How to prepare an insurance renewal submission

To prepare an insurance renewal submission, collect the client's update on the past year, the current policy and wording, the claims history and the cover they want next, then put the key facts on one page and list what is still missing before you approach any insurer. Start early enough to chase the gaps.

New to AI? Start with how to use AI in an insurance agency.

What goes into a renewal submission

Insurers decide on what they are shown. If the submission is thin, the quote comes back with assumptions, or with questions that cost you a week. A good submission answers the obvious questions before they are asked.

Gather these for every client:

• The client's own update on the past year: new premises, new staff, new vehicles, changes in what the business does, changes in turnover or stock.
• The current policy schedule and wording, including every endorsement (in the UK, often called a mid-term adjustment) added during the year.
• The claims history from the insurer, matched against your own records, with open claims marked as open.
• Any survey, risk report or inspection that insurers have asked for before, and whether its recommendations were met.
• The cover the client wants next year, written down, so the quote request says what to price.

Put these on one page of facts at the top, then attach the documents behind it. An underwriter should be able to read the top page and understand the risk without opening an attachment.

A made-up example: a small joinery firm tells you it has taken on a second unit and bought a van. Neither change appears in last year's schedule. If you only find that out after quotes arrive, the quotes are priced on the wrong risk and you start again.

A fair presentation of the risk (UK)

In the UK, a business buying insurance has a legal duty to present its risk properly. Under Insurance Act 2015, section 3, "the insured must make to the insurer a fair presentation of the risk". The disclosure has to be made in a manner "reasonably clear and accessible to a prudent insurer".

This is why the one-page summary matters. A client who hands over a pile of papers has not necessarily made the risk clear. Your submission is where it becomes clear, in an order an underwriter can follow.

Scope matters here. Section 2 says "This Part applies to non-consumer insurance contracts only", so the duty covers business clients and not private individuals. The FCA's guidance adds a further point: ICOBS 6.1.6 says the appropriate information rule applies "also when mid-term changes and renewals are proposed", so customers need the information to decide at renewal too. Both are UK provisions, and your compliance contact can tell you how they apply to your firm.

How to check renewal wording against last year's policy

Renewal terms can arrive as a new document, not as a marked-up copy of the old one. Compare them section by section, because changes hide in small places.

Work through the same order each time: named insured and trading description, period of insurance, limits and sums insured, excess (deductible in the US), exclusions and conditions, then endorsements. For each item, write down what last year said, what the renewal says, and whether they match.

Pay particular attention to wording that narrows cover. A new condition about security, a changed definition of a business activity, or an exclusion that now applies to a type of loss the client has claimed for before can matter more than a movement in premium.

Keep the comparison next to the source text. A note that says "exclusion changed" is not much use to a colleague. A note that quotes the old and new sentences side by side can be acted on straight away, and it is what you will want if the client asks questions later.

Chasing missing documents without losing track

Renewals stall on a small number of missing items: a signed proposal, an updated asset list, a survey report, a reply from the client about a change. The danger is forgetting what was asked, of whom, and when.

Keep one list per renewal with four columns: the item, who holds it, when you asked, and when you will ask again. When a document arrives, tick it off and add the date. When it does not, the list tells you who to nudge today.

Send reminders in plain words that name the exact document. "Please send the updated stock figure by Friday so we can approach insurers on Monday" gets answered faster than "we still need some information". Say what the deadline is for and what happens if it is missed. Many readers work in a second language, so short sentences and one request per message help.

Set a date, well before expiry, after which you tell the client what is still outstanding and what that means for their cover. Clients take a missing document more seriously when they can see the date it affects.

Schedules of property or vehicles often cause the longest delays, because the client's spreadsheet is out of date. Our guide to property and fleet schedules covers how to build one.

What stays with your team

Three decisions belong to the broker's office and should not be handed off. Your team confirms the facts with the client, because only the client knows whether the answers are right. Your team chooses which insurers to approach, because that depends on the relationship, the appetite and the history. Your team decides what to recommend once terms come back.

Everything before those decisions is preparation: assembling documents, comparing wording, listing gaps, drafting the reminder. It is repetitive, it is easy to get wrong when you are busy, and it has the same shape every year.

When quotes come back, comparing insurance quotes picks up where this stage ends. For the wider picture of where automation fits in a broker's office, read AI for insurance brokers: what to automate first.

Can AI do this?

Yes, for the preparation. A system can read the client update, the policy and the claims history, draft the submission and list what is missing. Your team confirms the facts with the client, chooses the insurers and decides what to recommend.

Where Navicade fits

Navicade builds and runs AI systems that do this work. For renewals, client updates, current policies and claims histories become a draft submission, with missing information listed. Results arrive in your existing tools. Insurance decisions stay with your team. The system checks its work on every run and alerts us.

See the row on preparing renewals, or ask for the free operations map in our contact section. It starts with a free 30-minute call, and we take on one agreed task at a time.