Case Study: Kemper Corporation achieves faster real-time underwriting and reduced underwriting risk with FICO Blaze Advisor

Kemper increases insurance applications processed while reducing underwriting risk

Kemper, a Unitrin business and major personal-lines property & casualty insurer with roughly $994 million in written premiums, faced a slow, paper-based underwriting process built on hard-coded COBOL rules. The legacy system generated multiple paper referrals for single applications, prevented agents from updating rules, and produced inconsistent, time-consuming decisions across channels and geographies.

Kemper implemented FICO’s Blaze Advisor business rules management system and analytic models—deployed in under six months—to centralize decision logic, incorporate external data (IBS, CLUE, MVR, HomeValue) and enable real-time, risk-based underwriting at the point of sale. The change cut underwriting losses and improved efficiency (eliminating many manual reviews), lifted quote counts and targeting, increased pricing tiers (auto 6→48, home 6→24), and lowered the combined ratio by eight points in the first year.

Kemper Corporation

Patrick J. Madigan

Asst. Vice President, Underwriting