Companies using spreadsheets for their renewal data collection process often spend several months gathering information and producing charts and reports. At the same time, they’re neck-deep in formatting and reformatting data to get it ready for submission.
As a result, they have to submit their renewal information late in the process. This puts brokers in a tough position. They may not have enough time to:
- Clearly explain a client’s risk to the underwriters
- Negotiate the best premiums and policies
- Evaluate the best program design considering coverage and total costs
If you are looking to optimize your organization’s insurance renewals, this is the right eBook for you.
In this eBook, we walk through a timetable for your insurance renewal and highlight what information is required and how it’s used. We’ll also discuss the main challenges risk/insurance managers face during renewal and how technology can help, as well as share best practices and success stories.
Your Timeline for Insurance Renewals
Here’s a breakdown of the kind of timeline you should expect as you engage in the renewal process.
120 Days Before Renewal Date
Start four months before your insurance policy’s expiration date. The initial step entails acquiring documents for analysis and requesting data. This means you need to:
- Compile all accessible financial data and reports, especially a balance sheet and profit and loss statement.
- Compile copies of all current insurance policies.
- Order loss runs from each of your carriers.
- Order experience data rating sheets for workers' compensation.
100 Days Before Renewal
1. Examine the financial statements and enter the following information on a spreadsheet for a risk management review: real property values and locations, income from those properties, gross revenues, inventories, supply chain information, and any other financial information that could indicate a business risk.
2. Evaluate your operation's workflow and establish or revise your standard operating procedures. Look for any potential safety risks. You should also make a narrative account of your business operations.
3. Hone in on unique changes to your business operations, such as environmental issues, liabilities that could result from new employment practices, and new professional liabilities.
4. Follow up on experience rating data and loss runs. Compare your loss records to those of the workers' comp service company or your insurance carriers. Make a worksheet for losses that includes paid and reserved amounts. Ensure this spreadsheet maintains a running total that covers the last five years.
90 Days Before Renewal
Combine these narratives and data sets into a single renewal package. The package should begin with a narrative, then it should go describe your
- Current coverage
- Five-year losses
- Your narrative outlining how to respond to a loss of data using safety precautions or training
- Optional coverage of interest
- Estimated financial data pertaining to exposures for the upcoming year
- Optional self-retention and deductible levels
Also, at this point, you should offer your renewal package to your current provider or your chosen competitors.
60 Days Before Renewal
Set up inspections, respond to inquiries, and follow up with bidders to discuss their progress or any questions they may have. Take notes, compare their findings, and choose the best fit for your business. In this way, you can get responses to your renewal requests at least 30 days before they’re needed.
30 Days Before Renewal
Make sure the broker or agent you select addresses every detail presented in your package. Then correct any inconsistencies.
Decide which provider you will go with fifteen days before the dates you've chosen to allow time for the mortgagee notice, the production of insurance certificates, and any other notices you may be obligated to provide.
How Renewal Data Is Used
Renewal data is used by your broker, insurer, and underwriters, to decide whether or not you qualify for the insurance coverage you’re asking for as well as the premiums you’ll pay. As they examine the information you provide, they’re trying to strike a balance between providing you with the risk mitigation you need and reducing their company’s exposure.
This is why is particularly important to thoroughly outline both the risks your organization faces and the systems and technologies you already have in place to reduce them. If you’re able to demonstrate, using this data, that insuring your business presents less risk for your insurance company, you can save significant money.
Challenges and Risks Faced During Renewal
One of the primary challenges many companies face during the renewal process is collecting and analyzing data from disparate sources. For instance, if the organization added two new locations since the last insurance renewal. That results in a small mountain of data to collect, including:
- The unique risks that come with each geographical location, such as weather- and natural disaster-related events
- The new assets associated with each location, from real estate to computers to network components
- The products and services each business unit offer and the unique risks that could make this difficult, such as supply chain delays or cybersecurity incidents
But with all data in a centralized system, you have everything at your fingertips. This is where technology comes in.
How Technology Can Help
With Ventiv’s automated renewal software, you get a streamlined system that gathers risk data from the field in real-time. In this way, you remove the guesswork and always have a centralized, up-to-date assessment of enterprise risk. Then, when it’s time for renewals, you have all the information you need at your fingertips.
Best Practices
Here are some best practices to keep in mind while you leverage your insurance renewal technology:
- Get every applicable employee and/or business unit onboard by explaining the value of using your renewal management solution.
- Ensure employees and other stakeholders are regularly submitting risk data into the system.
- Periodically check in with each department to gather information about new risks that have emerged. Also, inquire about systems that may have less risk since the last renewal. In this way, your risk data collection system is powered both by the boots on the ground and from the top.
Success Stories
Here are some success stories from companies that have used technology to streamline their insurance processes.
Imperial Brands, a worldwide leader in recreational consumer products, used Ventiv’s workflow automation solution to gather new details in real-time, such as fresh stock in its warehouses and the changing values of goods. In this way, their renewal processes became simpler.
Also, Schlumberger, a global provider for the oil and gas industry, used Ventiv’s Integrated Risk Management System to save significant man hours, improve the accuracy of the data captured, and submit their report to the insurer on schedule every time.
To see how Ventiv’s solutions can simplify your insurance renewals and enterprise claims management, check out this infographic and free guide: Streamlining the Insurance Renewal Process.
