Insurance availability is decreasing while the cost to insure is increasing. In many cases, this is due to the insurance company’s inability to accurately assess environmental risks across a portfolio.
Aon reports that Environmental Insurance rates are rising by up to 7% annually for commercial and residential properties, with more restrictive coverage conditions for portfolios with higher risk properties. They further report that some carriers are now declining to offer any proposals or renewal terms due to concerns over accurately assessing environmental risks across a portfolio. The importance of submitting a complete, accurate and up-to-date set of documents is becoming a critical factor in obtaining a favourable renewal rate and, in some cases obtaining coverage at all.
The Challenge
When you boil it all down there are two business challenges:
1. How do I ensure my Insurer renews our coverage
2. How do I maintain (or ideally lower) my premiums
What the Insurers look at
Insurers look at question 1 from the perspective of “am I able to accurately catalogue the known and potential environmental hazards?”. You can address this concern by providing a comprehensive set of up-to-date environmental documents organized by site. Armed with a complete set of data, they can confidently evaluate your risk and either renew or adjust your existing policy to address any change in the risk profile.
Insurers look at question 2 and evaluate, “Will this customer effectively manage the known risks, and can they respond to unplanned incidents?”. If you demonstrate that you proactively reduce your environmental issues year over year, that will address this concern. Having a solid incident response system further demonstrates your ability to manage events as they happen.
When it comes to question 2, most insurers don’t give you credit for being proactive and will only consider information that is required by law. Even then, they will often take a “check-the-box” approach and may not give you credit for any extra work you’ve done to mitigate risk.
You will also want to make sure that you are providing the most current data available. This is where document management software comes into play.
To address question 2, you’ll want to provide your Insurer with a complete and accurate insurance portfolio document management system. This will give them the ability to quickly identify which properties fall into which risk category and to better assess the overall portfolio risk.
Reduce cost, Increase efficiency
A document management solution can help insurance brokers and agents by automating the document submission and renewal process. This will ensure that all of the required documents are submitted on time, every time. It will also help to ensure that all of the information is up-to-date, accurate, and complete.
A document management system will also allow you to quickly produce updated insurance binders, declarations pages, and other documents required by your Insurer. Having an up-to-date document management system will demonstrate that you are taking proactive steps to manage your environmental risks, and this can go a long way in securing a favourable insurance renewal.
Looking for a document management system specifically designed for insurance renewals? Look no further than the Refined Data document management system. Our software was created with the insurance industry in mind, and our easy-to-use interface will make it simple to get your documents organized and up-to date.
What Makes Refined Data Different?
While most Real Estate companies have a document management system like Microsoft SharePoint, these systems rarely support the specialized needs of the insurance renewal process. In response, Refined Data worked closely with our customers to develop a solution to address the two business challenges and automate the renewal process.
The solution consists of a dashboard that shows the status of critical documents across the portfolio and provides alerts in real-time as documents approach expiry. Also, the system compiles, indexes and delivers a complete library of documents at the push of a button.
Customers can now create action items that resolve outstanding environmental issues as they run the site’s day-to-day activities. The incident response system streamlines reporting and provides insurers with security that the site manages issues diligently as they arise.
The document management system from Refined Data can help you manage your environmental risks by automating the document submission and renewal process. This will ensure that all of the required documents are submitted on time, every time.
A solution designed with insurance renewals in mind can help you save time by automating the document submission and renewal process. This means you can free up time that can be used to proactively manage your environmental risks. This will help to reduce your costs and increase your efficiency. In turn, this will help to lower your insurance premiums.
The Response
Insurers report a significant reduction in review time, along with increased confidence, which our clients tell us they see in lower than expected premiums. Clients also share reductions in reporting times of as much as 43%, translating into savings of tens of thousands of dollars.
Contact Refined Data today to learn more about how our document management system can help you save time and money on your insurance renewals.
