This article explains the many features and benefits of using affiliations in SureLC. Take advantage of affiliations to organize producers by group, apply custom validation rules, setup carrier and product restrictions, custom registration links, and much more. To learn more about affiliations, select any of the links below to learn about each topic and how to effectively use affilliations to save both your agency and your producers valuable time.
1. WHAT ARE AFFILIATIONS? (▶ video included)
5. ASSIGNING AN AFFILIATION TO A PRODUCER
6. AFFILIATION SETTINGS & STRICT VALIDATION RULES (▶ video included)
7. DESIGNATING MASTER E&O POLICIES
8. LIMITING CARRIER AVAILABILITY
10. CUSTOM AFFILIATION WEB LINKS
11. UNIQUE BUSINESS CONTACT INFO
12. RESTRICTING EMAIL/PHONE/FAX & DBA TYPE
13. REASSIGNING PRODUCERS TO A NEW AFFILIATION
14. DESIGNATING HIERARCHY & COMMISSION SCHEDULES
1. WHAT ARE AFFILIATIONS?
The following video explains how to setup and use affiliations:
Affiliations are a way of designating how a producer does business with your agency. They are simply labels that allow your agency to tie logic to. Affiliations can be used in a number of ways:
- To assign or sort Producers by Territory.
- To have quick reference to large Agency downlines.
- To designate Producers writing under a Broker Dealer.
- To designate ONE Master E&O policy that will cover a large group of Producers.
- Assign Producers to a specific Administrators (Requires Sub-Agency Access)
- To restrict the Carrier & Product selections for a group of Producers.
- To restrict validation rules for a group of Producers.
These are just a few examples of why the affiliation feature might benefit your agency.
2. CREATING AFFILIATIONS
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Affiliations in the navigation menu.
Step 3: Select the +Add Affiliation button on the top right.
Step 4: Enter the Affiliation Name. Please note this is the only required field. However, you can also add the Business name, contact, phone, and email which can be shown to your agents when they are a assigned to the affiliation as long as "Use Affilion Info" is enabled on the top of the affiliations tab. Select Apply to create the new affiliation.
3. REMOVING AFFILIATIONS
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Affiliations in the navigation menu.
Step 3: Use the search field to locate the affiliation to remove. Please note before removing the affiliation you should consider reassigning ALL producers who are a member of that affiliation to a new affilation. If they are not reassigned prior to removing they will be reassigned to the "Not Affiliated" group. To reassign producers to a new affiliation Select the Edit button and then select the Reassign tab.
4. RENAMING AFFILIATIONS
Please note that affiliations cannot be renamed. Instead, affiliation settings and producers assigned can be moved from one affiliation to another using the SYNC option. To move producers and settings from one affiliation to a new affiliation do the following:
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Affiliations in the navigation menu.
Step 3: Add the new affiliation to your affiliation list.
Step 4: Select the SYNC button on the top right. Next, select the NEW Affiliation on the left pane that you would like to override the old affiliation with on the right pane. In the following example, the ABC Agency affiliation will replace the ABC affiliation. Finally, select the Override button. ALL settings from the old affiliation ABC will be inherited by the new affiliation ABC Agency.
5. ASSIGNING AN AFFILIATION TO A PRODUCER
Step 1: Login to SureLC and go to the Producers page.
Step 2: Use the search field to locate the producer that you want to assign the affiliation to.
Step 3: On the right of the screen, select the more options button followed by Change Affiliation.
Step 4: Select the affiliation name from the list and select Apply.
Step 5: The producer will now be assigned to the selected affiliation. You can very this in the affiilations column.
6. AFFILIATION SETTINGS & STRICT VALIDATION RULES
Designate strict requirements, such as EFT, E&O, AML, etc…. for each affiliation. This will ensure producers from the designated Affiliation cannot request a contract until they've satisfied the rule on their profile.
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Affiliations in the navigation menu.
Step 3: Using the list or search field locate the affiliation and then select the Edit button.
Step 4: On the Settings tab select the Custom validation rules radio button. Next, select the check boxes next to all of the options that you want to make a requirement for your agents to provided in their profile before they will be able to contract and then click Save.
7. DESIGNATING MASTER E&O POLICIES
Designate a Master E&O policy that covers all producers under a specific Affiliation.
This feature typically applies to Master E&O policies for a Broker Dealer. Designating one policy by affiliation will eliminate having to upload the declaration page under each Affiliated producer's profile.
You'll be able to upload the policy once and update the information once a year when the policy renews. Updated information will filter to all affiliated profiles eliminating redundant tasks.
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select E&O (umbrella icon) on the navigation menu.
Step 3: Select the ADD E&O POLICY button on the top right.
Step 4: Select the distribution model type (Blanket or Certificate). Then enter the policy information which includes the start date, expiration date, case limit, total limit, policy number, and carrier.
Step 5: Select the SET AFFILIATIONS button and then select ALL of the affiliations that the policy should apply to and then select the SET AFFILIATIONS button.
Step 6: Drag and drop the policy title document or select the button to open file explorer on your computer and then select the policy .pdf. The uploaded document should be the title policy only and not the full policy.
8. LIMITING CARRIER AVAILABILITY
This feature provides a way of restricting carrier availability based on a producer's affiliation.
Suppose your agency markets 50 different carriers, but you work with a downline agency that can only work with 10 carriers from your full list.
By creating an Affiliation you have the ability to manage this directly in SureLC so that those designated producers can only request appointments for the 10 carriers they're authorized to work with instead of the entire set of carriers your agency markets.
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Affiliations on the navigation menu.
Step 3: Using the list or search field locate the affiliation and then select the Edit button.
Step 4: Select the Carriers tab. By default, ALL carriers are enabled for ALL affiliations. Uncheck the box next to any carriers that you want to disable for the selected affiliation and then Save the changes.
9. LIMITING PRODUCT LINES
This feature allows you to designate, on a per-affiliation and per-carrier basis, which PRODUCTS your producers can choose when completing a new appointment request.
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Carriers on the navigation menu.
Step 3: Use the carrier list or search field to locate the carrier. Select the carrier name to open carrier setup.
Step 4: Select Product Lines.
Step 5: Use the search field to locate the affiliation. Review the current product lines that are available for the selected carrier. Enabled products will show a check mark. Select any product to toggle it on or off. By default all products are enabled for all carriers and affiliations. Changes are saved automatically.
10. CUSTOM AFFILIATION WEB LINKS
Creating a dedicated URL link for a large agency will allow producers to complete the registration process and automatically be linked to the correct affiliation in your system.
Additionally you can configure whether your agency should be visible to this group. The configurations allow you hide your agency's name from the registration process so that producers aren't confused by the agency they are contracting directly with.
Additional features that can be applied:
- Set up designated CC and BCC contacts to be notified upon registration
- Designate DBA settings automatically upon registration
TO CREATE A CUSOM LINK FOR AN AFFILIATION:
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Affiliations on the navigation menu.
Step 3: Using the list or search field locate the affiliation and then select the Edit button.
Step 4: Select the Custom Link tab. This page is used to customize link options and is also where you'll copy the updated link from on the bottom right.
The following options can be adjusted here:
1. Affiliation Settings - Check or uncheck the boxes to let your producers change their affiliation, require a selection, or to show the name of the affiliation to the agent as opposed to your agency name.
Editable - When enabled producers will have access to the affiliations list during the registration process and will have the ability to select the affiliation that they will be assigned to. Only leave this option enabled when you want to give them the ability to do this. In most cases this box is unchecked as you want to assign them to the affilation via the custom link.
Required - When enabled an affiliation selection is required by the agent and they cannot skip affilation selection. This option is only used when editable is enabled.
Visible - Enable when you want producers who register via the custom link to see the name of the affilation on login screens and email correspondences as opposed to your agency name which is the default. Please note in order for this selection to apply you must have "Use affiliation info" enabled on the Affiliations page.
2. Contact Information - Enter custom contact info when you want to replace the default agency info with an updated phone, fax, cell or upline. Please note these settings only apply when "Use affiliation info" is enabled on the Affiliations page.
3. Dougn Business As... (DBA) - Select the DBA type that you want to apply as an override to ALL members fo the affilation. This is useful when you want to setup all the agents who are a member of the affilation as with the same DBA info such as all individuals or ALL license only agents soliciting for the same individual or business. When enabled producers will not be able to change their DBA type selection.
4. New Registration CC & BCC - Add one or more email addresses to the CC or BCC fields to copy these individuals on new procuer registrations via the custom link created for the affiliation. These are email addresses will be notified in addition to your agency contact email.
5. Custom Link - This section shows the custom link to share with the producers that you want to assign to the affiliation with the custom settings. Highlight the link and copy or select the check mark to copy the custom link. Once copied, open your browser and paste the link into a new tab to test the link. Email the link to the producers you want to assign to the affiliation and/or to contact who will be managing producers for that affilation.
11. UNIQUE BUSINESS CONTACT INFO
Perhaps your agency needs to have a different Business Name or Contact Person designated in letter templates to the carriers and to a group of Producers.
This feature assists in keeping your primary agency hidden behind the scenes, replacing your Primary Agency name and contact information with custom settings for a particular affiliation.
Affiliation name is displayed in place of your Agency's name the application screens, email correspondences, etc...
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Affiliations on the navigation menu.
Step 3: Using the list or search field locate the affiliation and then select the Edit button.
Step 4: Select the Settings tab. Right at the top you can edit the Business Name, Contact, Phone, and Email address to use for the affiliation. After entering the desired info, save the changes for them to apply. Plese note "Use Affiliation Info" must be enabled at the top of the affiliations page in order for these settings to apply.
** Please Note: When an affiliation email address is defined new producer registration emails will be sent to that email address (in addition to the agency contact email) whenenver a new producer completes self registration using the affiliation custom link. **
12. RESTRICTING EMAIL/PHONE/FAX & DBA TYPE
Your agency has the ability to override any DBA settings, Phone/fax/email settings on a producer's profile per affiliation. It’s called DBA Template and is pretty handy if you have a particular agency that sets up all their producers as LOA.
Or perhaps you work with an agency that needs to ensure ALL producers under them have the same phone/fax/email designated on all contracting forms?
This override feature ensures the settings cannot be changed. You can make these designations without having to override the data entered by the producer when he or she sets up their profile.
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Affiliations on the navigation menu.
Step 3: Using the list or search field locate the affiliation and then select the Edit button.
Step 4: Select the DBA Template tab. Enter the information that you want to apply to members of the selected affiliation. Please make sure that you want to apply these overrides as any settings enabled here will apply to ALL producers who are a member of the selected affilation. This information entered here will replace the producers info on the contracting paperwork.
Best Way to Contact
1. Email - Enter an email address to have it replace the producers email on the contracting paperwork. Please note this is an override that will apply to ALL producers who are a member of the selected affiliation. To enable this setting select "Use Always". To disable select "Never Use".
2. Phone - Enter a phone number to have it replace your producers phone number on the contracting paperwork. Please note this is an override that will apply to ALL producers who are a member of the selected affiliation. To enable this setting select "Use Always". To disable select "Never Use".
3. Fax - Enter a phone number to have it replace your producers fax number on the contracting paperwork. Please note this is an override that will apply to ALL producers who are a member of the selected affiliation. To enable this setting select "Use Always". To disable select "Never Use".
Other
4. DBA Type - Select a DBA type to have it apply to ALL members of the selected affiliation. Please note this is an override that will apply to ALL producers who are a member of the selected affiliation. To enable this setting select "Use Always". To disable select "Never Use".
13. REASSIGNING PRODUCERS TO A NEW AFFILIATION
This tab is used to move producers who are currently a member of one affiliation to another.
Step 1: Login to SureLC.
Step 2: Select Affiliations on the navigation menu.
Step 3: Using the list or search field locate the affiliation and then select the Edit button.
Step 4: Select the Reassign tab. Next, select all of the agents that you want to reassign from current affiliation to the new affiliation. Finally, select the new affilation in the right pane, and then Save the changes.
14. DESIGNATING HIERARCHY & COMMISSION SCHEDULES
Designating carrier schedule settings for an affiliation simply requires naming the hierarchy or compensation schedule the exact same name as the Affiliation (Case Sensitive).
Although this doesn't restrict other schedules from producing, it will ensure the schedule landing page is the one that matches the affiliation name. From there your admins will still be able to quickly navigate to another schedule setting stored, but this eliminates a few clicks in the event you need a specific schedule for a particular affiliation.
HINT: Just be sure the label you give the schedule matches exactly to the Affiliation Name created.
For those agencies using the Affiliate Agency (formerly called Sub-Agencies) & "Affiliate Processor" features, you'll be able to designate and restrict the schedule settings needed for a particular affiliation. Only the designated schedule will be accessible, all others will be restricted from view.
For more information on what a Sub-Agency is CLICK HERE.
This "Affiliate Processor" designation is available for you to enable by request - just send an email to support@surancebay.com
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