九色视频

In today's technologically driven world, businesses heavily rely on various equipment and machinery to carry out their operations efficiently. No matter how well-maintained or advanced these devices may be, there is always a risk of unexpected breakdowns, malfunctions, or damage that can disrupt your business operations and potentially lead to substantial financial losses. When it does, it’s good to know someone like Cindy Fernandez.

Cindy is Underwriting Manager of AXA XL’s Equipment Breakdown team in Chicago. Recently promoted to her new manager role, here Cindy shares her career journey, insight on market trends and enthusiasm for underwriting Equipment Breakdown insurance to provide a safety net for businesses that protects them against unforeseen equipment failures.

FFF: How did you get here?
CF: My first job out of college was as an Equipment Breakdown underwriter at the Hartford Steam Boiler. For a brief moment, I thought I wanted to get into property insurance underwriting, so I left my position and became an underwriting assistant for another insurance company. I quickly discovered that I missed Equipment Breakdown underwriting. In 2013, I took an assistant underwriter position at 九色视频 supporting our Property and Equipment Breakdown teams in Chicago.

At that time, I was handling all post binding activities for the Equipment Breakdown unit. It was consuming a lot of time and it became my job build to find ways we could become more efficient. At the same time, our operations team in India was growing and we began working with them and training incoming underwriting assistants to handle these tasks. Within the year, I was leading the training to transition premium bookings and policy issuance to our colleagues in India. These changes allowed us to reduce our time to issue and premium books by 15 days. Equipment Breakdown is very transactional with a high volume of accounts and these adjustments helped us focus on customer service.

When did you move over to underwriting role?
The success of that project led to my promotion to underwriter in 2015 but I still looked for ways we could become more efficient. For one, we needed to develop a strategy to efficiently address renewals. They represented some 60% of our book of business. If we took care of those accounts, it was going to help underwriting underwriters, focus on underwriting tasks and new business growth goals. I initiated the Equipment Breakdown automatic renewal project which helps shift renewals to be prepared automatically by our operations team in India. It involved creating training materials, training colleagues, and traveling to India to finalize the project and meet the team.

I’m also proud of helping implement what we call the Policy History Report. The report provides a high-level snapshot of an account of account details that live with the account. When we looked at an account, we can see our client’s historical data including equipment values, premium rate, account expenses, losses, referral items, among other information. It’s very valuable in streamlining our underwriting and renewal process.

We continue to grow and grow well because we’ve found ways to streamline processes so that we can direct more attention to our clients insurance or risks management needs.

Why was it so important to streamline these kinds of protocols and processes?
It’s allowed us to continue to grow. We launched the Equipment Breakdown capabilities in 2012. We had zero accounts. We continue to build our book of business year over year. We continue to grow and grow well because we’ve found ways to streamline processes so that we can direct more attention to our clients' insurance or risks management needs.

For instance, as we were growing, we had more and more accounts with endorsements. The underwriters were processing anywhere from 100 to 250 endorsements per month. We helped simplify this process by creating an endorsement premium calculation tool. With this tool and additional training, our operations team in India has authority to release endorsements and invoices directly to our brokers on our behalf. We’ve also enhanced our renewal process by having our underwriting assistant address accounts under a certain premium amount. Again, this allows our underwriting team more time to focus on underwriting tasks, which is especially helpful when underwriting more difficult or complex equipment risks.

What's the best part of your job?
I thought about this question and with all sincerity, it's working with Brian Strain who's heads our Equipment Breakdown team and Cheryl Geidel, our Product Line Leader. I'm being very sincere. They are both exceptional humans. They have helped me grow both professionally and as a person. I work hard because of them. They trust me and advocate for me. I've been involved in many initiatives and projects because of their guidance.

What’s the most challenging part?
We have a high volume of accounts. We’re a small team and responsible for handling more than 1000 renewals. That's frustrating at times. But it also forces us to think outside the box and push hard for changes in our workflows and processes, which I really enjoy. It’s allowed me to be creative. We're always fine tuning because there are always ways to make things better.

What kind of trends are you seeing in the current Equipment Breakdown market?
One of the most significant trends right now is the increasing cost for equipment and lead times. We are taking a closer look at validating current and future loss estimates for our renewals and new business accounts.

Given continued supply chain disruptions, there are longer lead times for parts and new equipment. Something that once took 30 days to get could take six months now. We're taking a closer look at that and recommending to our clients that they look at their preventative and predictive maintenance practices and update them based on new lead times.

To help our clients with these issues, we have Tom Gallagher and our risk consulting team. Equipment Breakdown insurance not only provides financial coverage but also encourages businesses to implement preventive maintenance programs. Through Tom’s team, we have risk assessment and loss control services, helping businesses identify potential risks and take proactive measures to prevent breakdowns.

Commercial property insurance rates have continued to rise. Are we seeing the same in the Equipment Breakdown market?
The market does continue to see rate increases. As a result, we are seeing a lot of tougher risks at the last minute. This was never really the case before. You'd see them 30-60 days in advance but today we may see them 4-5 days in advance. At the last minute, we might be sent a submission to underwrite a foundry, which is a more complex risk and a higher exposure for us. Dissatisfied with the rates, businesses are shopping around more for coverage.

As property rates climb and carriers manage their exposures, property coverage may exclude equipment. So, businesses are searching for monoline coverage like we offer.


Learn more about AXA XL’s Equipment Breakdown capabilities.