Handling insurance renewals after a claim

Insurance is there in case you need it, but hopefully do not. When you do have a claim, getting your policy renewed (or in many cases, changing carriers) can be a headache - higher requirements, higher rates, and more paperwork. There are a few key steps you should take after having a claim closed out and renewal time approaching:

• Gather five years (or more) of loss runs. A good insurance agent will be proactive about this. Loss runs are a report from a carrier showing how much money was paid out in a claim during the life of a policy. Make sure and get these for each policy period, including if you changed carriers at all. These can often take time to be sent, so starting early prevents delays.

• Identify and implement compensating controls. Had a cyber claim due to ransomware? Implement better backups, deploy managed detection and response (MDR), and train users more frequently with security awareness training (SAT). Lawyers professional liability claim? Implement automated docketing software. These types of fixes show the carriers that a lesson was learned and major steps were taken to prevent a similar issue. The more compensating controls you implement, the better results you will have.

• Get multiple options. One of the biggest problems we see is a company simply renewing with their current carrier (if offered), resulting in massive increases. Other policies may evaluate your newly improved preventative controls and offer better coverage and rates.