Plain-language definitions of the terms independent insurance agencies need to navigate AI tooling, modern carrier portals, and the property insurance market. Each entry is short, citable, and written for a working agent.
A standardized application form maintained by the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development. ACORD forms are the most common format for transmitting risk data between agencies, carriers, and MGAs. Sunsure's document AI auto-generates ACORD 125, 126, 127, 130, 140, and 175 from extracted data.
The system of record an agency uses to store policies, customers, claims notes, and accounting. Common platforms include AMS360 (Vertafore), Applied Epic, EZLynx, and HawkSoft. An AMS is not a quoting tool; it stores the result of a quote after binding.
AI systems that don't just answer questions but take multi-step actions on behalf of a user, monitoring inputs, making decisions, and only escalating to a human when judgment is required. In an agency context, an agentic AI watches the inbox, processes documents, opens drafts, and submits to carriers without per-step prompting.
A platform that pulls quotes from multiple carriers in one place. Comparative raters are aggregators for personal lines; modern AI quoting platforms expand this to commercial lines and add document automation.
A carrier's stated willingness to write a given risk class. "TypTap's appetite includes hip-roof homes under 30 years old in Florida coastal counties" is a typical appetite statement. AI tools check appetite before submitting to avoid wasted carrier interactions.
The action of formally placing coverage with a carrier: the policy is now active. In an agency workflow, "click to bind" means accepting the carrier's quote and creating the in-force policy.
A bundled small-business commercial policy combining property and general liability. The most common commercial-lines product sunsure quotes alongside personal homeowners.
A web application carriers run for agents to submit business, view existing policies, and bind new policies. Sunsure automates these portals via direct integration so agents don't have to log into 20 separate sites for one quote.
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Florida's state-run property insurer of last resort. Florida-licensed agents must offer Citizens to eligible homeowners when private-market alternatives are unavailable.
Software that submits one set of insured information to multiple carriers and shows their quotes side-by-side. Traditional examples are EZLynx Rater, Tarmika, and Bold Penguin. AI-powered tools like sunsure extend the concept by reading documents first and bridging into commercial lines.
An accuracy estimate the AI assigns to each extracted field. Sunsure flags fields with confidence below an agency-set threshold for human verification before submission.
The summary page of a policy showing named insured, property address, coverage amounts, deductibles, premium, and policy number. Sonny extracts every field from a dec page in seconds, including hurricane deductibles and coverage A/B/C/D/E breakdowns.
AI tooling that reads unstructured documents (PDF, image, email attachments) and outputs structured data. In insurance: dec pages, 4-point inspections, wind mitigation reports, loss runs, ACORD forms, and SOVs.
A residential property policy form for non-owner-occupied or partially-occupied homes, DP1 is the basic form, DP3 the broadest. Sunsure quotes both.
Professional liability insurance protecting agencies from claims that the agency made a mistake or omission in placing coverage. Manual data entry is a leading cause of E&O claims; document AI reduces that risk by removing copy-paste errors.
A change to an in-force policy, adding a driver, increasing a coverage limit, changing a mortgagee. Agencies process endorsements continuously; AI can read endorsement requests from email and pre-fill the carrier's change form.
A required Florida inspection covering the four major systems of a home, roof, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, for properties typically over 25 years old. Without a current 4-point most carriers won't bind. Sonny extracts roof age, roof material, electrical panel type, plumbing type, and HVAC age automatically.
The federal designation of a property's flood risk (e.g., AE, X, VE). Determines whether flood insurance is mandatory under federally-backed mortgages and what carriers will write.
Commercial coverage for third-party bodily injury and property damage claims. Bundled inside BOP for small businesses; standalone for larger or specialty risks.
AI systems that produce new content (text, images, structured data) rather than only classifying existing data. Document AI for insurance combines generative output (filled-in form fields) with extraction.
A period when premiums rise, capacity contracts, and carriers exit lines of business. Florida's residential property market has been hardening since 2020 due to litigation costs and storm exposure. Hardening markets make parallel quoting more valuable because the cheapest carrier on a given risk changes month-to-month.
The two most common owner-occupied homeowners policy forms. HO3 covers the dwelling on an open-perils basis and personal property on named-perils. HO5 covers both on open-perils, broader, more expensive.
A claim history report from a carrier showing all claims paid, reserved, or denied for a given insured over a stated period (typically 5 years). Used by underwriters to evaluate new submissions. Sonny extracts claim dates, peril, paid amounts, and loss ratios.
A specialty wholesaler that holds underwriting authority on behalf of one or more carriers. Agencies submit through an MGA when the underlying carrier doesn't offer direct appointments.
Submitting a single risk to many carriers simultaneously (not sequentially). The mechanical opposite of the traditional "log into one portal, key in data, copy to next portal" workflow. Sunsure's parallel quoting compresses a 2-hour cycle into roughly 3 minutes.
Insurance products written for individuals and households, homeowners, dwelling fire, personal auto, umbrella, renters, condo. The largest line of business for most independent agencies.
A licensed individual within an agency who actually writes business. Producer productivity is the leading metric most agencies measure when evaluating automation tools.
The elapsed time between a new lead arriving and a bound policy. Industry-typical cycle times for homeowners are 1-3 hours. Sunsure's published target is under 3 minutes from email to ranked carrier results, with bind contingent on agent review.
The carrier's offer to continue coverage at the next policy term. Renewals can include premium increases, coverage changes, or non-renewals. AI renewal automation reads inbound renewal dec pages, drafts customer communications, and re-shops when premiums spike beyond a threshold.
The estimated cost to rebuild a property at current construction prices, used to set Coverage A on a homeowners policy. Carriers run replacement-cost calculators (e.g., 360Value, e2Value) on every submission.
A schedule of insured locations for commercial property, addresses, occupancy, square footage, construction type, values. Submission packets for multi-location risks always include an SOV; Sonny extracts SOVs into structured rows.
A package of risk data sent to a carrier or MGA for quote consideration. A submission typically includes the application form (ACORD), supporting documents (dec pages, loss runs, inspections, SOVs), and a request for terms.
The carrier representative who decides whether to accept a risk and at what price. Modern carriers blend human underwriters with AI underwriting models; AI underwriting tools on the agency side help agents anticipate carrier decisions before submitting.
An intermediary between a retail agent and a non-admitted (E&S) carrier. Used for risks that the standard market won't write. The "wholesale market" sits parallel to the standard market and has its own portals and submission norms.
A Florida-specific inspection documenting hurricane-resistant features of a property, roof shape, roof-deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, opening protection, secondary water resistance. Mitigation credits can reduce premiums by 30%+ on a homeowners policy. Sonny extracts every credit field automatically and applies them to the quote.