Life Service & Underwriting Update

Prudential’s Service & Underwriting teams are working very hard on your business to do everything possible to ensure a successful year-end. We thoroughly appreciate the urgency that you have shared with us about the importance of getting cases completed for your clients in a very difficult environment. 

Unfortunately, the recent surge in application volume from the VUL deadline has increased pending volume and impeded our ability to stay on track. While our service targets have been the same for many years, we feel it is very important to be transparent on the current state of service. Therefore, after careful consideration of all available options, we feel that it’s necessary to take the extraordinary step of updating our Underwriting service expectations from the normal, 90-95% within 3 days of ARR (all requirements received), to a new temporary guideline of: within 5 days of ARR. 

Important VUL/Large Case Note: Underwriting will continue to prioritize the VUL and large case work, striving to turn those cases around within the normal BAU goals to meet the upcoming deadlines.  These temporary expectations will continue through year-end and will be re-evaluated in early January to determine if they can be adjusted back to the service level you are accustomed to. An update will be provided in January. 

These are the steps being taken to improve the current situation:

1. Prioritization of VUL & Large cases against deadlines
2. An underwriting class is underway and another will be added to increase capacity
3. Case management will assist underwriting with case prioritization through listings and understanding of your priority cases

We do ask that you please limit escalations to cases beyond 5 days to allow the underwriters the time needed to focus on being as productive as possible. We are very committed to helping everyone achieve their year-end goals. Thank you for your support!