Policy Elements

Overview

Policy Elements are the building blocks of any insurance product. They are structured in a hierarchy, with an element of type product at the top, and other elements layered below. The structure can be simple or elaborate depending on the needs of the product. A simple warranty product may just have a single product element, while a commercial package policy may have a hierarchy several layers deep.

The structure of the product hierarchy is specified in configuration. Each element type may be configured to contain some number of sub-elements, using the contents property of the element definition.

Categories and Types

Each Socotra element must be configured with a category and a type. The type can be any valid identifier, while the category must be one of the following built-in values:

product
policyLine
exposureGroup
exposure
coverage

For example, an element may be defined with the category exposure and the type building.

The product element is implicit based on the configuration of the product as a whole, and the other types are declared as stand-alone elements. You may configure any arrangement of hierarchy you want, such as a product with exposures which contain coverages, or coverages which contain exposures, or both.

Example

In your top-level config.json, you may have a section that looks like this:

{
    "coverages": {
        "LiabilityCoverage": {},
        "ComprehensiveCoverage": {}
    },
    "exposures": {
        "Person": {},
        "PersonalVechicle": {}
    }
}

LiabilityCoverage, ComprehensiveCoverage, Person, and PersonalVehicle are all unique types. Each type’s respective category is indicated by its position under one of the recognized category key names. In this case, LiabilityCoverage and ComprehensiveCoverage are both coverages, while Person and PersonalVehicle are exposures.

Note

There can be only one element definition per type name. Type names must be unique across all categories; for example, you cannot define a Person under the exposures category and once again under the coverages category.

Quantifiers

In the contents for each element, the allowed sub-elements may be qualified by Quantifiers, which describe how Socotra will validate that a draft quote is acceptable. They are indicated by a suffix, or lack of a suffix, on the name of the sub-element.

See the Quantifiers topic for more information.

Coverage Terms

Each element type may also be configured to include any number of Coverage Terms. Each of these is a named type with a set of allowed options and metadata. See the Coverage Terms topic for more information.

Data Extensions

Each element type may be configured to include a set of required and optional data, of various dataExtensions. See the Data Extensions topic for details.