ROME, N.Y.-The insurance industry is still struggling to join the 21st century, according to one CUSO.
James Lombardo, chief operating manager at AmeriCU Services, LLC (the insurance services CUSO of AmeriCU here), explained that some national insurance companies still require financial institutions and brokers to keep paper files with hand-written signatures, which costs both time and money.
"A lot of our business we upload and download, sending overnight electronically to the insurance companies, and they're requiring us to keep hard copies in the event that they ever come back and audit us," said Lombardo. "As we grow, we're sitting with an ever-expanding, old-fashioned file cabinet."
Everything from credit unions to doctors' offices use some sort of electronic record-keeping, but Lombardo noted that the world of insurance hasn't made it that far yet. "A lot of it might be the old-fashioned bureaucracy of the companies," he posited.
Lombardo also handles IRA accounts for AmeriCU, and he noted that the general guideline there is that as long as a legible version of the original can be reproduced, the CU doesn't have to hold on to the original paper document.
