A renewal timeline for commercial insurance clients

For most commercial clients, renewal is the only time they think about their insurance, and it usually starts with a request for information they don't have at hand. If that request arrives three weeks before the effective date, everyone ends up rushed: fewer markets approached, less time to compare, and a client signing something they haven't really read.

A renewal timeline fixes that. Agreed with the client and shared with them, it turns renewal from a scramble into a sequence. This is the timeline we're building Renewal Timeline around. It works just as well in a shared checklist.

The timeline

Larger or more complex accounts need more time, and some markets want submissions earlier. Adjust the dates per client, but keep the order.

The three milestones that matter

90 days: the information request

One request, itemised, with a due date for each item, not a series of emails as questions occur to you. Typical items:

• Revenue and payroll, actual for the past year and estimated for the next
• Locations, with building and contents values
• Vehicles and drivers
• New operations, products, services or significant contracts
• Any claims or incidents not yet reported
• The list of certificate holders and any contract insurance requirements

Pre-fill everything you already know and ask the client to confirm or correct it. That's faster for them and more accurate for you.

60 days: submissions out

By now submissions should be with the markets you're approaching. From this point, the client should be able to see the status of each line of coverage: submitted, quoted, declined or still waiting. It saves a lot of "any news?" emails.

30 days: options presented

Present options with the coverage differences explained in plain language: limits, deductibles, exclusions and any conditions. Thirty days leaves time for questions, a decision and the paperwork before binding.

A worked example

Here's the renewal for a fictional client, Brightwater Landscaping Ltd., with a January 1 renewal. The information request went out on October 3, 90 days before. On November 2, the 60-day mark, the tracker looks like this:

One missing item holds up one line. The tracker makes that obvious to the client without a chasing email. By December 2, the 30-day mark, quote status looks like this:

The options go to the client on December 2 with a one-page comparison: the new snow removal work changes the liability picture, and one market wouldn't cover it. The client decides on December 9, the account is bound on December 15, and on January 1 new certificates go to all 14 holders, including the general contractors whose jobs start in the new year.

Certificates

Certificate holders are easy to forget until one calls. At renewal:

• Collect the list at 90 days, with any contract wording on additional insureds or waivers.
• Check the requirements against what you're binding. A contract that requires a higher limit than you're quoting is better found in November than in January.
• Reissue on the effective date, to every holder, without being asked.
• Let clients request new certificates themselves for routine cases, so they're not waiting on email for a job that starts tomorrow.

Common mistakes

• Starting at 30 days. There's no time to approach more than one market, let alone compare.
• Information requests by drip. Five emails over three weeks get half-answered.
• Silence between submission and proposal. Clients assume nothing is happening.
• Comparing on premium alone. Explain the coverage differences, or the cheapest quote wins by default.
• Forgetting the post-bind check. Policies sometimes arrive different from what was bound.