Delegated Underwriting: Overview¶
Delegated Underwriting Authorities (DUAs) are contracts where an insurer delegates part of the underwriting process to another party — typically a coverholder or MGA. In Send Workbench, DUAs are modelled as Master risks with related Declaration risks and Certificate risks.
Contract types¶
| Contract Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Binding Authority | Has a Coverholder/MGA and a broker. Supports individual risk declarations or bordereau submissions. |
| Lineslip / Consortia | No Coverholder, but has a broker. Bulking data submissions via bordereau. |
| Bulking Lineslip | Broker involved. Risks bulked and submitted via spreadsheet. |
| Non-Bulking Lineslip | Individual risk declarations, similar to Open Market but under a Master contract. |
Note
The config fields MasterRiskType and duaMasterRiskType are deprecated and should not be used in new implementations.
The three-tier structure¶
A DUA implementation in Workbench uses three risk types:
Master Risk (MASTER placing type)
├── Declaration Risk (DEC placing type)
│ ├── Individual Dec (INDIVIDUAL_DEC)
│ └── Bordereau (INBOUND_BORDEREAU)
│ └── Certificate Risks (auto-generated, one per insured item)
- Master — the framework contract. Created once per DUA. Contains the contract terms, sections (policies), and validation rules.
- Declaration — a submission against the master. Can be individual (one risk) or bulked (a spreadsheet of many risks).
- Certificate — auto-generated from bordereau processing. Represents one insured item from the spreadsheet.
Prerequisites¶
Before configuring DUA, ensure:
- The Trading Party is defined and
homePartyIdis set - The business class has DUA placing types configured (see Enabling DUA)
- The client has confirmed the DUA contract structure (binding authority vs lineslip, individual vs bordereau)
DUA configuration areas¶
The full DUA configuration spans several pages in this section:
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Enabling DUA | Feature switches and the duaConfig block in be_config.json (S3 business config) |
| Submission Screen | The master_submission_config.json form |
| Contract Structure | The contract_structure risk action |
| Validation Rules | The multi_policy_validation_rules action and validations.json |
| Bordereau Ingestion | Declarations, scheduling, and section assignment |
| Certificate Generation | Coverage-to-field mappings for auto-generated certificates |
| Exemptions | Ad hoc override workflow |
Recommended implementation order¶
- Enable DUA feature switches
- Configure trading party (if not already done)
- Configure business class with DUA placing types
- Build the Master submission screen
- Configure the
contract_structureaction - Configure
multi_policy_validation_rules - Set up declaration workflows (individual and/or bordereau)
- Configure bordereau ingestion and section assignment
- Configure certificate generation
- Enable exemptions (if required)