Abstract:
In 2021, NC Grange Mutual, a single-entity filer based in North Carolina, transitioned to Gain Compliance. In this customer story, you will learn how the company’s President managed the statutory reporting process, and what happened after she moved from her legacy annual statement vendor to Gain.
Key Quote:
“I don’t feel rushed, I know it’s going to go smoothly. Before Gain, the statement was this ominous thing in front of us, and it’s just not like that anymore.”
Cathy Wells, President , NC Grange Mutual
Background:
When Cathy Wells began using Gain Compliance in 2021 for NC Grange Mutual’s single reporting entity, the overwhelming sentiment she felt was one of relief.
Previously, she had been a long-time user of the Booke Seminars TCP product. “Those were the days when they used to send me a bunch of discs when it was time to do the statement,” she recalled. Cathy was a team of one, and TCP was the tool she relied upon to complete her Annual Statement. As she described, “For what technology was like at that time, it worked well.”
Following the acquisition of Booke Seminars by a software conglomerate in 2020, TCP was discontinued, and Cathy was asked to move to one of its other portfolio products. With the annual filing quickly approaching, she became concerned about the transition.
Beyond the familiarity and comfort TCP provided, she had also built relationships with people at Booke and knew how to get questions answered quickly. Cathy recognized that the acquiring company was large and sprawling, and she worried that NC Grange Mutual, as a small customer, would be lost in the shuffle.
Her dual concerns – unintuitive software and impersonal support – manifested themselves almost instantly. During training on Schedule P, Cathy quickly realized, “It was so different I knew it would have a negative impact on me getting my statement done on time.”
At that point, Cathy decided to take a chance on Gain Compliance.
Feeling Familiar:
From the outset, the Gain experience was reassuring.
“Gain felt like Booke; I had one person I was dealing with, and she was just so responsive during those first few filings when I would hit something I wasn’t sure about,” Cathy recalled. “I would get an immediate response, and the ability for [my assigned Customer Success Manager] to see exactly what I was doing and say, ‘well, here’s your problem’ – that made the transition so easy.”
Cathy realized other benefits with Gain as well.
In TCP, she had managed the Notes framework in Word and Excel. “There was a lot of cut-and-paste from prior Word documents,” she said, “and with all that, there were times where I didn’t update the Notes like I should have because I just had to keep going. If we got word from our reviewer at the department of insurance that we had missed something, it tended to be in the Notes.”
In spite of significant manual effort – proofreading, tic-ing and tie-ing between the PDF and Electronic Notes data – Cathy recognized data mismatches within the filing were inevitable: “Essentially, there was no cross-checking of the Notes in TCP.”
With Gain’s modern and integrated Notes solution, however, efficiency improved and data consistency became automated. Cathy no longer had to manage the framework, and since the Notes are embedded in a true, end-to-end solution, data links across the schedules and Notes data is subject to cross-checks.
Benefits of Modern Software:
The time savings extended across the entire filing process.
In TCP, data population and quality control steps were regimented and dictated by the limitations of the software: all data would be entered, then validation reports would be run. This approach was sequential and inefficient.
With Gain’s real-time data model, data quality issues can be addressed continuously throughout the process, not just at the end. Cathy now tracks and fixes errors earlier and more frequently: “With Gain, I have validations running in a separate [browser] tab, and they will lead me to the cause of the error. When I fix things, it’s a really nice feeling when those cross-checks go away.”
Where once she had scheduled her coffee breaks to fill the time required for the validation report to generate in her legacy software, Cathy is reaping the efficiency benefits of a modern approach. NC Grange Mutual now finishes its statements earlier than ever before. “At this point [slightly more than two weeks prior to the upcoming filing deadline], my quarterly statement is done and printed,” she observed. “And that’s a week to ten days earlier than it was with TCP.”
Most importantly, Cathy feels more confident in her filing since she’s moved to Gain. “For one, I don’t feel rushed, I know it’s going to go smoothly. Before Gain, the statement was this ominous thing in front of us, and it’s just not like that anymore.”
Conclusion:
Gain’s singular focus on NAIC reporting means that its solution meets the expectations of modern software. Whether it’s for a team of many or a team of one, this intuitive software improves outcomes in terms of efficiency and data quality.