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About SERFF The original concept for SERFF was developed in the early 1990s by the NAIC. The Electronic Filing Submission's intent was to provide a cost-effective method for handling insurance policy rate and form filings between regulators and insurance companies. In June 1996, the SERFF Consortium, an unincorporated group of interested states and companies, was formed in response to the demand for an automated system. SERFF has been an open, cooperative partnership with the mission to fund and oversee the development of the SERFF application from its beginning. This partnership has been very successful, because this approach enables both the states and the industry to participate directly in decisions relating to the development and use of SERFF. This has allowed the states and companies to jointly exert a measure of control over a mission-critical function that otherwise could overwhelm either party's capability to respond to changing process requirements. The SERFF system is designed to enable companies to send and states to receive, comment on, and approve or reject insurance industry rate and form filings. From November, 1996, through March, 1997 the Consortium membership met monthly in Chicago and Kansas City to define the requirements of the system. During these meetings, the membership resolved a number of issues -- particularly the issue related to a central repository of filings. The Consortium also selected Lotus Notes as the development technology. During the remainder of 1997, IES/Midwest, a private sector software developer under contract to the NAIC, worked on writing the production SERFF system. In early June 1997, members of the Consortium met in Kansas City to confirm the direction that IES/Midwest was taking with the development effort and approve continuing the contract. Later in the month the SERFF Board of Directors met in Chicago , during the NAIC Summer meeting (1997), to formally vote on continuing the project. From October, 1997 through December, 1997 a pilot test was conducted. During this test, six states and ten companies tested the application in a production environment. In December 1997, the consortium and the NAIC agreed that the NAIC would take over the operation of SERFF and the SERFF Board (representing the companies and states) would continue to formulate direction. The NAIC and SERFF Board signed a contract with IES/Midwest for Hub server support, Help Desk and Training services for 1998. The SERFF Board approved the Customer Licensing Agreement between states or insurance companies and the NAIC. In June, 1998 the SERFF Board approved offering a smaller filing block as an incentive to allow small to medium companies to participate in SERFF. In September, 1998 the Board approved licensing of Third-Party filers with a reduced annual license for companies using these filing companies. The Product Steering Committee (PSC) met in September, 1998 and recommended several enhancements to the system. In October, 1998, the NAIC changed software contractors for the development, help desk support, technical support and design of the SERFF system. A new contract was awarded to Integrated Corporate Solutions Inc. (ICS). One of the new changes available to SERFF users was the capability to remote host the SERFF system on a server located outside of an organization's network. This capability was made available with SERFF release 1.4 in June 1999. States could then use SERFF without requiring huge amounts of technical support and investment costs. During the summer of 1999, several important enhancements were noted and changed with a new SERFF release 1.4a, distributed to customers in September, 1999. The PSC, meanwhile, was evaluating the recent enhancements with the need for more functionality. One of the most influential impacts on SERFF was the decision that the system should be available as an Internet interface. The NAIC and PSC finalized the next design platform for SERFF to only be available using Internet browsers in November, 1999. In December, 1999 the first phase (Phase I) of the redesign of SERFF was completed. Plans were established for actual coding changes (Phase II) to begin in January, 2000 with an anticipated completion date in late third quarter 2000. Beginning in January, 2000, Commissioner Nichols and the NAIC released a "Statement of Intent" that outlined changes that will be considered in the insurance regulatory environment. Part of this document addressed the "Speed-to-Market" issues that concern rate and form filings. Since March, 2000, the NAIC membership and industry representatives have been actively discussing how changes can be made in the regulatory arena to improve the process. SERFF was chosen to be the automated solution to efficient rate and form filing. As of today, all 50 states, the District of Columbia , Puerto Rico and over 3,000 insurance companies, third-party filers, rating organizations and other companies are committed to SERFF. Reflecting on the past ten-years, SERFF has had a tremendous growth. 2008 is already on target for another impressive year, due to the strong SERFF commitment from states and industry.
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