Movement of Policy (2): Actuarial? Data Warehouse?

If someone asks me: "Who should be the most appropriate person in charge in doing movement of policy (MOP) reporting - Actuarial or Data Warehouse (or IT Department)?" After some hesitation, I shrug my shoulders: "Frankly, I'm sorry that I don't know..."

Ideally, MOP reporting is basically summarizing & categorizing the data available in the policy admin system. If the system data are "clean" (what a luxurious wish), we can just apply some rules to segregate the available policies into "new business", "termination/alteration" and "in force" - just like what we do using Excel, FoxPro or DCS (Data Conversion System). Furthermore, the rules are actually easily understood by even non-actuarial colleagues. Now, it sounds like it is a bit too expensive to as Actuarial Department to do MOP reporting.

However, in reality, the data in the policy admin system in many companies are not clean - especially those with group insurance/takaful business. There are so many types of erratic data until it requires Actuarial to decide whether a policy is considered "valid" in MOP's perspective. Furthermore, some companies may have more than one policy admin system and MOP reporting requires combination of the policy data from multiple systems.

Sounds a bit tricky now? Not yet until you hear this: to make the matter worse, the policy data for some group insurance/takaful may not exist in any of the policy admin system! Some products may be manually managed by the Group Insurance/Takaful Department or Employee Benefit Department. Sometimes you may be informed by the sales personnels: "I'm sorry that the data you require are available at the third party's server and we haven't received those data yet..." (You may feel like screaming at him: "What? I thought the policy has been issued 6 months ago???")

We have to accept that the real life is imperfect. "By right, it should be simple, correct?" You're correct, "by right" it is. Sometimes the way we manage a supposed-to-be simple thing makes it becomes complicated.