Flows
Each one is set up for your agency and kept running and checked. A person approves every result.
Checking a client’s contract against the policy
A contract can demand what a policy cannot give, and the certificate is where an agency gets caught.
What makes it hard
- A certificate “confers no rights” and cannot change the policy, yet contracts may demand additional insured status, cancellation notice or coverage the carrier will not give.
- Contracts can name endorsements by form number and edition date that the carrier has withdrawn.
- The additional insured endorsement can exist in at least two versions at one carrier, because states file them differently.
- The carrier only “will endeavor to” give notice of cancellation, which is impossible if it never learns the certificate exists.
Sources: Big “I”, Certificates of Insurance: Issues & Answers (2008).
The insurance demands in the contract are read and checked against the policy, one by one. What the policy cannot give is flagged for a person. The certificate is drafted to state only what the policy states.
Building the file that defends the agency
“If it’s not in the file, it didn’t happen.” The agents’ trade association names the file as the agency’s defense when a claim is made.
What makes it hard
- Failure to renew a policy, gaps in coverage and administrative errors are among the five most frequent errors-and-omissions claims against agencies.
- Written declinations when a client turns down coverage.
- Records of emails, calls and recommendations.
- Notes on whom you contacted and what they said, and policy review confirmations.
Sources: Big “I”, 2025.
Notes, emails, recommendations and declinations are matched to each policy. What is missing from the file is listed for a person, before a claim makes it matter.
Reviewing coverage against the client’s business at renewal
Clients add equipment and locations, and coverage lags behind. Gaps in coverage are one of the five most frequent errors-and-omissions claims against agencies.
What makes it hard
- Named gaps include mismatches between underlying and umbrella policies, and missed equipment or location additions.
- A policy-checking vendor lists “failure to adequately identify exposures” and “failure to recommend coverage” among the causes of claims.
- 65% of customers who leave an agency never talked to anyone there after the policy was written. 80% of those who did talk stayed.
Sources: Big “I”, 2025; ReSource Pro (a vendor); IA Magazine, 2025.
At renewal, the client’s current business is compared with the coverage in force. What may be uncovered is listed for a person to raise with the client.
Connecting your own tools to your agency system
The agency system is the hub, and the work around it is done by hand, in two places.
What makes it hard
- “The agency is stuck with the burdensome process of manually keeping up with the same information in two places.”
- Agents “are still required to manually enter data across multiple systems and carrier portals”.
- One insurtech platform refused any API or data export: “the answer was a firm no”.
Sources: Insurance Journal, 2023; IA Magazine, 2025.
Information that lives in your spreadsheets, PDFs and other tools reaches your agency system without retyping. Anything that does not match is flagged for a person.
