Underwriters are buried with submissions for new business and renewals right now. The increasingly volatile insurance landscape means more project developers and contractors are marketing their insurance programs, desperately hoping to find a better option. As a result, a mountain of submissions is stacking up on underwriters’ desks nationwide. The quality of your submission can materially impact your insurance and surety terms and rate.
How can you be confident your submission stands out?
Before delving into strategies, it’s crucial to understand the perspective of insurance underwriters. Construction projects inherently contain unique risks, and underwriters scrutinize submissions with a keen eye for detail and a focus on mitigating these risks. Their job is to identify and select risks that align with guidelines and promise profitability for the insurer.
The submission tells the story about your business and is a gateway for underwriters to evaluate your risk and make informed decisions. Unfortunately, it is common for incomplete submissions to land on their desks, causing additional unwelcome work. When this happens, you may unknowingly put your business at a huge disadvantage.
A killer submission is critical for unlocking preferred terms and rates. Here’s what you should verify that your broker is working with you to include:
- Risk Transparency: A detailed submission gives underwriters a transparent view of your operations, projects, and risk management strategies. This transparency instills confidence and enables underwriters to assess risk more accurately. Identifying and acknowledging a risk doesn’t mean the risk is bad for the insurer to take. However, your credibility can be hurt by minimizing or trying to gloss over risks in the project or program. Without complete information, an underwriter might think they should assume the worst in terms of underwriting eligibility or pricing (or both).
- Mitigation Strategies: By outlining comprehensive risk mitigation strategies within your submission, you demonstrate a proactive approach to risk management. Underwriters appreciate organizations that self-identify potential risks and have concrete plans to address them. A contractor who works at height and can demonstrate a sound risk management plan for this activity is a different risk than another contractor who does the same work but cannot demonstrate their plan to mitigate the risk. This is even more impactful when a contractor can ensure the plan is properly communicated, implemented, and executed.
- Data-Driven Insights: Incorporating relevant data and analytics into your submission offers a deeper understanding of your organization’s performance. This could include historical claims data, safety records, and project-specific metrics, providing underwriters objective, fact-based insights into your risk profile. Data is also crucial for analyzing industry benchmarks for similar risks and understanding why a certain risk stands out from a quantitative perspective.
Building Trust and Credibility
- Long-Term Relationship Building: Submitting thorough and accurate information establishes a foundation for trust. Underwriters are more likely to offer preferred terms and rates to organizations they view as transparent, reliable, and committed to risk mitigation. Indicate your desire for the insurer’s input on better ways to manage your risk. After all, they see the good, the bad, and the ugly across the industry and can offer a broader perspective than any contractor can develop on its own.
- Attention to Detail: A meticulously prepared submission showcases your organization’s professionalism and attention to detail. This makes the underwriter’s job easier and signals that your organization takes risk management seriously. Anticipate the underwriter’s questions and provide the answers before they’re asked.
Leveraging Procore’s Data for a Competitive Edge
In insurance’s dynamic landscape, having a competitive edge is vital. Traditionally, insurance industry standard rating plans look at a few variables, and those variables are indirectly representative of risk. However, Procore data goes levels deeper by providing several dozen variables directly representative of operational risk. This is why our clients are turning to Procore’s internal insurance and surety brokerage to leverage Procore’s proprietary risk data to set themselves apart.
Imagine presenting underwriters not just with a standard submission but with a wealth of well-organized project-specific insights and industry benchmarks derived from Procore’s extensive data analytics that strengthen the narrative of why your firm is a preferred risk.
Procore Risk Advisors is seeing the impact data-enriched submissions can have. For instance, our client in the Southeast was executing a multi-year strategic growth plan to diversify their project portfolio and win more federal work. They had recently been awarded several large federal government contracts, pushing their backlog to nearly $100 million — their highest ever. Unfortunately, their surety partner could not expand their bonding program, hamstringing their growth plan. The Procore Risk Advisors surety team got to work creating a data-driven submission, highlighting the financial excellence of the organization. This enabled the underwriter to become more comfortable with the credit risk. As a result, in less than five business days, the contractor received 40% more surety capacity and support on their largest bond to date.
In a market where terms and rates can significantly impact your bottom line, contractors can become more competitive by harnessing data to unlock preferred terms and cultivate long-lasting partnerships.
Your submission is more than paperwork; it’s your company’s story and a strategic tool for creating a resilient and thriving future for your team.
Leave a Reply