Insurance

CaseWare IDEA Applications

The main transaction streams are premiums and claims, although there are special areas (such as reinsurance) where IDEA can also be used successfully.

The main tests are concerned with ensuring all premiums are raised and the correct rate is used. However, analyses of risk and exception of tests of old or forward dated items are useful
 

Policy Management

• Summarize monthly activity by agent, office, region, type of insurance, claims, etc. Analyze and chart trends
• Summarize insurance policies outstanding and recalculate required reserves. Compare current reserves to prior period. Compare reserve factors to published tables
• Summarize current policies by cash surrender value, paid-up additions, dividends on deposit, and policy loans outstanding
• Recompute commissions paid using applicable ratios and premium percents. Compare recalculated commissions paid to actual paid amounts. Summarize commissions paid by agent, office, region and type of insurance. Analyze and chart trends
• Recalculate critical ratios such as premiums/claim and reserves/payment. Compare ratios to prior year results

Asset Management

• Recap asset values by net and cost amounts. Compare useful life of asset to length of time held.
• Identify items depreciated to replacement cost
• Recalculate depreciation expense and compare to actual. Compare book and tax depreciation and identify variances. Compute investment tax credits available and compare to credits taken
• Test for missing or duplicate asset identification numbers. Select a sample of assets for physical verification
• Analyze profit and loss on sale of assets. Identify intercompany sale of assets and compute net profit/loss effect

Life Insurance

• Analyze policy characteristics such as type, coverage, age of policyholder, issue date, payment, status, etc. Identify policies without active status that have deposits or premiums paid in advance, dividends due and unpaid, or policy loans
• Identify active policies that have insurance base plans or policy loans. Recalculate due, accrued, and unearned interest on policy loans or other items. Identify policies with policy loans that also have a premium deposit fund. Compare policy cash values to policy loan amounts
• Identify premium deposit funds, coupons left on deposit, suspense funds, etc. Recalculate dividends left at interest or dividends due and unpaid for current year and subsequent years
• Calculate gross premium deposits. Analyze unearned premium reserves for premiums due, deferred, or advanced. Compare current year reserves to prior year and identify any unusual changes
• Sort and summarize investments by type, status, grade, and maturity schedule. Recalculate accrued interest receivable and average yield on investments. Recalculate amortization of premiums and accretion of discounts on investments and compare to actual. Sample and test security purchase and sales transactions. Recreate maturity schedule for investment portfolio and compare to investment guidelines. Compare book value of investments to current market value
• Identify policies with a death status report

Casualty Insurance

• Analyze policy characteristics such as type, coverage, issue date, payment, status, etc.
• Compare policy origination date to premium receivable information
• Sort and summarize claims by policyholder, type, agent, location, etc. Test claims transactions for duplicates
• Recompute earned and unearned premiums. Summarize by type, coverage, agent, status, etc.
• Analyze reserves by type to determine if they are within policy limits

Pensions and Other Trusts

• Summarize trust asset information
• Check participant information for no allowable data
• Verify pensions, payment calculations, accrued interest calculations, and interest and capital gain income/loss distributions by account

Investment Securities

• Summarize market value, book value, and interest for securities by type, maturity, investment grade, or agent. Compare with investment guidelines/policy.
• Recompute interest and compare to actual received. Recalculate accrued interest receivable, amortization of premiums and accretion of discounts and compare to actual
• Recalculate average yield by type, grade, or agent. Compare to prior year(s) results and analyze trends

Real Estate Loans

• Summarize loans by location, type, and collateral type. Stratify outstanding balance to create frequency distribution of loan portfolio by size
• Identify past due loans and create aging of past due loan balances
• Recalculate unearned interest, prepaid interest, and daily interest accruals and compare to actual
• Analyze activity on non-performing loans