Indio, in partnership with Applied Systems, surveyed 394 brokers from 234 brokerages in the United States and Canada in late 2021 about the commercial lines renewal process. Respondents covered personal lines (48%), small business (22%) and mid and large market commercial lines (30%); 98% were property and casualty brokers. DBV Solutions reviewed the results and added implications and fixes from its own brokerage work.

The six pain points all sit in the early stages of marketing, through carrier submission. They come down to three things: collecting client data across many forms, chasing incomplete information, and the time spent finding, preparing and submitting carrier forms.

1. Collecting risk details

PDF was brokers' top choice for gathering risk details in 2019 and 2020, then fell from 68% to 23% in 2021. Email, newly added to the survey, became the top method at 58%. Brokerage websites were least used at 2%. Paper fell from 17% to 7% and client portals from 15% to 10%.

Implication: email is convenient and risky. Messages get lost, submissions slow down, and data is more exposed to a breach. Brokers need secure digital ways to collect and store risk details and renewal updates.

2. Number of forms per submission

Most brokers (46%) used one or two forms per submission packet, 33% used three or four, and about 9% used seven or more. The average was about three.

Implication: stacks of forms overwhelm insureds. Storing insured data in a submission portal lets brokers prefill it at the next renewal and exposes redundant forms that can be dropped.

3. Finding the right carrier forms

Brokers spent about 27 minutes on average locating the correct applications and forms. 76% spent up to half an hour, 15% spent thirty minutes to an hour, and 7% spent one to two hours.

Implication: using the survey's averages, a brokerage can lose around 45 hours per renewal period to searching. A shared, digitized library of carrier documents built with partner carriers speeds up packet assembly.

4. Preparing the submission packet

45% of brokers spent 11 to 30 minutes preparing packets, 25% spent 30 minutes to an hour, and 12% spent more than an hour. Retyping data added more: 53% spent up to thirty minutes and 31% spent two to three hours. With preparation and copying combined, brokers averaged almost two hours per packet.

Implication: client portals, automated workflows and digital storage return that time to revenue work and support retention.

5. Incomplete or inaccurate applications

47% of brokers said up to a quarter of returned applications were missing information or incorrect. 25% reported 26 to 50% missing or incomplete. Only about 11% always received complete, accurate information.

Implication: prefill renewal forms from earlier submissions, and use eSignatures and client portals that check entries for accuracy.

6. Slow form completion

Brokers waited an average of 6 days for a completed, signed packet. 52% waited under a week and 31% waited one to two weeks. Follow up took 1 to 3 hours for 42% of brokers, up to an hour for 38%, and 3 to 5 hours for 14%.

Implication: automated reminders, portals and eSignatures cut the administrative load and get clients covered sooner.

What DBV recommends

  • Secure communication. Move risk data collection off email into secure quoting platforms, client portals and storage. It reduces E&O exposure and speeds up time to market.
  • Carrier partnerships. A partner carrier network shortens renewals and makes it easier to agree on common practices.
  • Segmentation. Group clients by account and revenue size, with dedicated sales and service staff for each segment, so every client gets the right level of service.
  • Automation and outsourcing. Automate repetitive administrative work, and outsource what cannot be automated, so service and sales staff can focus on clients and growth.

These same pain points are what DBV's Enterprise Intelligence for insurance workspace is built to remove: it pulls account data, loss runs, dec pages and market indications into one producer workspace and drafts the renewal for a named producer to approve.

Adapted from the DBV Solutions white paper "State of Insurance Renewals: 6 Key Pain Points" (June 2022). Survey data: Indio in partnership with Applied Systems, Inc., 394 brokers from 234 brokerages in the United States and Canada, Q4 2021.