Duck Creek Policy, Billing, Claims, Rating Migration — Domain-Object Deep Dive

Duck creek policy, billing, claims, rating migration is the deep domain-object work of moving each Duck Creek system-of-record into Fusion or a target downstream — and the four domains each have distinct shape and complexity. Policy: policy lifecycle events (bind, endorsement, cancellation, reinstatement, renewal) with multi-term policies, written-premium and earned-premium curves, multi-state ratebook variance per LOB. Billing: account-level billing aggregation across policies, premium-due transactions, payment processing, NSF and write-off handling, agency commission flows. Claims: claim creation through FNOL, claim features per coverage, indemnity and LAE payments, case reserves with adjuster work plans, salvage and subrogation handling. Rating: rate algorithm execution at quote and bind, surcharge and fee calculation, premium tax computation per state, FAIR Plan and JUA assessments. Each domain is a separate workstream with separate sign-off, separate testing and separate cutover discipline.

Because they have separate ownership, separate semantic complexity and separate downstream consequences. Policy is owned operationally by underwriting and product management — changes to policy lifecycle handling have product implications. Billing is owned by billing operations and finance — changes affect cash receipts, agency commissions and customer-facing statements. Claims is owned by claims operations and the chief actuary — changes affect reserve adequacy and loss-development reporting. Rating is owned by actuarial and product — changes affect premium adequacy and state-DOI rate-filing compliance. Treating them as one monolithic migration produces sign-off paralysis (no one can sign off on everything at once) and unmanaged risk concentration (one bug in one domain affects all four). Treating them as separate domain objects with separate sign-off, separate testing and separate cutover discipline keeps the project moving and keeps each domain owner accountable for their domain.

Policy is the top-level entity in Duck Creek's insurance-core data model. Each policy has a policy header (policy number, named insured, effective date, expiration date, line of business, state, agency, producer), one or more policy terms (typically 12-month terms; commercial policies may have shorter or longer terms; some specialty lines run multi-year), and many policy transactions per term (bind, endorsement, cancellation, reinstatement, renewal, audit). Each transaction has transaction details (one per coverage or per item endorsed) carrying the premium and commission implications. The earned-premium curve runs across the term per daily-pro-rata or 24ths-method calculation. Cancellation triggers return-premium on short-rate or pro-rata basis per the policy's cancellation clause. Endorsement triggers additional or return premium prorated for the remaining term. Multi-state policies (commercial fleet, national accounts, surplus lines) split premium across states per the situs of risk.

Billing operates above the policy level. A billing account aggregates all policies for a single billed party — typically a named insured for personal lines, a parent corporation for commercial lines, an MGA for delegated authority business. The account has an installment plan (annual pay-in-full, semi-annual, quarterly, monthly, monthly EFT, monthly credit card), driving the premium-due schedule. Each premium-due transaction posts on its due date and feeds Fusion AR. Payment receipts apply against premium-due transactions per the account's payment-application waterfall. NSF reversals back out the original payment and re-age the underlying premium-due. Write-offs handle uncollectible premium per the carrier's write-off policy. Agency commissions are calculated per producer per LOB and post as AP entries paired to the corresponding AR receipt cycle. Cancellation for non-payment is triggered by aged unpaid premium-due transactions per state-specific rules.

A claim is created via FNOL (First Notice of Loss) — typically through an agent, a call center, a customer portal or an automated channel. The claim attaches to a policy and creates one or more claim features per coverage involved in the loss (auto policy with bodily injury and property damage produces two claim features; homeowners policy with dwelling, personal property and loss-of-use produces three). Each feature has its own case reserve (the adjuster's estimate of ultimate cost), IBNR allocation (the actuarial team's estimate of unreported development), paid history (indemnity payments to the claimant plus LAE payments to adjusters and vendors), and recovery history (salvage and subrogation). Case reserves move as the adjuster gathers information. IBNR moves as the actuarial team re-estimates. Paid loss moves as claim payments issue. The claim closes when all features are resolved — typically months or years after the loss event for liability claims, sometimes decades for catastrophic claims like asbestos.

Rating is the calculation engine that converts a policy submission into a premium quote and then a bound policy premium. Duck Creek runs ratebooks per LOB per state — each state's regulatory environment, loss experience and market conditions produce different rates. The rating engine takes policy attributes (risk address, vehicle/dwelling characteristics, drivers/occupants, prior losses, credit factors where permitted) and computes base premium, applies surcharges (high-risk, surplus lines, etc.), fees (policy fee, inspection fee, MVR fee), premium taxes per state, FAIR Plan and Joint Underwriting Association assessments where applicable. The output is the premium that flows to the policy transaction and then through billing to AR. Rate changes require state-DOI filing approval before implementation, and the rating domain has to support point-in-time ratebook lookup to recompute historical premiums under historical rate sets.

Through governed crosswalk tables and per-state translation rules. State of risk drives a stack of decisions: which ratebook applies, which surcharges and assessments apply, which premium tax rate applies, which surplus lines tax applies (for non-admitted business), which NAIC Annual Statement Pages 14/15 column the premium and loss report into. Multi-state commercial policies split premium per situs of risk and the integration tracks each split per Fusion COA segment combination. Surplus lines business in states where the carrier is non-admitted has additional reporting requirements per state surplus-lines tax filing rules. Carriers operating across many states (large national personal-lines carriers may operate in all 50 states plus DC plus US territories) get the per-state complexity captured as crosswalks — adding a new state post-go-live is a crosswalk update, not a project.

Sequenced. The cutover strategy schedules domains in dependency order: foundation (Fusion enterprise structures, ledgers, COA, master crosswalks) first; policy migration second (policy lifecycle events to Fusion AR + GL with earned-premium curves); billing migration third (account-level aggregation and premium-due flows); claims migration fourth (claim financial events to Fusion AP + GL with case-reserve and IBNR roll-forward); rating fifth (historical premium recomputation for any back-period adjustments). Reinsurance and commission flows layer on each domain. Each domain has its own parallel-run, mock rehearsal and sign-off. Final consolidated cutover ties them together — Duck Creek event stream switches to Fusion-only across all domains simultaneously after each domain has independently signed off. Sequenced domain cutover reduces concurrency risk; consolidated final cutover ensures Duck Creek-side switch is one event.