Blog · Territory, capacity and quota planning · Insurance brokers
How a commercial insurance broker measures each account executive's book by where its premium comes from: renewals, growth at existing clients, new clients, and the split of new clients by source, from the placement ledger and the client master. The executives whose books are all renewal, the ones whose new business does not stay past the first renewal, the norm from the broker's own attainers, and the two questions the mix answers about hiring and about pricing.
A broker's account executive has a book of eight million in premium and it has been eight million for four years. Every renewal is worked and nothing is added. The placement ledger, cut by where each client's premium came from, shows the book's composition per executive, and the broker's own growers show what a healthy mix looks like. This guide sets out the mix, the retention of new business, the norm, and the two questions it answers.
Per account executive, per year:
Renewal premium = premium at clients placed last year, this year Growth premium = increase at existing clients from new lines or limits New premium = premium at clients with no prior placement Mix = each as a share of the year's premium
Per cohort of new clients:
First-renewal retention = premium still placed at renewal one ÷ new premium
Client and executive identifiers only.
year's premium = renewal + growth + new, per executive
Every dollar in one class. Premium at a client with no prior placement and no first placement date fails and is listed.
Norm from the broker's own growers: 15 percent new, 10 percent growth, 75 percent renewal.
| Executive | Premium | Renewal | Growth | New | New clients' first-renewal retention | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AE-07 | $8.1m | 96% | 2% | 2% | Harvesting; stopped growing | |
| AE-12 | $11.4m | 72% | 12% | 16% | 88% | Growing and keeping it |
| AE-19 | $6.2m | 60% | 5% | 35% | 41% | Buying new business; losing it at renewal |
| AE-23 | $9.0m | 80% | 11% | 9% | 90% | Mostly farming, well |
Executive AE-07's book has not added a client in a year. Executive AE-19's book is a third new business, and six in ten of last year's new clients left at their first renewal, which is the pattern of business won on price.
Hunters or farmers? If most executives look like AE-07, the firm's growth needs new business capability. If most look like AE-12, it needs to protect them.
Is new business bought with price? First-renewal retention by executive. AE-19's forty-one percent says yes, and the placement ledger's rate on those policies usually confirms it.
Total premium as the measure. Eight million, four years running, looks stable.
New business counted without its retention. AE-19 is the top new business producer and the largest leak.
Growth blended into renewal. Cross-selling invisible; the farmer who grows looks like the one who does not.
Norm from outside. The broker's own growers are the standard.
Mapped once, the placement ledger and the client master produce the mix, the first-renewal retention and the comparison to the norm per executive every year. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The insurance brokers page describes the setup, and the lost at renewal guide covers where AE-19's new clients went.
Premium at a client this year above last year, from new lines placed or increased limits, less rate-driven change where the broker can separate it. It is the account executive's cross-selling and it sits between renewal and new business.
Of the clients won in a year, the share and premium still placed at their first and second renewals, from the ledger. New business that leaves at the first renewal was usually won on price, and the mix table shows it as a leak two years later.
The mix among the broker's own executives who grew their books over three years: typically a stated share new, a stated share growth, the rest renewal. The executives well below that mix on new and growth are the finding; the executives above it with poor first-renewal retention are the other.