Commercial insurance renewal questionnaire: what to ask and how

Most independent agencies already send a renewal questionnaire to their commercial clients. The trouble is how few come back. Indio's survey of brokers, as Coverager reported it, found "only 9% of their clients' applications and submission packets are coming back completed." The rest turn into phone calls, follow-up emails and guesses made the week before the renewal is due.

This guide is for the account manager or commercial lines manager who sends those questionnaires. It covers why they stall, what to ask, how to lay the form out so a busy owner finishes it, and a template you can copy.

Why renewal questionnaires come back blank

Clients do not ignore the questionnaire because they do not care about their coverage. They ignore it because of how it reaches them:

• It looks like a new application. A twelve-page Word file with every question from the original submission tells the owner that renewal is a project. It goes into the "later" pile.
• It asks for what you already know. Asking for the business address, the year founded and the number of locations, when last year's application already says all of it, makes the client do your data entry.
• There is no easy "nothing changed." For many small commercial accounts the honest answer is that very little changed. If the only way to say so is to fill in every field, the client says nothing.
• Nobody follows up on a schedule. One email at 60 days and one panicked call at 10 days is not a process. By the time the call happens, the underwriter is already waiting.

The fix for all four is the same idea: show the client what you have on file, and ask only what might have changed.

Pre-fill last year's answers

Start every questionnaire from last year's figures. Pull them from the prior ACORD application (the ACORD 125 commercial application and the line-specific supplements), the declarations page, or the schedules your carrier issued. The client then sees a short list:

Example figures for illustration.

A client can confirm a list like that in a minute. Asking the same client to recall their payroll from memory takes a phone call to their bookkeeper, and that is where the questionnaire stalls.

Check the figures before they go out. A number copied wrong from last year's application and confirmed by a client who skimmed it is worse than a blank.

The questions that matter

Utica National's E&O guidance on renewal questionnaires recommends "a mix of targeted and open-ended questions." Targeted questions catch the changes underwriters care about most; one open question catches the rest. A practical set for most small commercial accounts:

1. Locations. Have you added, moved or closed any location?
2. Operations. Have you started offering new products, services or kinds of work?
3. Vehicles. Have you bought, sold or replaced any vehicles? (A count is enough at this stage.)
4. Subcontractors. Do you use subcontractors for more, less or different work than last year?
5. Large contracts. Do you have any large contracts or projects coming up?
6. Claims and incidents. Has anything happened since the last renewal that could lead to a claim? (Yes or no. Get the details by phone.)
7. Anything else. Is there anything else we should know before we renew?

Add line-specific questions only where they change the quote: building improvements for property, new states for workers' compensation, new professional services for a professional liability policy. Each extra question costs you completion rate, so earn it.

What to leave out

Do not ask for Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, dates of birth, full driver lists or injury details on a form that travels by email. Collect those through your agency's secure process, when the carrier actually needs them. A short questionnaire that never touches sensitive data is also one the client is more willing to open.

Lay it out so it gets finished

The format matters as much as the questions.

• Lead with "No changes." Put a single, obvious way to say "nothing changed, renew as is" at the top. A confirmed "no changes" from the client is an answer you can document; silence is not.
• One page, no login. A link that opens a short page beats an attachment that has to be downloaded, filled in and sent back.
• Name the person. Show the account manager's name, email and phone. Clients answer people, not forms.
• State the deadline and the default. Utica's guidance suggests stating that "coverage will continue as currently written if no response is received." Say it plainly, along with the renewal date.
• Ask for a typed name. A typed name and a date on the answer tells you who confirmed it.

A template you can copy

Use this as the body of the questionnaire or the email that carries it. Replace the bracketed parts.

[Agency name]: anything changed before your [line] renewal on [date]?

Hi [contact name],

Your [line] policy renews on [date]. Below is what we have on file from last year. Please check it and tell us what has changed, or confirm that nothing has.

Last year's figures
- Annual revenue: [figure]
- Payroll: [figure]
- Employees: [figure]
- Locations: [figure]
- Vehicles: [figure]

[ ] No changes. Renew as is.
[ ] Something changed (please answer below)

1. Any new, moved or closed locations?
2. Any new products, services or kinds of work?
3. Any vehicles bought, sold or replaced? How many in total now?
4. Any change in the work you subcontract?
5. Any large contracts or projects coming up?
6. Anything since last renewal that could lead to a claim? (Yes / No)
7. Anything else we should know?

Your name: ________   Date: ________

It is your responsibility to report changes to us. If we do not hear from you, coverage will be renewed as currently written.

[AM name]
[Agency name] · [phone]

Have your E&O carrier or counsel look over the closing sentence before you adopt it. What it should say, and how much weight it carries, can depend on your state and your agency agreements.

Send it early and keep a record

A good questionnaire still fails if it goes out too late. Ninety days before expiration gives the client time to answer and you time to remarket if something big changed. Plan two reminders, for example at 75 and 60 days, and a phone call if there is still no answer after that. The insurance renewal email templates guide has wording for each one.

Keep a dated record of every request, reminder and answer. Utica's article notes that "your documented outreach can become an element of your E&O defense." A dated record is evidence of what you asked and when. It is not protection by itself, and how much it helps is a question for your E&O carrier.

Doing this without the spreadsheet

Renewal Check-in runs this process for commercial renewals. You upload your upcoming renewals as a CSV from your agency management system, and it reads last year's ACORD application or dec page for you to confirm the figures. Ninety days out, it emails each client a one-page check-in with a "No changes, renew as is" button, reminds them at 75 and 60 days, flags what changed for the account manager, and keeps a dated log you can export.