Putting Lipstick on Your Risk Management Program
Preparing your program for submission to carriers requires you to emphasize your strengths and address your weaknesses. This cram session at PRIMA’s 2015 Annual Conference provided tips on how to present your program in the best possible way.
Moderator: Susan Blakenburg, Area Senior Vice President at Gallagher Public Sector
Speaker: David Randall, CPCU, ARM, Public Entity Underwriting Manager at Safety National
The underwriter is the deciding factor when risk managers buy insurance, so it behooves risk managers to do everything they can to get underwriters to look favorably at their risk. Underwriters make decisions by evaluating if your company is a high-quality or low-quality risk and if you have had a great or poor experience.
Underwriters want you to give them as much information as possible so that they have ample information to evaluate your submission. They are looking for a reason to move you to the top and give you a better price. Here are some suggestions on how to do this:
- Sell your program – Why should a carrier want to underwrite your account?
- Telling the story – Explain your experiences and be truthful. If you don’t tell your side of the story, your underwriter is going to learn it through an internet search, which is not always going to shed the best light on the claim.
- Self underwriting – Do your loss runs make sense? Do you know what your budget says? If it doesn’t make sense to you, it’s not going to make sense to your underwriter.
- Work with your agent to make sure the correct message is communicated.
- Enjoy a relationship with the insurance carriers that best serve your entity.