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Blog · Forecast and pipeline · Insurance brokers

Ten questions an insurance broker CEO asks, and the table that answers each

The ten questions the chief executive of a commercial insurance broker puts to the placement and account teams, which renewals are in notice with no remarketing, which lines do our clients place elsewhere, where is one carrier the line, which clients' claims changed their renewal risk, what did we lose and to whom, which executives' books stopped growing, which new business leaves at the first renewal, which clients' programmes sit with one carrier, what is the commission and fee mix, and what changed, each with the table from the placement ledger, the outcomes and the claims file, and the answer to send back.

The short answerA broker CEO's questions are about the book's retention, growth and risk, and each has a table from the placement ledger, the renewal outcomes and the claims file: renewals inside the notice window with no remarketing; placement share per client with lines placed elsewhere; carrier concentration per line with the trend; loss ratio by client and band with the historical non-renewal rate; lost premium by line, competitor, executive and reason; new business, growth and renewal mix per executive; first-renewal retention of new clients; clients at 100 percent with one carrier; commission and fee mix; and the movements page. Premium due for renewal equals renewed plus lost plus non-renewed, and the answer to send back is a retention rate with no split.

A broker CEO asks the placement team about retention and hears eighty-eight percent. The placement ledger, the outcomes and the claims file hold what the eighty-eight is made of, and the twelve. This guide is the ten questions, the tables, and the answer to send back.

The ten

# The question The table Identity Send back
1 Which renewals are in notice with no remarketing? Renewal watch: policies in window, activity logged Renewals in one state Renewal dates alone
2 Which lines do clients place elsewhere? Placement share per client; lines held vs norm Premium sums per client Client premium
3 Where is one carrier the line? Carrier concentration per line, trended; clients at 100% Line premium sums across carriers Carrier panel size
4 Whose claims changed their renewal risk? Loss ratio by client and band; band movement; open claims in window; historical non-renewal by band Claims join to policies Loss ratio alone
5 What did we lose, and to whom? Lost premium by line, competitor, executive, reason, remarketed flag Due = renewed + lost + non-renewed Retention rate
6 Whose book stopped growing? New, growth and renewal mix per executive against the growers' norm Year's premium in three classes Total premium per executive
7 Which new business leaves at the first renewal? First-renewal retention by new-client cohort and executive New clients in one outcome New business volume
8 Which programmes sit with one carrier? Clients by largest carrier share, ranked by premium Same as 3 Line-level concentration
9 What is the commission and fee mix? Revenue by commission, fee and line, per executive Revenue sums to ledger Revenue total
10 What changed? The movements page Every line cites Narrative

A worked exchange

CEO: Which renewals are in notice with nobody on them? Response: Eleven, $410,000 of premium, the largest client 2207 at $118,000 with 40 days to expiry and no remarketing. Table 1. CEO: What is the loss ratio there? Response: 118 percent from 32 last year, three bands up, a $600,000 claim open. Historical non-renewal at that band is 41 percent. Table 4, row 1. CEO: And the executive's book? Response: AE-07: 96 percent renewal, 2 percent new, no client added in a year, and 88 percent of last year's losses never remarketed. Tables 5 and 6.

Three tables, one client, one executive, one week.

Where it goes wrong

Retention as one number. Eighty-eight, and the twelve unexplained.

Claims and placements never joined. The carrier's view arrives with the terms.

Executive books read by premium. Eight million, four years, stable, and harvested.

Notice window unwatched. Discovered when the broker-of-record letter arrives.

Every week, ten tables

Covirage produces the ten tables from the placement ledger, the renewal outcomes, the claims file and the client master, with the identities checked. The insurance brokers page describes the setup, and the renewal watch guide covers the first table.

Questions people ask

Which question first?

Renewals inside the notice window with no remarketing activity, because it is the one with a date on it. A client eight weeks from expiry that nobody has taken to market is a client a competitor is quoting, and the list is this week's, ranked by premium.

Do these need the claims file?

The claims-and-retention table does; it is the claims file joined to the placement ledger on the policy. The rest come from the placement ledger, the renewal outcomes and the client master. All exports from the broking system.

What is the identity?

Premium due for renewal equals renewed plus lost to broker plus lost to direct plus non-renewed; line premium sums across carriers and clients; every claim joins to a policy or is listed unmatched. A retention figure that cannot be split into those states is sent back.