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POLICY ADMINISTRATION

Life and annuity policy administration system

Your policy administration system is the system of record for policy details, values, and transaction history. Zahara supports life insurance and annuity products with configurable rules, traceable transactions, and connections to underwriting, servicing, and finance, with governance defined by the carrier.

What your policy administration system needs to do

Life insurance and annuity products can remain in force for decades. A policy administration system needs to maintain policy values and transaction history as products, rules, and service needs change. Evaluate how it supports configuration, calculations, financial controls, and connections to other systems.

  1. Change products under governed control

    Configure product structures, rates, riders, funds, transactions, and rules within governed workflows.

  2. Support consistent calculations across connected workflows

    Use shared calculation logic across supported new-business, illustration, and in-force administration workflows where configured.

  3. Keep the transaction record traceable

    Maintain traceable transaction records designed to support carrier audit and financial-control processes.

  4. Connect the core to the rest of the stack

    Connect distribution, underwriting, servicing, finance, and data through modern APIs.

Manage life and annuity products with Zahara

Zahara is Zinnia’s policy administration system for building, testing, launching, and servicing life and annuity products on modern infrastructure.

POLICY ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM

Zahara

A cloud-native PAS built around configurable product components, a multi-purpose calculation engine, modern APIs, real-time event processing, and a distributed ledger.

  • Pre-configured insurance chassis
  • Multi-purpose calculation engine
  • Distributed ledger as system of record
  • Product testing and lifecycle tools
  • Real-time event processing and APIs

CONFIGURATION LAYER

Admin Console

A configuration control center designed to reduce the need for code-based changes for carrier and product setup, rules, workflows, correspondence, and governed change.

  • Draft, review, and active lifecycle
  • Version history and approval roles
  • Parallel domain-based configuration
  • Preview and rollback support for configuration changes
  • Change history retained for review

Review and approve product changes

Rates, riders, rules, and correspondence change throughout a product’s life. Admin Console provides a governed structure for configuring them, with review and approval assigned by role, version history, preview before activation, and rollback to a prior version. Each change follows a defined path from draft through review and approval, creating a traceable record of the configuration in effect.

During onboarding, product, actuarial, compliance, and implementation teams can configure and approve setup through the same process. Version history and change records keep product setup reviewable over time and reduce reliance on informal spreadsheet handoffs.

How to evaluate policy administration systems

Ask each vendor to walk through a product update, a policy transaction, and an integration with your existing systems. Review who can make changes, how those changes are approved, and how the resulting values and transactions are recorded.

01

Product configuration without rebuilding the core

How are rates, riders, funds, product rules, correspondence, and transaction logic configured? Separate routine business change from work that truly requires engineering.

02

Governance over every change

Look for approvals, version history, contributor roles, preview, rollback, and change history, and confirm how each control is implemented against your own governance requirements.

03

Transaction and financial integrity

Evaluate traceability, reconciliation, GL connections, cash controls, and how policy values and changes are recorded in a way designed to support the carrier’s audit and regulatory review processes.

04

Real-time processing and integration

Which service requests and policy changes can the PAS process in real time through supported integrations? Map APIs and events across new business, underwriting, portals, documents, finance, and data.

05

A practical path from legacy to target state

A modern core still needs a credible implementation path. Evaluate coexistence, conversion, testing, reconciliation, cutover, and business continuity during the transition.

Connect policy administration to underwriting, servicing, and finance

As the system of record for policy operations, your policy administration system gives connected teams access to policy details, values, and transaction history. Supported integrations are designed to keep underwriting decisions, service requests, and financial reconciliation connected to that record, with carrier-defined rules governing how information and updates move between systems.

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Order Entry

New business arrives from distribution and the order-entry workflow.

Underwriting / Issue

Underwriting and issue decisions complete before the policy record is established.

Zahara PAS

The policy record, product configuration, and transaction history are held in the core with carrier-configured governance controls.

Servicing / Portals

Service requests and self-service experiences can interact with the policy record through supported real-time integrations.

Finance / Fund Ops

Financial control, reconciliation, and separate-account processing connect back to the core.

Built on experience managing life and annuity blocks

Our experience managing life and annuity blocks informs how we build policy administration technology, from product configuration and transaction processing to the daily work of servicing policies.

26
Carrier blocks of business administered
Over $190 billion
AUM enabled for Insurance Platform clients

Explore the connected capabilities for designing and launching products, handling service requests, managing separate-account operations, and moving existing policies to a new administration system.

Common questions about policy administration

What is a policy administration system?

A policy administration system (PAS) maintains policy information and processes transactions throughout the life of an insurance contract. For individual life insurance and annuities, buyers should evaluate product configuration, policy calculations, transaction records, and connections to underwriting, servicing, and finance.

What does “system of record” mean in policy administration?

The system of record maintains the authoritative policy details, values, and transaction history for the business administered on it. Connected applications can use that information or submit changes through supported integrations. Carriers define the governance requirements for access, approvals, reconciliation, and review of the policy record.

What should carriers evaluate for life insurance and annuity products?

Start with the products and transactions you need to administer. For life insurance, examine coverage, premiums, riders, and applicable policy-value calculations. For annuities, examine accumulation values, withdrawals, income payments, and applicable guarantees. Confirm support for each product’s rules and how changes are tested, approved, and recorded. Separate-account fund operations should be evaluated as a connected capability.

How does policy administration connect to underwriting and servicing?

Underwriting determines the decision and terms used to issue a policy. Policy administration maintains the resulting policy record and processes policy transactions. Servicing tools provide the interface and workflow for requests and updates. Evaluate which data and transactions pass between these systems through supported APIs and events, and how exceptions and reconciliation are handled.

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Whether the goal is a new product launch, PAS replacement, or a modern target state alongside existing systems, evaluate how the core handles product change, transaction control, and lifecycle connections.