1. Introduction

The CodeX Insurance Advisor (CIA) is a World Wide Web (WWW) application that provides its users with automated analysis of commercially available insurance policies.

(1) One feature of the system is claims analysis. The system is able to determine whether or particular insurance policies cover specific claims (real or hypothetical).

(2) Another feature is portfolio analysis. The system is able compare policies to each other in general and provide an analysis of overlaps and gaps, thereby allowing users to configure insurance portfolios that provide desirable coverage with minimal redundancy.

This document is a brief tour of the CIA's capabilities. It shows how to specify policies and claims and other relevant information. It shows how to analyze claims. And it shows how to compare policies.

Since CIA is a WWW-based service, The user accesses the system using a WWW browser. CIA runs in Safari, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and other browsers. In our examples here, we use Safari. However, the appearance and interaction are similar in all major browsers.

Once our browser is started, we can access a demonstration version of CIA by going to the URL shown below. This takes us to the "set-up page" for the demonstration. This page appears only in the demonstration system and is not part of the live system. (Later, we will talk about how to access the "live" version of CIA.)

The set-up page in the demonstration system offers two options - Refresh and Resume. What is going on here? In order to assure a repeatable demo, this demonstration system does not allow users to change data on the server. Instead, all changes are saved in the user's browser. If we click on the Refresh button, the system loads fresh data from the server (and overwrites any changes we have previously made). If we click on the Resume button, we see the data as we left it in our previous use of the system. Note that, since changes are recorded in our local browser, we are not able to see our changes in other browsers or on other machines.

2. Exploring the System

Once we click Refresh or Resume, we are asked to log in. There is just one account in the demonstration system - that of user named Steve Squirrel. The system already has information about Steve and his family, his policies, his claims, and so forth. In order to continue, we enter Steve's id (steve_squirrel), and we enter a password. (Any non-empty password will do.) We then click Sign In. (In the actual system, users can create accounts, log in, and provide analogous information about themselves; but, for the purposes or this demonstration, we access the system using Steve's account.)

The first page we see after signing in is the CIA "splash" page. There are links to pages containing information about various insurance-related items - insurance products, policies, claims, people, and properties.

Clicking on Products takes us to a page listing available insurance products. The demonstration system contains information about various commercial products, available from companies like AXA, Chubb, and Visa. There are also some fictitious products (provided by "CodeX"), which are included to facilitate the demonstration.

Clicking the text icon associated with a product takes us to a brochure describing that product. Clicking the + button associated with a product allows us to augment our portfolio with a corresponding insurance policy, i.e. a product together with an insuree, dates, optional "riders", and so forth.

At this point, we can go back to the splash page to access information about other items. Alternatively, we can use the command bar across the top of the page. For example, clicking Policies, takes us to a page listing all of the policies Steve has specified. In this case, there are Steve has already selected several policies - a Chubb policy, an AXA policy, four CodeX policies, and a Visa policy.

At the bottom of the policies table, there are buttons labeled Add Policy and Compare. Clicking the Add Policy button allows one to add new policies to one's portfolio. Clicking the Compare button allows one to compare policies. More on these options later.

Clicking on Claims in the command bar takes us to a page of previously defined claims. In this case, there are four claims - two hospitalization claims and two car repair claims.

At the bottom of the claims table, there are buttons labeled Add Hospitalization Claim and Add Repair Claim. Clicking one of these buttons allows one to create a new claim of teh specified type. Again, we will say more about these options later.

Clicking on Properties in the command bar takes us to a page of properties. In this case, there are just three properties, all vehicles.

Clicking on People in the command bar takes us to a page of people. There are four people in Steve's world - his wife Susan, his daughters Sally and Sibyl, and himself.

Many of the items in CIA are presented as "hyperlinks". Clicking on one of these hyperlinks takes us to an "inpect" page that allows us to see more information about that item. For example, if we click on the link for Sally Squirrel, we see information about Sally Squirrel. If we click on steve_squirrel on that page, we see information about Steve. If we click the policy link on that page, we see information about the corresponding policy. And so forth.

Note that some of these "inspect" pages have buttons allowing us to change information about the corresponding item.

3. Claims Analysis

Claims Analysis is the process of determining whether a policy or combination of policies covers a specific claim (whether real or hypothetical). In the current version of the system, CIA simply provides a yes-no answer to questions of coverage, In future versions, it will provide more detail about the type of coverage (payment or replacement) and the amount of coverage (e.g. in dollars).

To see an example of this, we can go to the Claims page and click on one of Steve's claims, e.g. claim31. This takes us to a page listing policies and details about the claim and an indication about whether or not the claim is covered.

All policies are initially "checked" meaning that they are all to be considered in analyzing the claim. If we wish to analyze the coverage of only some policies, we can uncheck the corresponding check boxes. For example, if we uncheck all but the Visa policy, CIA will analyze only whether the claim is covered by Steve's Visa policy.

In this case, we see that The Visa signature policy does not cover this claim. The reason is that that Steve was driving off road, which is deemed a hazardous activity and so the claim is not covered by the selected policy.

If we change the activity from off road to street driving, we see that the claim is covered.

But, wait, not so fast. If we change the country to indicate that the car is rented in Ireland, once again the claim is not covered, as that is explicitly excluded in the Visa signature product (which we can see by reading through the Visa product brochure).

The good news for Steve is that if he *also* has the AXA policy checked here, he would be covered, even in Ireland.

The main feature to note here is the transparency provided by CIA. The rules defining the terms and conditions of the customer's policies are embedded in CIA and that allows it to give the claimant immediate feedback on the claim would be honored. Changing various values changes the prediction. Moreover, CIA is able to provide explanations for its conclusions so the claimant understands the reasons for its conclusions.

4. Portfolio Analysis

Note that the analysis in the previous section differs from claims analysis in other systems in that the claim is analyzed against Steve's entire portfolio of policies, not just one policy. But it still focusses on just one claim.

Portfolio management is more general than this. It allows the user to analyze whole policies, not just specific claims. Let's see how this works. From the Policies tab we can get to the portfolio analysis page by clicking the Compare button.

This takes us to a page with two identical tables of policies. We tell the system to assume we have a policy by clicking the checkbox next to that policy in the first table. The system analyzes the policies that have been checked and places a check mark in the second table next to policies covered by the policies checked in the first table.

For example, if we tell the system to assume we have a visa signature card, we see that it covers itself an no other policies.

However, if instead we check the AXA policy, the system reports that that policy covers not just itself but all of the cases handled by Visa as well. In other words, the AXA policy is strictly more general than the Visa policy.

Of course, things are not always so simple. CodeX plan b covers just itself. CodeX plan c covers just itself. CodeX plan d covers just itself. However, when the three are combined, they jointly cover plan a as well and also cover the Chubb plan. The upshot if that, if Steve has CodeX plans b, c, and d, there is no reason for him to purchase CodeX plan a or the Chubb policy.

In general, coverage analysis can be quite complicated, e.g. when there are constraints on types of coverage, when there are overlapping individuals, vehicles, locations, policy dates, etc. and when there are multiple interacting claims. And, of course, this demo focusses only on coverage. Payment analysis must also be done to deal with deductibles, overall limits on payment, and so forth. But, hopefully these examples illustrate the basic idea of the portfolio analysis.

5. Transitioning to the Live System

The "live" version of CIA can be accessed by going to the URL shown below.

To use the system, click on the Sign In link in the upper right hand corner. If you have an account, you can simply enter the corresponding id and password and sign in. If you do not already have an account, you can create one by clicking on the link labeled Sign Up.

One key difference between the live version of CIA and the demonstration system is that all data is stored on the CodeX server. This means that user-supplied data is persistent and it can be accessed from any browser on any machine. There are no Refresh or Resume buttons. (One is *always* resuming.)

Although the live system contains information about insurance products, you must supply user-specific information, such as information about yourself, your family, your properties; and your must create policies and claims on your own. Once this information is entered, you can then use the tools illustrated above to analyze claims and compare policies.