Heading into the new year, our top priority remains the same – to make the reporting process as simple and painless as possible for our member companies. With that goal in mind, we have created many tools and resources to help our members. One of those resources is the Filing Preparation Checklist. This is a checklist which details the sequence of general tasks a company should follow each year to ensure all regulatory statistical reporting requirements are met.

Another resource is the VE Confirmation Email.  Each year, the first Call due to NISS is the Verification of Experience to be Reported (VE) Call. The purpose of the VE Call is to identify which states and Calls will be filed with NISS during the 2018 Call Year. This is the first step for NISS in the process of establishing controls and ensuring quality data.

A notification is prepared during January and emailed to all member companies containing information and instructions on how to submit the VE. Each company should review the information and submit the VE through the NISS website no later than March 1st, 2018.

After we receive your company's VE, a confirmation email is sent which lists the Calls we expect to receive from your company for the 2018 Call Year. The confirmation email provides a direct link to the webpage where you submit each particular Call you plan to send to NISS during the 2018 Call Year. Since the Calls are listed by due date, many companies use this email as a checklist throughout the year as they submit data to NISS. The confirmation email also lists your company's NISS Contact for each Call, so if you have any questions or issues, you can easily contact NISS staff to assist you. Your VE confirmation email can also be viewed on the NISS website under the View Correspondence menu item by anyone with an account for your company.

We will continue to do all we can to make the reporting process as easy and simple as it can be.

As many companies are busy preparing their 2018 Annual Statement yellow books, we would like to remind you of the importance of reconciling your NISS data submissions to your Statutory Page 14. Each year, NISS prepares an Annual Statement Balancing Report for each member company and highlights any differences in which the reconciliation tolerance is exceeded. This is critical to ensure we have received all necessary data.

In many cases, differences can simply be explained using Reconciliation Worksheets. We encourage companies to send in Reconciliation Worksheets as you send data submissions to let us know in advance of any differences. Your company can also submit Reconciliation Worksheets in response to receiving the Annual Statement Balancing Report. Whichever way you choose, the balancing process helps make sure data quality standards are met, and is an important step in the statistical reporting process.

• In April, NISS will attend the IDMA Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• In June, NISS will host booth #351 at the Insurance Accounting & Systems Association (IASA) Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee
• In September, NISS will host a booth at the NAMIC Convention in San Antonio, Texas
• In October, NISS will attend the InsureTech Connect Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada
• NISS attends the NAIC meetings throughout the year