Industry Standards
Standard Data Messages

As NAVA is not a standards organization, the Committee sought the expertise of ACORD, a recognized standards-setting organization for the insurance industry. In November of 2001, NAVA and ACORD entered into an agreement to work together to develop XML-based standards for the annuity industry. The partnership will have NAVA coordinate and develop requirements and priorities for annuity standards through the efforts of its Technology Committee. This Committee will make the information available to ACORD for inclusion in their standards setting processes. ACORD will ensure that these standards are open standards in the public domain and available. Participation on the working groups and access to the implementation guides generated by the annuity working group are available to all NAVA members, irrespective of their membership in ACORD.

The Committee’s first initiative was the creation of a standard annuity product profile that represented the informational needs of member carriers, broker/dealers and vendors. The Product Profile for Annuities (PPfA) standard was released in late January 2002. NAVA continues to work within the ACORD framework to enhance the PPfA and to develop other transactional messages. In June 2002, industry representatives defined a Commission Profile (now incorporated in the PPfA) and a New Business for Annuities (NBfA) data message.

Implementation Guides have been produced to direct and assist development teams in building systems in utilizing the ACORD Life Standard. These Guides provide a comprehensive field-by-field definition of all data elements covered in the standard and the associated type codes that are applicable. It is intended to serve as a reference document to specify what information should be included, how the information should be structured and how the standard can be used in support of different basic contract and rider scenarios.

To download the PPfA Implementation Guide, click here.
To download the NBfA Implementation Guide, click here.
To download the Policy Lifecyle Implementation Guide, click here.

If you would like to participate on the NAVA/ACORD working group that is developing these standards, please contact Deborah Tucker at dtucker@navanet.org.

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