canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/back9ins.com/back9ins

# Back9ins BackNine Insurance API

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for BackNine Insurance API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. BackNine is a tech-enabled general agency for life insurance, and the API exposes 12 endpoints for getting quotes, creating and resuming electronic applications (eApps), managing eApp access, updating insured data, advancing eApp steps, sending text messages to applicants, and downloading illustrations. Use it to embed life insurance quoting and application flows into agent platforms, advisor tooling, and back-office automations without rebuilding eApp infrastructure.

## For AI agents

Quote life insurance, create and progress electronic applications (eApps), manage applicant access, and pull illustrations through the BackNine general agency API.

## Scope

Does not handle underwriting decisions, carrier policy issuance, or premium billing - use for quoting, eApp lifecycle, and illustration download only.

## Capabilities

- Generate life insurance quotes for an applicant via the eapp-quotes endpoint
- Create new electronic applications (eApps) and resume in-progress ones via `/api/v1/eapps` and /resume
- Grant or manage applicant and advisor access to a specific eApp via the accesses/create endpoint
- Update insured data on an existing eApp before submission
- Advance an eApp through its workflow steps via the step/next endpoint
- Send text messages to applicants and download illustrations linked to a quote

## Use cases

### Embed life insurance quoting in an advisor platform

Power a financial advisor tool that runs life insurance quotes inside its own UI by calling `/api/v1/eapp-quotes` with applicant details. The platform then drops the user straight into a BackNine eApp through `/api/v1/eapps` without forcing them to bounce out to a third-party portal.

Example prompt: POST to `/api/v1/eapp-quotes` with applicant date of birth, gender, state, face amount $500,000, and product term-20, and return the top three carriers by premium.

### Resume and progress in-flight applications

When applicants leave an eApp partway through, advisors can resume it via `/api/v1/eapps/{eapp_uuid}/resume`, update insured data, and walk the application to the next step using `/step/next.` This makes follow-up workflows cleaner because no application is lost between sessions.

Example prompt: Resume eApp 11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111, update the insured's height and weight on /insured, and call `/step/next.`

### Outreach via text and illustrations

Send applicants and advisors text-message reminders during the application process via `/api/v1/text` and email or download illustration PDFs from `/api/v1/quotes/{id}/illustration` so applicants understand the policy they are buying. Combining outreach and document delivery in one API reduces hand-offs.

Example prompt: POST `/api/v1/text` with body 'Your application is 80% complete' to the applicant phone number on file for an active eApp.

### Agent-driven life insurance workflows

Let an AI agent take a user request like 'get me a 20-year term quote for $1m' and run quoting, eApp creation, and insured data updates as a single workflow through Jentic. The BackNine API surface is small and well-typed, which is ideal for an agent tool that needs predictable inputs and outputs.

Example prompt: Search Jentic for 'get a backnine life insurance quote', load the schema for POST `/api/v1/eapp-quotes`, and execute it for a 35-year-old non-smoker, $1,000,000 face amount, term-20.

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| POST | `/api/v1/eapp-quotes` | Get a life insurance quote |
| POST | `/api/v1/eapps` | Create a new eApp |
| POST | `/api/v1/eapps/{eapp_uuid}/resume` | Resume an in-progress eApp |
| POST | `/api/v1/eapps/{eapp_uuid}/accesses/create` | Grant access to an eApp |
| POST | `/api/v1/eapps/{eapp_uuid}/step/next` | Advance the eApp to the next step |
| POST | `/api/v1/eapps/{eapp_uuid}/insured` | Update insured data on an eApp |
| GET | `/api/v1/quotes/{id}/illustration` | Download a quote illustration |
| POST | `/api/v1/text` | Send a text message to an applicant |

## Key resources

- **EappQuotes** — Generate life insurance quotes for an applicant
- **Eapps** — Create and manage electronic applications
- **EappAccesses** — Grant access to an eApp for applicants and advisors
- **EappInsured** — Update insured data on an eApp
- **EappSteps** — Advance an eApp through workflow steps
- **Text** — Send text messages to applicants
- **QuoteIllustrations** — Download illustration PDFs for a quote

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Calling the BackNine Insurance API by hand means sending the X-BACKNINE-AUTHENTICATION header on every request against app.back9ins.com and shaping quote, eApp, and insured payloads yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the BackNine Insurance API from the API Directory, store the API key once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** This API carries the eApp identifier in the URL path (`/api/v1/eapps/{eapp_uuid}/...`), so a rule can pin your agent to work within a single eApp. You choose the operations it may call, so limit the agent to what it needs, such as getting a quote or advancing an eApp step, and calls like granting eApp access stay out unless you add them.
- **Credential handling:** Your BackNine API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'get a life insurance quote' or 'resume an in-progress eApp', and Jentic returns the matching operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without reading BackNine docs.

## Related APIs

- **Stripe** — Charge premium payments alongside an eApp submission
- **Twilio** — Programmable SMS as an alternative to BackNine's /text endpoint
- **SendGrid Mail** — Send email reminders and illustration attachments to applicants

## FAQ

### Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for BackNine Insurance API?

BackNine documents its API on docs.back9ins.com but does not publish a machine-readable OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec from the BackNine documentation so that AI agents and developers can call the eApp and quoting endpoints via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### What authentication does the BackNine Insurance API use?

The API uses an API key passed via the `ApiKeyAuth` security scheme defined in the spec. Through Jentic the API key is stored encrypted in the vault and only injected at execution time, so the key never enters the agent's prompt or context.

### Can I get a life insurance quote with this API?

Yes. POST `/api/v1/eapp-quotes` returns quotes for an applicant when given core fields such as date of birth, state, face amount, and product type. The same eapp_uuid can then drive POST `/api/v1/eapps/{eapp_uuid}/quotes` to attach quotes to an electronic application.

### What are the rate limits for the BackNine API?

The spec does not declare explicit rate limits. BackNine applies limits at the account level; check your BackNine API key dashboard for the exact request-per-minute allowance applicable to your integration.

### How do I create an eApp through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'create a backnine eapp', load the schema for POST `/api/v1/eapps`, and execute it with the applicant payload. Install with `pip install jentic` and use the async search/load/execute pattern.

### Does this API issue policies directly?

No. The API drives quoting and electronic application capture only. Underwriting, carrier issuance, and policy delivery happen at the carriers BackNine writes business with - the API ends at submission and illustration delivery.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the BackNine Insurance API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which BackNine operations and credentials the agent may use, so you can allow only what a task needs, such as POST `/api/v1/eapp-quotes` to get a quote or `/step/next` to advance an eApp. Operations you do not grant, like granting eApp access via `/accesses/create`, stay off limits to the agent. Since the eApp identifier sits in the URL path (`/api/v1/eapps/{eapp_uuid}/...`), you can also pin the agent to work within a single application.