How Pekin Engages, Innovates, And Grows Efficiently

Business Benefits

• Auto loss ratio reversed in the first year by 15% to 20%

• Better data-supported decisions made by underwriters and actuaries

• Better optimize costs and improve platform support

The Story

Established in 1921, Pekin Insurance has grown into a multistate provider of P&C products for both personal and commercial lines, as well as life and health insurance. It serves customers in 22 states with nearly 700 employees and close to 1,200 agencies.

The Pekin Insurance motto is to go Beyond the expected® for customers. Its vision is to set the standard of excellence among insurance providers by being innovative, financially strong, and exceeding customer expectations.

Pekin Insurance has a growth mindset. To go head-to-head with its larger competitors, the insurer knew it needed to generate and sustain top-line growth, simplify business processes, and improve speed-to-market. In 2015, Pekin began its technology modernization journey with Guidewire by replacing its 35-year-old legacy platform with Guidewire core, data analytics, and digital engagement products. This move was part of a strategic effort called PIVOT (Pekin Insurance Virtual Overall Transformation). 

Pekin Insurance reaped the benefits of Guidewire’s on-prem technology platform soon after implementation. By taking advantage of ancillary products from members of the Guidewire PartnerConnect program — including SmartComm and Hyland OnBase — the insurer was able to quickly build its own platform ecosystem.

Pekin also took advantage of Guidewire Predict, and implemented an auto-predictive model to reverse its loss ratio, and within the first year there was a 15%-20% reversal.

Guidewire has enabled us to implement pricing models that we weren't able to previously and allowed us to expedite our state expansion plan, both of which contributed to improvements in our loss ratio.

Joel Jackson, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Pekin Insurance

Pekin Insurance also experienced a lift with workers’ compensation insurance, and it credits the use of Guidewire HazardHub Casualty.

Rapid improvements in underwriting is another area where Pekin Insurance benefited from its transition to the Guidewire platform, with HazardHub Casualty and Predict helping to clarify underwriters’ decision-making.

Due to the success of the on-prem technology and the push to move to a more modern platform, Pekin decided to take the next step in its journey with Guidewire and move to Guidewire Cloud. In October 2023, the insurer went live on the cloud.

“We chose to migrate our Guidewire products onto Guidewire Cloud to better optimize our costs and improve platform support,” said Pekin Insurance Chief Information Officer and Vice President Amy Bingham. “Transferring platform maintenance to Guidewire allows us to utilize regular ongoing updates and take advantage of Guidewire’s latest innovations much more quickly and seamlessly than when we were using Guidewire on premise.”

Since migrating, feedback from uses has been positive.

We’ve received positive feedback from our agents, specifically around the user interface which is visually appealing.

Kim Bandeko, Assistant Vice President of Information Technology

Pekin Insurance

As Pekin’s Guidewire Cloud journey continues, the insurer is looking forward to a number of benefits. Bandeko said, “We’re looking forward to increased external rating and underwriting agility, leveraging the data and analytics products that are available on Guidewire Cloud, and integrating with the best-in-class insurtech solutions through the Guidewire Marketplace and PartnerConnect ecosystem across our insurance product lifecycles.”