For several years, the property and casualty commercial insurance market has presented challenges for businesses seeking affordable and comprehensive coverage.

Rates and premiums have increased while capacity has shrunk, leading to a hardening market across countless industries. Unfortunately, the way renewals are typically handled by insurance brokers has only exacerbated these challenges.

Brokers often engage with their clients too late in the renewal process. This places businesses on defense and minimizes their chances of negotiating better terms. It also puts organizations in a time crunch that can force them to make compromises and concessions to maintain necessary coverage.

One of the biggest misconceptions around renewals is viewing it as a singular event that takes place at a specific time of year. At EHD, we approach renewals as an ongoing, year-long process. By planning ahead and taking action throughout the year, businesses can reclaim control of their renewals and better position themselves to play offense when negotiations begin. This is even more important if the market begins to soften, which some are predicting over the near term.

At EHD, here are three important steps we take for all of our commercial clients throughout the year to maximize their renewal:

1. Pre-Renewal Partnership Reviews: Six months before the renewal, we meet with every client to conduct a partnership review. This review includes a comprehensive risk evaluation and a full analysis of significant business changes that might impact future insurance needs. This pre-renewal process arms our team with the information they need to begin formulating a renewal strategy that aligns with your business goals.

2. Renewal Initiation: 120 days before the renewal date is when the process kicks into full gear. EHD proactively sends electronic renewal forms for clients to complete to provide our teams with important information. Around this time, we also conduct a renewal meeting, where we sit down with senior leadership to assess claims, market conditions, and any other pertinent data. Based on this analysis and in collaboration with your team, we decide whether or not to market the program. By making this decision three months ahead, we can adequately develop short- and long-term marketing plans to assure effective contract renewals.

3. Policy Placement: 90 days before the effective renewal date, our teams provide cost estimates for insurance and loss funding as well as collateral budgets, when applicable. We check policies for accuracy against the quote, proposal and order. We also provide benchmarking data to compare policies against industry averages – providing business leaders with greater confidence in their decisions. More often than not, policies are finalized more than 30 days ahead of the renewal date.

The EHD Advantage

The above points only scratch the surface of the proprietary account management and service timeline we’ve developed to handle our clients’ renewals. With a little planning ahead, our clients don’t have to face renewal headaches. Instead, they’re positioned to play offense and secure an insurance package that meets their business goal. If your renewal process feels like a sprint and you’re regularly left disappointed with the results, give us a call and see for yourself the value EHD can provide