Straight-Through Processing Engine: Configurable Auto-Quote and Auto-Bind Rules with Appetite Score Thresholds
How InsightUW auto-quotes a Workers Comp submission in 14 seconds — and knows exactly when to stop and refer to a human underwriter.
The Problem
A commercial carrier receives 200 Workers Compensation submissions per week. 60% of them are small-to-mid-market accounts: restaurants, retail stores, small contractors, office-based businesses. These are well-understood risks with stable loss patterns and published class codes.
Yet every single one follows the same manual process as a $50M Excess Casualty placement: a Underwriting Assistant triages it, an underwriter reviews it, a rating analyst runs the numbers, the underwriter adjusts, a quote letter is generated, and the broker gets a response 3-5 days later.
The math doesn't work:
- Average premium on a small WC account: $18,000
- Average UW time to quote: 2.5 hours
- Fully loaded cost of UW time: $85/hour
- Cost to quote: $212 on an $18K premium — that's 1.2% of premium consumed just to generate the quote
Meanwhile, the broker placed the account with a competitor who auto-quoted in 30 minutes.
The industry needs straight-through processing (STP) for the 60% of submissions that don't require human judgment — while preserving human oversight for the 40% that do.
The InsightUW STP Architecture
InsightUW's STP engine is a rules-based decision layer that sits between intake and underwriting. It evaluates every submission against three independent validation layers: appetite, STP eligibility, and binding authority. All three must pass for auto-processing.
Layer 1: Appetite Score
The appetite engine scores every submission 0-100 based on configurable rules. For Workers Comp, the rule set includes:
| Factor | Weight | Score Logic |
|---|---|---|
| Class code risk tier | 25% | Low-hazard (office, retail): 90-100. Mid-hazard (restaurant, light mfg): 60-80. High-hazard (roofing, logging): 20-50 |
| Experience modification rate | 20% | EMR < 0.85: 100. EMR 0.85-1.0: 80. EMR 1.0-1.2: 50. EMR > 1.2: 20 |
| Payroll size | 15% | $500K-$5M: 90. $5M-$20M: 70. > $20M: 50 (needs specialist) |
| Loss ratio (3-year) | 20% | < 40%: 100. 40-60%: 70. 60-80%: 40. > 80%: 10 |
| State filing compliance | 10% | Filed state: 100. Non-filed state: 0 (auto-decline) |
| Years in business | 10% | > 5 years: 90. 3-5 years: 70. 1-3 years: 50. < 1 year: 30 |
Threshold: Appetite score >= 60 proceeds to STP evaluation. Below 60 is declined or referred based on carrier configuration.
Layer 2: STP Eligibility Rules
These are the 15 configurable rules that determine whether a submission can be auto-processed. Each rule is independently configurable per LOB:
| # | Rule | WC Threshold | Pass/Fail Logic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Premium range | $5K - $100K | Below $5K: too small. Above $100K: needs UW review |
| 2 | Payroll range | $200K - $10M | Outside range: refer |
| 3 | Class code whitelist | 350 approved codes | Code not on list: refer |
| 4 | State whitelist | 38 states | Non-admitted state: refer |
| 5 | EMR range | 0.50 - 1.15 | EMR > 1.15: refer (adverse selection risk) |
| 6 | Loss ratio (3-yr) | < 65% | High loss ratio: refer |
| 7 | Open claims count | <= 2 | 3+ open claims: refer |
| 8 | OFAC screening | Clear | Any hit: refer |
| 9 | Duplicate check | Clear | Duplicate: refer |
| 10 | Document completeness | >= 80% | Missing critical docs: refer |
| 11 | Prior carrier | Not non-renewed | Non-renewal: refer |
| 12 | Appetite score | >= 70 (stricter than Layer 1) | STP requires higher confidence |
| 13 | Data confidence | >= 0.90 avg | Low-confidence extracted data: refer |
| 14 | Effective date | 15-90 days out | Too soon or too far: refer |
| 15 | Special conditions | None flagged | Wrap-up, monopolistic state, etc.: refer |
Layer 3: Binding Authority
Even if STP rules pass, the auto-generated quote must fall within system authority limits:
| Authority Level | Premium Limit | Approval |
|---|---|---|
| System (STP) | Up to $100K | Auto-approved |
| Senior UW | Up to $500K | UW clicks approve |
| VP Underwriting | Up to $2M | VP clicks approve |
| Chief Underwriter | Up to $10M | CU clicks approve |
| Referral Committee | > $10M | Committee review |
For Workers Comp STP, the system authority is $100K — any quote above that requires human approval even if all STP rules pass.
The Scenario
Redwood Kitchen Group operates 4 fast-casual restaurants in Oregon. Their broker submits a WC renewal through the broker portal.
The Account:
- Insured: Redwood Kitchen Group LLC
- Class Code: 9079 (Restaurant — fast-food/fast-casual)
- State: Oregon
- Annual Payroll: $1,800,000 (48 employees across 4 locations)
- Experience Mod: 0.92
- 3-Year Loss Ratio: 38%
- Prior Carrier: Current carrier, renewing
- Open Claims: 1 (slip and fall, $8K reserved)
- Requested Effective: July 1, 2026
The STP Evaluation (14 Seconds)
Timeline
| Time | Event | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 10:00:00.000 AM | Broker clicks "Submit" on portal | — |
| 10:00:00.500 AM | Submission SUB-2026-WC-0183 created | 0.5s |
| 10:00:01.000 AM | OFAC screening: CLEAR | 0.5s |
| 10:00:01.500 AM | Duplicate check: CLEAR (renewal of existing) | 0.5s |
| 10:00:02.000 AM | Appetite scored: 84/100 — ACCEPT | 0.5s |
| 10:00:04.000 AM | STP rules evaluated: 15/15 PASS | 2.0s |
| 10:00:08.000 AM | Rating engine: premium $19,483 | 4.0s |
| 10:00:09.000 AM | Authority check: within system limit | 1.0s |
| 10:00:12.000 AM | Quote letter PDF generated | 3.0s |
| 10:00:14.000 AM | Quote emailed to broker | 2.0s |
| Total | Broker receives quote | 14 seconds |
Zero human touch. The underwriter sees the completed quote in their work queue marked "STP AUTO-QUOTE" with a green badge. They can review it, but they didn't have to create it.
What the Underwriter Sees
The submission appears in the UW's queue with full transparency:
The UW can override or withdraw the auto-quote at any time. Every STP decision is fully auditable.
When STP Refers: The Safety Net in Action
Not every Workers Comp submission qualifies. Here's what happens when STP hits a rule failure:
Example: STP Referral — High-Hazard Roofing Contractor
Submission: Summit Roofing Services, Class Code 5551 (Roofing), EMR 1.18, 3-year loss ratio 72%.
STP Rule Failures for Summit Roofing:
| Rule | Threshold | Actual | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rule 3: Class code whitelist | 350 approved codes | 5551 NOT on whitelist | FAIL |
| Rule 5: EMR range | 0.50 - 1.15 | 1.18 | FAIL |
| Rule 6: Loss ratio | < 65% | 72% | FAIL |
| Rule 12: Appetite score | >= 70 | 42 | FAIL |
4 of 15 rules failed. The submission is referred to a Senior UW with full context on which rules failed and why.
STP Rules Configuration
Administrators configure STP rules through the Platform Features page. Rules are LOB-specific and can be modified without code deployment:
Per-LOB STP Configuration
| LOB | STP Enabled | Auto-Quote | Auto-Bind | Appetite Threshold | Premium Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workers Comp | Yes | Yes | No (Phase 2) | 70 | $100K |
| General Liability | Yes | Yes | No | 75 | $75K |
| Commercial Property | Yes | Yes | No | 70 | $150K |
| Commercial Auto | Yes | Yes | No | 70 | $50K |
| Cyber Liability | Partial | Yes | No | 80 | $50K |
| Marine Hull | No | No | No | — | — |
| Excess Casualty | No | No | No | — | — |
| Medical Malpractice | No | No | No | — | — |
Marine Hull, Excess Casualty, and MedMal are excluded from STP — these lines require specialist underwriting judgment on every submission.
The Safety Net: Three Layers Working Together
The power of InsightUW's STP is the layered validation. No single score or rule controls the outcome:
Example distribution for Workers Comp (last 90 days):
| Outcome | Count | Percentage | Avg Time to Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| STP Auto-Quote | 348 | 58% | 14 seconds |
| Referred (STP rule fail) | 150 | 25% | 2.1 days |
| Referred (borderline appetite) | 42 | 7% | 3.4 days |
| Declined (low appetite) | 60 | 10% | 12 seconds (auto-decline letter) |
| Total | 600 | 100% |
Auto-Bind (Phase 2)
For carriers ready to go further, InsightUW supports auto-bind: if the broker pre-authorizes binding at quoted terms, the system can issue a binder without human intervention.
Auto-bind requires:
1. All STP rules pass
2. Broker selected "auto-bind if quoted within range" on the portal
3. Quote premium within broker's pre-authorized range
4. Carrier has enabled auto-bind for this LOB
5. No regulatory hold (e.g., surplus lines tax filing required)
Current status: Auto-bind is in pilot with 3 carriers for Workers Comp accounts under $25K premium.
Key Metrics
| Metric | Manual Quoting | STP Auto-Quote |
|---|---|---|
| Time to quote (STP-eligible) | 3-5 days | 14 seconds |
| UW time per small WC account | 2.5 hours | 0 hours (auto) + 2 min review |
| Cost to quote ($18K account) | $212 (UW labor) | $0.12 (compute) |
| Quote-to-bind ratio (small WC) | 28% | 41% (faster = more wins) |
| Broker satisfaction (NPS) | +12 | +47 |
| False positive rate (STP should have referred) | N/A | 1.2% (caught at UW review) |
| Submissions auto-quoted per week | 0 | 87 (out of 200 WC submissions) |
| UW capacity freed | 0 hours/week | 217 hours/week (87 × 2.5h) |
InsightUW's STP engine automates the 60% of submissions that don't need human judgment — so your underwriters can focus on the 40% that do. Request a demo to see configurable STP rules in action.