(Cathedral of St. Paul in the eponymous Minnesota city, home of Catholic United Financial. Image credit: Adobe Stock.)
Catholic United Financial (St. Paul, Minn.) has implemented FAST’s (Edison, N.J.) cloud-based insurance platform for new business support of all life and annuity policies. The FAST solution will replace a legacy mainframe solution and other software as part of a process modernization effort in support of growth, according to a FAST statement. The implementation project, which included sales illustrations, electronic applications and signatures, underwriting and e-delivery, was completed in eight months. A second project phase will focus on policy administration modernization.
Mike Ahles, SVP, Secretary/Treasurer, Catholic United Financial.
“The FAST solution aligns nicely with our business objectives, primarily being to grow our membership,” comments Mike Ahles, Senior VP and Secretary/Treasurer, Catholic United Financial. “As a fraternal benefit society, we had to make sure we selected the right partner and I am excited about the prospects for our business as we work with FAST.”
Modernizing Member Services
Catholic United Financial chose FAST to modernize member services by supporting a fully electronic straight-through processing model that includes illustrations, electronic applications and signatures, underwriting, and electronic delivery for policies and other documents, according to the vendor statement.
The platform will also deliver policy administration efficiencies to Catholic United’s home office as part of a second phase which also will convert all of the organization’s existing policies, allowing the insurer to decommission legacy mainframe systems. Through the benefits of FAST’s service-oriented architecture, Catholic United will face less friction grows, adds products, and integrates with other partners in the future, FAST asserts.
Tom Scales, Research Director, Celent.
“FAST offers exactly what the market is looking for: a componentized modern insurance software platform that is quick to stand up, easy to maintain and dramatically decreases the risk normally associated with such projects,” comments John Gorman, COO of FAST. “Mike and his team have been true visionaries when it comes to running core systems on the cloud. We look forward to a long working relationship with Catholic United Financial.”
“The cloud-based SaaS model is the logical next step for insurers who are looking to focus on their core competencies rather than maintaining an expensive internal IT organization,” comments Tom Scales, Research Director, Celent. “I expect we will see many more carriers adopting an approach like this in the near future.”
American Family Life Live on FAST Policy Platform within Eight Months