The recently launched multi-insurer application software, AppCentral, is connected to the Xplan front-end and will be connected into VisiPlan by the end of the year.

AppCentral, which has signed Zurich as its first insurer, was due to be launched last year but was stalled by the takeover of its developer, Plantech, by IRESS. General manager of IRESS Wealth Solutions, which owns Visi, Xplan and AppCentral, Andrew Walsh, said the software solution allows advisers to collect information only once with applications processed automatically. While a number of insurance companies have recently launched their own proprietary automated models, Walsh said this product was a fully fledged application form that went into “;the depths of underwriting”;, where others were more designed to process clean skins. While Zurich is the first insurer to sign with AppCentral and get the software tailored to its requirements, Walsh said IRESS intended to configure the software to manage all further insurance company applications, and in the first instance would produce a generic personal statement for them. Walsh said it was expected another two or three insurers would sign in the next nine months.