There is a better way to review your business insurances...
Is your business insurance up to date? It’s vital to review your insurance program regularly – especially if you’ve been with the same broker or insurer for several years. You can have an insurance review anytime of the year. The review does not have to be completed around your usual renewal date; in fact completing it away from this period removes the pressure to make a decision.
Why not at renewal?
Most businesses tender for insurance just as they would any other service.
However, the structure of the traditional insurance market makes getting the best result for your business this way very difficult due to;
- Time
- Insurers have seen your business before” logged quote”
- The broker they have seen your risk from and their success rate
- Your actual intent to move insurers/brokers
- Your remarketing history
- The underwriting information provided
The Ascend Confidential Review is a proven process that avoids all the pitfalls of a traditional insurance tender because it is radically different to many standard models and provides insurers with results.
FAQ:
As your business changes over time, your risks, priorities and needs will change as well. Many brokers only focus on comparing premiums and although ensuring good financial value is important, it’s vital that the cover is comprehensively reviewed as we regularly encounter serious gaps in new clients’ previous cover. Our confidential insurance review can give you that confidence.
- Your business is suitably protected
- Your cover is relevant to you
- Any potential gaps in cover are identified
- The premiums you are paying offer good value
- Excessive commissions are not being earned by your current provider
Insurers have on average a success rate of 2% on all enquiries received – increasing to 20% on confidential/strategic reviews. So, they are x10 more likely to be successful when working in a strategic way.
Insurers grade brokers on several factors and the conversion to enquiry is a key metric.
The in-demand underwriters work with the more profitable brokers (they haven’t got the time not to), and brokers that have a poor sales history are bumped down the pecking order.
Using the traditional open market review process, it is very difficult for a broker to maintain excellent relationships, and more importantly – an excellent reputation, with more than say a half dozen underwriters.
A confidential review will ensure the time can be taken to discuss your goals and work with an insurer in good time that can provide the solution.
In an open-market tender, competing brokers will reach out to all their partner insurers with a request for quotation. If the business has already been quoted on for another broker, and the proposal is more or less the same, then the insurer is obliged to come back with the same price.
This can all be avoided up front by securing a quotation below market rate with our Confidential Review service.
We’ll sit down with you to understand your business in more detail, including your internal and external operating environment. This gives us an understanding of the risks you face.
With considerable experience of arranging insurance in several different industry sectors, we can recognise the most appropriate commercial insurance solutions for our clients and those considering changing their programme.
We will also collect the following important data to enable us to compile a detailed report:
- Your report and accounts
- Your insurance policy schedules and broker cover summary
- Your claims history (for the last 5 years where possible)
A traditional tender is likely to lead to underwriters losing interest in winning your business because they do not believe they have a real chance to do so.
Reasons for this include:
- There are too many insurers involved in the tender
- There are too many brokers involved in the tender
- They have no price to work towards
- You/broker have not been clear on what success looks like
They therefore may focus their limited time on alternative quotation requests which take priority because of the above.
We guarantee insurer interested as we have a structured method that provides considerable time away from renewal to achieve the optimum result for you.
When an insurance company is formally approached in a traditional market method then they will ‘log’ this interest on their system.
This can lead to all sorts of scenarios that are detrimental to your business interests.
For more, see this example of a typical tender process between the insured, broker, underwriter, and insurer.
Benefits to you:
Confidential Only
Our negotiating position in the market is clear and strong. We only proceed when confidentiality has been agreed.
Locality
We like to spend time with you to learn about your business and provide feedback on your options and expected pricing
Results
Underwriters know when they work with us that they have a much greater chance of securing your business. We have grown our business through organic growth and going the extra mile for our clients - and they know that!
Our experienced insurance professionals will:
- Analyse your documentation and the adequacy of your cover in relation to the risk exposures you face including all policy terms and conditions
- Benchmark your existing premiums and determine if they are competitive compared to other providers in the marketplace, or if their value could be improved further
- Produce a report with recommendations for improvement if required. Our report will consider insurable and non-insurable risks and we will comment and deliver recommendations in both areas. Insurance is only one solution to risk mitigation
- Meet with you to present our report and recommendations where we will provide an implementation plan with timescales to address issues identified
- Remember, because the review is confidential, it should not affect the relationship with your current provider.
The benefits to you
- Our approach changes the focus from merely looking at cost and concentrates on analysing how your risk exposures match against your current insurance arrangements
- Identify the robustness and adequacy of your current insurance cover against the risks identified
- Tailoring your programme to your needs will help you to get best value especially in an insurance market that remains competitive with premium savings readily available.
- It gives you the opportunity to benchmark the premiums
- The relationship with your current provider is maintained and not detrimentally affected
- Best of all it’s free
We hope our approach will demonstrate our value to your business as a credible and expert advisor in the provision of insurance and risk management solutions.
