Before any commissions can be calculated, you must tell Advisors Assistant how much the companies pay you and how much you pay your producers. The rate tables tell Advisors Assistant what percentage you are being paid for base and excess premium on that policy, if you are receiving any override commissions, or if there is a fixed commission amount you receive periodically.

The number of rate tables you need to enter depends on the number of different rate structures you have.

•The ABC Company pays you the same commission for any type policy of theirs you sell. You only need one rate table set or name for ABC Company.

•The XYZ Company has a different rate structure for each of their products. You will need to enter one set of rate tables per product.

•Long Life Insurance Company pays you a different commission based on the age of the insured.  You will need a different set of rate tables for each age band.

If your rate structures are very similar, Advisors Assistant has shortcuts for copying rate tables and entering the rates.

Default Rate Tables

Default Rate Tables can be used to save hours of data entry.

When calculating commissions, Advisors Assistant first looks for a rate table assigned to a specific producer or manager by name. If it finds that table, it uses it. If it does not find that specific rate table, it will use the Default Rate Table by the same Table Name.

For example you have 100 producers. 98 of the producers all have the same rate structure and two high producers have a special deal.

With Default Rate Tables you would only need to enter 3 rate tables rather than 100 (one for each producer) for the example above.

Rate Table Sets

Rate tables are independent of policies. One set of rate tables can support many policies from different companies as long as the rates are correct. It's the policy that points to the rate table set.

For example, a rate table set by the name of "Generic Group Insurance" could provide rates for both the ABC Company and the XYZ  Company.

Rate tables come in "sets."  A set of rate tables will all have the same name, but that set can contain many rate tables.

Getting Started

We recommend that as you’re getting started, don’t try to enter all of your rate tables and policies before you start calculating commissions. If you entered the rate tables incorrectly you’ll have a lot of editing to do.

The best thing to do is select a couple of different rate scenarios from one insurance company. Enter those rate tables, and then make sure that you have some policies in the database using those rate tables. Calculate the commissions, and if those transactions calculate correctly you can continue entering more rate tables and policies.

Once you understand the process and your commissions are calculating correctly, finish entering one company first, so you can begin posting all of that company’s commissions. Then move on to the next company.

See Also

Rate Table Sets

Associating Rate Tables With Coverage Plans