Commercial insurance renewal checklist for agency account managers

A commercial renewal is a small project with a hard deadline. When it goes well, nobody notices: the client confirmed their figures in time, the carrier quoted on current exposures, and the policy renewed without a gap. When it goes badly, it is usually because one step was skipped while the account manager was busy with a hundred other renewals.

This checklist is written for the account manager at an independent agency. It runs from about 120 days before expiration to the bound renewal, with what to check at each step and why. Adjust the timing to your carriers' submission deadlines; some lines and some markets need more lead time.

120 days out: build the renewal list

• Pull upcoming renewals. Run your agency management system's expiration report for the next four months. Most systems export it to a spreadsheet.
• Confirm the contact. For each account, check that the contact name and email are still right. A renewal email to someone who left the company last spring is a renewal nobody answers.
• Assign an owner. Every renewal needs one named account manager. Shared ownership means no ownership.
• Flag the accounts that need extra time. Large accounts, accounts with recent claims, and accounts where the carrier has signaled appetite changes may need to go to market earlier.

90 days out: ask the client what changed

• Gather last year's exposures. Revenue, payroll, employee count, locations, vehicle count, square footage: whatever drives the rating on each line. They are on last year's ACORD application, the dec page and the schedules.
• Check the figures. Compare the exposures on file with what was actually bound. A mismatch caught now is far cheaper than one caught at audit.
• Send the renewal check-in. Show the client last year's figures and ask what changed, with an easy way to say "no changes." The commercial insurance renewal questionnaire guide covers what to ask.
• State the default. Tell the client what happens if they do not answer. Utica National's E&O guidance suggests saying that "coverage will continue as currently written if no response is received."
• Log the request. Record the date, who it went to and what you asked.

75 and 60 days out: follow up

• Send a reminder at 75 days to anyone who has not answered.
• Send a second reminder at 60 days, naming the renewal date and the default again. Wording for both is in the insurance renewal email templates guide.
• Review the answers that came in. For each one, compare this year's figures with last year's.
• Flag real changes. A new location, new operations, a jump in revenue or payroll, more vehicles, new subcontracted work or a large upcoming contract all change the submission. Decide for each whether it changes the quote, the coverage or the market.
• Follow up on vague answers. "Revenue is up a bit" is not a figure an underwriter can use. Call and get the number.

45 days out: call the silent ones

• Call every client who has not answered. Three emails with no reply means email is not working for this client. A short call usually gets the answer.
• Write down what they said. Note the date, who you spoke to and what they told you, in the account's file. "Spoke to owner, no changes" with a date is a record; a memory is not.
• Escalate the accounts you still cannot reach. Tell the producer or the agency principal which renewals have had no response, so the decision about what to do is made by a person and not by default.

30 to 45 days out: market and quote

• Submit with current exposures. Update the application with this year's confirmed figures before it goes to the carrier.
• Review carrier renewal terms. Check the renewal offer against the expiring policy: premium, limits, deductibles, forms and endorsements. Look for coverage that was quietly reduced or removed.
• Watch for notices. A carrier's notice of nonrenewal or of changed terms has timing rules that vary by state and by line. Know what your carriers send and when, and act on it the day it arrives.
• Remarket where needed. If the renewal terms are uncompetitive or the account has changed beyond the carrier's appetite, go to other markets with the updated submission.

Before expiration: present and bind

• Present the renewal. Walk the client through what changed in price and coverage, and why.
• Get the decision in writing. Email confirmation of what the client chose, including any coverage they declined.
• Bind and confirm. Confirm binding with the carrier before expiration and send the client proof of coverage.
• Update certificates. Clients with certificate holders, such as landlords, lenders and general contractors, will need new certificates of insurance.

After renewal: close the file

• Save the record. Keep the check-in, reminders, answers, call notes and the client's written decision together with the renewal.
• Note what to do earlier next year. If this account answered late or changed a lot, start sooner next time.
• Diary the next renewal. The next cycle starts in about eight months.

Common gaps in the process

• No one owns follow-up. The check-in goes out, and follow-up depends on someone remembering. Put the reminder dates on the calendar when the first request goes out.
• Answers live in inboxes. If a client's answer is in one account manager's email, nobody else can find it when that person is out. Save answers to the account.
• Exposures are copied forward unchecked. Renewing on last year's figures without asking is how a client ends up underinsured or overpaying, and how an audit produces a surprise bill.
• The record is incomplete. Utica's article notes that "your documented outreach can become an element of your E&O defense." A record with dates for every request, reminder and answer is more useful than a vague memory of having asked. What it means for any given claim is a question for your E&O carrier.

Running the middle of the checklist automatically

The 90-to-45-day stretch is the part that repeats for every account and slips most often. Renewal Check-in runs it for commercial renewals: you upload your renewals as a CSV from your agency management system, confirm last year's exposures (it can read them from last year's ACORD application or dec page), and it emails each client at 90 days, reminds them at 75 and 60, tells the account manager to call at 45, flags what changed, and keeps a dated log you can export.