Abstract
When Assistant Treasurer at Cumberland Mutual, Courtney Mattus, evaluated her options for Annual Statement vendors, she was adamant that the chosen vendor provide a true, Cloud-native application.
In this customer story, you’ll learn how Gain’s modern solution streamlines reporting, and how its singular focus on a better experience for statutory accountants delivered real value to Cumberland Mutual.
Key Quote
“The people certainly know the software, but everyone also has that statutory reporting knowledge and insurance industry experience as well. What I really love about Gain is how knowledgeable everyone at the company is in this particular domain.”
Courtney Mattus, Assistant Treasurer, Cumberland Mutual
Background
With Cumberland Mutual’s legacy financial reporting solution, many of the tasks were manual and resulted in an inefficient process.
Aside from the upload of investment files, Courtney noted that the team primarily hand-keyed data into their Annual Statement software. Their Notes process was cumbersome and time-consuming. And, an inordinate amount of time was required by the IT department to manage software updates and patches.
Courtney reviewed the company’s statements, ran the validation reports, and fixed the errors that showed up on those reports. This was a rinse-and-repeat process that required an in-depth understanding of NAIC validation rules to navigate to and fix the errors.
Further, the workflow was sequential. The team populated the schedule data completely before handing off for review and correction of crosscheck errors.
An Improved Process = Better Outcomes
“When we looked at other Annual Statement vendors, it seemed like many of them were marketing themselves as Cloud-based solutions,” she said, “but most of it was a facade. They were still server-based. It was still managing updates, and that would have been a step backwards for us.”
“I know the value of a product that is truly Cloud-based,” she said. “I just remember the first time I used Gain’s validation dashboard, and I could click on a link and it took me right to the place I needed to be to fix that error. I thought that was amazing.”
“Since it’s Cloud-based, I could have multiple tabs open, comparing and reviewing things side by side to help clear up validation issues,” she continued. “And, it’s live. I’m not reviewing a static PDF for the prior period, which I had to do previously.”
Importantly, Cumberland’s financial reporting team has leveraged Gain’s collaborative real-time data model. No longer is the process either siloed or sequential: Courtney no longer has to wait until all of the data is entered before reviewing validations. Rather, those entering data can see – and fix – errors as they are working on individual schedules.
“They clear what they can before handing it over to my review,” Courtney explained. “So, they are troubleshooting as they go. And since it’s easy to check the dashboard and see our progress, we can coordinate the day-to-day work of our yellow books in a way that was not possible prior to Gain.”
Educational Resources
The company’s prior vendor was well-known to be thought leaders around NAIC guidance, and Courtney was previously satisfied with how they presented that information. Since using Gain, however, she has since reset her expectations to a higher standard. “I really like how Gain handles [Educational Resources]. The live links make it really easy to navigate that guidance.”
From the outset, she was impressed with the team at Gain. “The people certainly know the software, but everyone also has that statutory reporting knowledge and insurance industry experience as well. What I really love about Gain is how knowledgeable everyone at the company is in this particular domain.”
When the NAIC noticed an error in the Schedule P and updated their Summary spec mid-February, Gain’s domain knowledge helped Courtney navigate that late-breaking change. “I had just printed everything, and was about to send it off, when Gain reached out to me,” she recalled. “They explained there was an error with the validations, and that we should rerun them. That email caught me at just the right time, and we got everything fixed.”
Conclusion
Gain provides the industry’s only Cloud-native solution for NAIC reporting, and there are a range of benefits that come with a modern solution. Beyond technology, the statutory knowledge and experience makes Gain an ideal partner for both technology and support.
Learn more about how Gain has improved outcomes for financial reporting teams for other carriers.