Insurance Form Automation: All you need to know about ACORD 26

The Acord 26 form, called the Policy Certification Log, is a summarized paper-based record of an insured’s policy certifications, which highlights key terms like certificate expiration date, word changes, add-ins information, etc. Being a hard-copy format, the filling-in of such details into the Acord 26 requires manual intervention - which impacts the efficiency of the operations of a business by exhausting manpower in such back-room tasks. Allowing an intelligent software to automate the processing of Acord 26 forms businesses can effectively reroute manpower to more demanding operations. 

What is Acord 26?

The Acord 26, also known as Policy Certification Log, is a hard-copy record of all the policy certifications issued to a single insured. It is meant to be used with Acord 24 (Certificate of Policy Insurance), Acord 25 (Certificate of Liability Insurance), Acord 27 (Evidence of Personal Property Insurance), and Acord 28 (Evidence of Commercial Property Insurance).

The purpose of this form is to summarize the highlights, the important details of the forms appended along with the Acord 26 so as to facilitate cross-checking while issuing renewals.

Importance of Acord 26

Acord 26 presents to the viewer the gist of an insured's certificate. Whether it be property insurance or liability insurance, the crux of all policies and certificates is summarized on the Acord 26. Since it is a hard copy, it is handy when performing checks and verifications.

1. Easy renewal process

Since an Acord 26 highlights details like certificate expiry and add-ins amongst others in a printed form, it becomes easier to issue renewals by looking at relevant information at a glance.

2. Seeking information

Acord 26 forms make it simpler to locate specific information condensed on one page instead of having to sift through countless papers to find it. For example, on Acord 26, you can find listed the names and contact information of the certificate holders and additional interests corresponding to the certificates attached therein.

3. Portfolio at a glance

Through Acord 26, insurers and companies are able to view the complete certificate portfolio of the insured comprehensively laid out in a neat, tabular format. Information like changes made to policy wording, annual certificate issuance requirements, whether or not the named insured is the primary certificate holder, etc., can be gleaned from Acord 26 forms.

How to read Acord 26

Acord 26 used to be a manual entry form; however, with automation, it can be filled out electronically or automatically as well. Here are the important fields that need to be filled out in Acord 26:

1. Identification

These fields on Acord 26 forms require filling out the names of insurance companies that afford the coverage, the name of the insured, the name of the agency, and periods of policies referenced in the file.

2. Evidence and certificates

The fields under this head-cover all the necessary information regarding enclosed Acord forms: Acord 24, 25, 27, and 28, with the following details:

• Date issued
• Unique log ID if applicable
• Company letter that provides coverage
• Contact information of the insured
• Line of business
• Specific vehicles covered under policy
• Expiry and cancellations detail

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How to automate Acord 26 processing

Acord 26 forms contain specific information extracted from other Acord forms - form 24, 25, 27, and 28. As such, automating the process of filling up an Acord 26 is a simple task. Data capture and validation solutions like Docsumo employ intelligent algorithms in the software that enable reading information from a form and storing it quickly and efficiently.

Through the Optical Character Recognition technology, all Acord forms filled on paper can be digitized quickly. The information thus gathered can be validated corresponding to its respective field and then filled into Acord 26 forms to be converted and printed later. The smart filter functionality of the software helps to extract desired data from forms and convert it into usable, convenient file formats, such as Excel, JSON, and more.

The software also allows for the processing of documents in bulk, thus enabling faster turnaround times with tasks as tedious as this. Processing Acord 26 forms becomes simpler with automation as the data required to be filled is already present on other forms.

By employing Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing, reading the data on an Acord 26 form for further insurance processing becomes faster and more accurate.

Benefits of Automation

Among the many conveniences automation brings to industry in terms of Acord forms processing, below are a few notable ones:

• Working with increased accuracy - Manual entry and interpretation are laced with errors that can be eliminated through automation.
• Glitch-free, convenient data reading - Through OCR and smart filter technology, rest assured that the data extracted is 99% accurate and validated.
• Task volume augmentation - Automation bestows a company with the ability to process multiple Acord documents at the same time.
• Increased processing speed - Scanners and filters work faster than human eyes or hands, thus increasing processing speeds by as much as 10 times.