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Insurance

Every figure traceable to the document it came from.

Underwriting and reserving inputs that can be traced to the document they came from, including the ones that were not used.

the worked caseTwo schedules give different insured values for one site. The reserve carries one figure with the schedule it came from; the other stays on the record.

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A precise spiral of overlapping frosted acrylic sheets casting stacked shadows, one sheet tinted cobalt blue.

Two worked cases on this page, both fictional and both built the way a real one is: a value, the document it was read from, the date of reading, and the value it was chosen over.

The questions you get asked

Nobody asks for more information. They ask whether one line can be defended.

These are the questions that arrive after the work is delivered, from the party entitled to disagree with it. Every property on this page exists because one of them has to have an answer that does not depend on the person who assembled the file.

The four guarantees
  • 01

    Which document is this insured value from, and was it the one in force at inception?

  • 02

    Is this amount gross or net, and where does the file say which?

  • 03

    You show no prior loss at this location. Was that checked, or is it missing?

  • 04

    Explain the judgement, and tell me the figure you did not use.

Asked by the external auditor, by the actuarial function, and by the reviewer who returns to a reserve two years after it was set.

The buyer

Underwriting, reserving, actuarial and internal audit

Functions whose figures are audited, whose data quality is a supervisory requirement in itself, and who are asked to explain not only a number but the alternative that was rejected.

What they fuse

Three kinds of source, one answer

Each kind arrives with different licence terms, different reader restrictions and different reasons to be wrong. The record keeps them distinguishable after the fusion, which is the part that is normally lost.

Submissions and internal schedules

Broker submissions, statements of values, loss runs and prior-year files, often inconsistent with one another.

Licensed exposure and peril data

Catastrophe, geospatial and corporate datasets under licences that restrict redistribution and retention.

Public records

Property and company registers, regulatory filings, court records and published inspection or enforcement outcomes.

Worked case one

Two documents, one figure

One site, two insured values

A renewal statement of values and a mid-term endorsement gave different insured values for the same location. Reconciliation did not mean choosing quietly: the reserve carries the endorsed figure with its document and date, the submission figure stays on the record as the value it was chosen over, and the reason is one line an auditor can read.

The figure beside this is what the reader sees: the value, its status, the source it was read from, and the value it was chosen over.

One site, two insured valuesas of 2 October 2025
Insured value, location 14The endorsed figurecitedMid-term endorsement, retained, clause 4, dated 18 Sep 2025Chosen over the renewal statement of values, which predates the endorsement.
Occupancy classificationAs surveyedcitedRisk survey report, retained, page 7, read 2 Oct 2025Chosen over the broker submission, which carries no survey reference.
Prior loss at this locationNot foundnot foundThree loss runs searched, last on 2 Oct 2025Recorded as not found, not as no prior loss.
A record as it stood on 2 October 2025. Values are fictional and written for demonstration.

Worked case two

Two numbers that are not the same quantity

Two amounts within a few per cent of each other, measuring different things

A claims extract and a cedant bordereau each reported an amount for the same claim, close enough that a reconciliation would have called them a rounding difference. They are not the same quantity: one is incurred gross of reinsurance recoveries and the other is net. Nothing in the numbers says so, and the distinction exists only in the documents they came from. The record does not reconcile them. It carries both, states which quantity each is, and refuses to let either stand in for the other.

A different failure from the first case, on the same record and under the same four guarantees. Both are fictional; neither is a simplification of how the values are shown.

Two amounts within a few per cent of each other, measuring different thingsas of 16 January 2026
Incurred, gross of reinsuranceAs stated in the claims extractcitedClaims system extract, retained, field GRS_INC, run 31 Dec 2025Not comparable with the bordereau amount, which is stated net of recoveries.
Incurred, net of recoveriesAs stated in the bordereaucitedCedant bordereau, retained, column 11, received 14 Jan 2026Differs from the gross amount by whatever recoveries were booked at the year end.
Recoveries booked at 31 Dec 2025Not foundnot foundReinsurance ledger and two broker statements searched, last on 16 Jan 2026Declared not found; the difference between the two amounts is not asserted to be the recoveries.
The claimant's own quantificationBlockedblockedHeld in a litigation file outside this reader's clearanceNamed, so the reserving file shows the figure it was not shown.
A record as it stood on 16 January 2026. Values are fictional and written for demonstration.

Why the record has to hold

What the rules ask for, in their own words

These are the recordkeeping obligations that make a defensible value a requirement rather than a preference. We name them because our customers are measured against them; we make no claim to certify anyone against any of them.

Data quality in technical provisions

European Union
Directive 2009/138/EC (Solvency II) Art. 41 and 82; Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/35 Art. 19

Undertakings must have processes ensuring data used in technical provisions is complete, accurate and appropriate, and must be able to identify and explain its sources and limitations.

Internal control over financial reporting

United States, adopted by states
NAIC Annual Financial Reporting Model Regulation (Model #205), the Model Audit Rule

Management must document and assess internal control over the preparation of statutory financial statements, including controls over the data on which those statements rely.

Disclosure of significant judgements

International, IFRS reporters
IFRS 17, Insurance Contracts

An entity must disclose the significant judgements made in applying the standard and the inputs used to measure insurance contracts.

What changes for this reader

The same work, with the evidence attached at the moment it is read

Not a claim about speed and not a claim about savings: a description of the practice on each side. Everything on the left is what people in this role do today, and almost all of it is done well by people who resent having to do it that way.

How the product works
01today

An underwriter keys the statement of values into the system, and the endorsement that superseded it stays in the file.

with the record

The bound figure carries the endorsement, its clause and its date, and the superseded statement stays on the record as what it was chosen over.

02today

A loss run that comes back empty is treated as no prior loss at that location.

with the record

It is recorded as the loss runs searched and the date, so a nil is distinguishable from a question nobody asked.

03today

Gross and net amounts of similar size are reconciled inside a spreadsheet only its author can read.

with the record

Each amount states which quantity it is and the document it came from, and neither is allowed to stand for the other.

04today

The actuarial function asks where an input came from and is answered from memory, months after the fact.

with the record

Every input carries its document, clause and reading date, which is what the data-quality requirement asks for in the first place.

05today

Explaining a reserve set two years ago means working out which version of which schedule was on the desk that day.

with the record

The file reproduces as it stood on the day the reserve was set, with the documents that were in front of the reserver.

What you get

What the record guarantees insurance readers

The four guarantees, stated in the vocabulary of this sector. They are the same four everywhere; read them in general on the guarantees page, and see them applied to a live record on the demonstration.

  1. One record per insured entity and per location, with its aliases and predecessor names retained.
  2. Every figure carries the document, the clause or page, and the date it was read, so an auditor never has to ask where it came from.
  3. A figure a document does not state is declared not found with the documents searched, never carried forward as zero.
  4. A closed reserve or a bound risk can be reproduced exactly as the file stood on the day it was set.

Primary sources

The texts behind these obligations

Insurers answer to prudential supervisors, statutory auditors and accounting standard setters, and each has written down what it expects of data and judgement. The texts listed below sit behind the obligations on this page. We name them because the reader's work is measured against them, and we do not certify any firm against them.

Reference pages that apply to this sector

Further reading in the articles

previous sectorLegalA deal-room document and a public filing give different completion dates. The memorandum cites both, names the one it relies on, and states why.next sectorSupply-chain complianceA smelter appears under three spellings across four tiers. The record keeps one entity, shows the three names it is known by, and dates each.