customer (which the customer didn’t provide in time), our system will switch the customer to annual payments.
• We suggest closely monitoring underwriting requests so that registered letters aren’t issued.
   This way, their payments won’t be switched to annual payment as a registered letter won’t be issued.

 

How our system collects time on risk and full payment for policies on registered letters

 

Time on risk

• Time on risk is set to collect from the payment processor on the date the registered letter is issued and put on hold until released by the broker to collect. The date to collect can be amended if required.

Reinstatement

• If a reinstatement is submitted into the platform, then the payment for the remaining term balance is set as the date the reinstatement was transacted. It is also put on hold until the broker amends the payment date to collect (if required) and remove the hold.

Renewals*

Renewals are set to annual pay going forward, as the system has always done. To mitigate this issue from occurring more often than necessary, we would suggest holding off on sending registered letters until after you have exhausted all attempts to contact them.

*Renewal exception - Agile Sprint:  If the renewal is present when the registered letter is sent and the policy is then reinstated, the policy payments will continue to be collected monthly for that renewal term, but will be annual for the current term. If the renewal is NOT present, the policy will switch to annual pay. When you’re reinstating the policy, review the payment plan for that renewal to manually switch it to annual pay as the policy will likely be on monthly pay.