In some ways, the insurance renewal process actually happens 365 days per year. On any day, an incident could occur that would negatively impact next year's premiums. Alternatively, safety programs and improvements to property could be made that will allow companies to reduce their premiums. Of course, one way to ensure that all information is in place to expedite the actual renewal process is to use risk management software that properly validates data entered from departments, consolidates it all in one place, and produces reports. Since information gets entered in real time, there should be no last minute crunch to access all of the information needed for renewals.
Commercial Insurance Renewal Process Outline
Typical commercial insurance renewals happen in January or in June to July. However, before the actual renewals are accepted or new policies are put in force, a lot has to happen. In large companies, the process can get very involved, and this is a proposed outline and timeline of commercial insurance renewals from the Risk & Insurance Management Society:
- Up to 6 months prior: Risk managers hold strategy meetings and perform analytics.
- Up to 3 months prior: Risk managers distribute policy requests and renewal deadlines to brokers.
- About 2 months prior: Risk managers meet with financial managers or executives and begin getting preliminary policy quotes.
- About 1 month prior: Risk managers present quotes to decision makers and ask for permission to make them binding.
- About 1 week prior: Businesses receive an invoice for premiums.
- Renewal deadline: The policy gets put in force or renewed.
During this process, risk management is also responsible for requesting relevant information from departments. This may be in the form of incident reports or surveys. Companies that still manage their commercial insurance process the old way may force their risk managers to pull data from several different sources. This could include multiple databases, or even spreadsheets, emails, or physical files where property, incident, and policy information are stored.
In addition, information may not come in a consistent format and have to be re-entered into reporting systems, or the risk manager's own database, and converting data and error checking can take up valuable time and even cause delays. The problem is that companies cannot run securely without proper insurance in place, so delays can threaten the company's ability to run securely, and in some cases, they can threaten a company's ability to run at all. In any case, harried risk managers are not likely to do the best job of negotiating coverage and premiums or ensuring that they are purchasing the right levels of coverage for their companies.
Save Time on Insurance Renewals With Risk Management Software
Risk management software provides a consolidated store of all relevant data in a consistent format. Surveys and incident reports can stay updated in real time, and the interface should provide proper data validation and even convert that information into a consistent format. On the other end, the IRM software can produce the reports and analytics that risk managers need to communicate with their own financial management and external insurance brokers or insurance companies. Learn more about how Ventiv Technology's exposure management benefits can help strengthen a company's negotiating position, streamline the renewal process, and ensure getting the right level of coverage.
Are you looking to streamline your insurance renewal while improving the results?
In this eBook we walk through a timetable for your insurance renewal, highlight what information is required and how the renewal data is used.
Read the Guide →
