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TAI Recapture App

June 19, 2019 / Agile, Reinsurance Treaty, Treaty



Below we outline the differences, benefits and investment of both options.

Introduction to the Recapture App Approach

The new Recapture App, included in the TAI .NET 3.6 release, is also available to clients with prior versions. Compared to the traditional approach, this is a more flexible utility, containing multiple programs/utilities, along with additional cycle steps. 

The anchor for the new process is a spreadsheet template which contains data elements to support a wide array of different and complex recapture terms. Clients are responsible for creating the spreadsheet, and then this spreadsheet is the input into the Recapture App. 

The fields available in the spreadsheet support post-level-term rolling recaptures, options to recapture up to retention, and options to recapture blocks of treaties in certain sequences. The Recapture App is driven more by treaties than cessions, which matches how recaptures usually are executed, although there is flexibility to provide a cession trigger file as well.

Benefits and Costs of the Recapture App  

  • One-time investment

Conducting recaptures through the App involves a one-time investment, and then each client can continue to drive recaptures through the creation of different recapture spreadsheets.  Since this is a core-system program being included in a system release, there are no costs for development unless programming changes are required to retrofit the App into an older version or around a client’s custom code (which would likely be a small amount). 

  • Testing is similar to the traditional approach

To get the Recapture App, the initial engagement with TAI is similar to the traditional approach where the client supplies a spreadsheet (instead of a trigger file) and TAI tests the results in its environment prior to the release to a client. Given the potential for compatibility issues as well as additional training on the spreadsheet template, this process typically requires approximately 5-7 days of billable time, but it is more likely to be a one-time investment rather than a repeated process with every new recapture.

  • The traditional recapture approach

The traditional approach to recaptures has involved TAI providing customized utility programs on a client-by-client basis (sometimes named ‘TAIUTERM’).  These programs are tailored to the terms of a specific recapture, and then usually require additional changes for later recaptures that might have different terms.

These utility programs usually require a file of policy numbers to do the recapture.  This input or “trigger file” needs to contain:  Company/Policy/Coverage#/Cession#.  The effective date of the recapture can be set on a global basis or individually for each policy.  For policy by policy effective dates, the effective date is added to each policy in the “trigger file”. 

In the case of one recapture date, the cycle setup can be used by modifying the parameter settings (‘Data 1’ column in cycle setup with the effective date of the recapture) and would be applied to all cessions.

Benefits and Costs of the Traditional Approach

  • Best for occasional, straight-forward recaptures

This approach works for occasional, straight-forward recaptures and is a joint project between clients and TAI. Clients supply the trigger file and TAI tests the program with the file in its environment prior to release to a client. This process is approximately 5-7 days of billable time for each recapture.

If you have any questions regarding the recapture app or the traditional approach, please send your inquiry to the help desk or reach out to your business analyst.

Written by
Greg Newton