DTCC And Pacific Life Case Study Tells Story of Automation

DTCC’s Insurance & Retirement Services (I&RS) business has recently partnered with Pacific Life’s Retirement Solutions Division to produce a new case study about the carrier’s notable support for automating both extremes of the insurance industry’s spectrum, including both the largest distributors in the U.S., and the smallest independent planner channel broker/dealers.

"Pacific Life currently supports a substantial majority—65%—of the independent broker/ dealer (IBD) market that utilizes our business," said Natalie Wood, director, Relationship Management, I&RS. "We thought it was an interesting case study because as a firm, they are clearly doing something unique to extend these benefits of automation and standardization to everyone, large and small."

Cat VanWey, Assistant Vice President, National Accounts & Broker Dealer Services, Pacific Life, expresses this idea in the case study: "No matter the size of the IBD, we don’t turn anyone down," she says.

Margaret Flemming, Director of e-Commerce, Pacific Life, describes in the case study how the firm gets IBDs up and running, quickly and efficiently. "One of the things we really try to do is make it easy to work with us," she says. "Our philosophy is to make business simple. If you’re a broker/ dealer looking to receive transmissions, and you’re looking to use DTCC — because we recommend DTCC’s services to everyone— then it should be an easy set-up. We have it down to a very streamlined process to set up a trading relationship with firms."

For the insurance industry, which has traditionally relied on costly and timeconsuming manual processing methods, the immense task of modernizing its practices has been a huge challenge. This challenge is especially magnified among smaller firms who usually do not have the same resources and budget at their disposal to build the technology interfaces that will allow them to fully take advantage of automation efficiencies.

"By getting them up and running and automating them, everyone saves," says Van Way. "The firm and the reps will have access to the data they need, which thus frees up our reps to concentrate on other duties, like providing outstanding customer service to all the broker/dealers we work with."

To access the complete case study, visit our web site at www.dtcc.com/products/insurance. To request a hard copy, email dcallan@dtcc.com.