Placing You First Insurance Podcast by CRC Group

Mastering Property Submissions for Small & Midsize Business

• CRC Group, Destinie Kindle • Episode 91

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Learn how to master submissions for small and midsize property placements with insights from Destinie Kendall, a seasoned Underwriting Team Leader with CRC Group's Fort Worth Texas office. Discover how precise and detailed property submissions can be a game-changer in securing optimal insurance coverage. Destiny shares her specialist advice on enhancing your submission process, including the crucial details often overlooked.

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Scott Gordon:

The E&S property market is stabilizing in 2024. However, when it comes to small and middle market business, leveraging submission best practices is still important if you want to secure optimal property coverage for your clients. Today, we're joined in the studio by Destiny Kendall, a team leader with our Fort Worth Texas office. We're going to talk with her about how to streamline your property placements and guard against potential errors and omissions.

Amanda Knight:

This is the Placing you First podcast from CRC Group.

Scott Gordon:

This podcast features news and insights from a vast knowledge base of over 5,100 associates who write more than $35 billion in premium annually.

Amanda Knight:

Plus, we give you the latest information on what's happening at CRC. This, this, this is the Placing you First podcast, and now the hosts of the podcast, amanda Knight and Scott Gordon.

Scott Gordon:

Welcome to the podcast Destiny.

Amanda Knight:

Thanks for having me. We're glad she's a first time podcast guest, so we're glad to have Destiny with us. So let's just jump in Destiny. You know I feel like it may seem kind of obvious to say, you know to our retail agents. You know it's really important for your property submission to be complete and accurate. But you know I get busy. I assume our retail partners get busy. Sometimes things fall through the cracks. I understand there are a lot of pieces to these, or there can be, so maybe submission consistency isn't always what we would hope it would be. So talk to us a little bit about why submitting complete and accurate applications is crucial in the E&S market and how inaccuracies or a lack of information can impact both the agent and the insured.

Destinie Kindle:

Accurate applications, to quote Bob, are very important so that we can provide your insured with the best coverage as possible for the building we're looking to cover. Signed applications that match what we are binding are even more crucial as there are opportunities for potential E&O claims if they do not match, for example, the insured signing an application an agent completed that states they have special cause of loss and in reality we were only able to give them basic due to the lack of updates listed on the application. In the event of the loss, the insured could be under the impression that they have a broader coverage than they really have, opening the agent and the broker up for a potential E&O claim. Same can be said about the deductibles and having a higher deductible than the application the insured signed at binding.

Scott Gordon:

What best practices should agents follow to reduce errors and omissions and, you know, improve their overall submission process in the current market landscape?

Destinie Kindle:

Agents should always include accord applications that reflect accurate information about each building, such as the square footage, the year built, the construction type, any building updates that allow a broker to more accurately quote the property. If a building is old with no updates, you're likely going to be given a basic actual cash value quote in return. But maybe the building actually has been updated and we can give the insured special and replacement cost. Once a building or the latest updates start to get about 25 years old, carriers start to lessen the coverage of loss and valuation available. Construction type is also a very important factor when filling out the accord, as that drives most of the rate Agents. Knowing the difference in the types of constructions and how to distinguish is very helpful. Sometimes we are told a building is joisted masonry and the inspection reflects frame, or that is masonry non-combustible and it is joisted masonry. When this comes up, we have to endorse the policy and go back to the insured and ask for more money. No one likes to have to do that.

Destinie Kindle:

My philosophy on building constructions is that if we are insured right on the side of caution, it is easier to give the insured back more money because the construction type was better than expected than have to ask them for more because it was worse.

Amanda Knight:

I can understand that I can get behind that. Who wants to ask anyone for more money?

Destinie Kindle:

Agents should pay particular attention to things like wiring on older buildings to confirm that they do not have electrical components that have active recalls on them, such as Federal Pacific, for example. There is nothing worse than binding a policy, getting the inspection back and the wiring is something that is prohibited with the carrier. Now the insured is faced with direct notice of cancellation and 30 to 45 days to correct the electrical issues, which could result in a few thousands of dollars just to keep their policy in force. Remarketing the policy is rarely an option because most carriers prohibit the same types of electrical components.

Destinie Kindle:

Electrical components I often share an article about Federal Pacific breaker boxes with my agent to share with her, and sure it often lessens them getting upset and them understanding the actual why it is not a good thing to have these kind of thing. If writing a schedule of buildings typically five or more an SOV or schedule of values is more helpful for us as brokers, but they must include crucial details like address, occupancy, building type, construction type, updates the most important stuff that are on an accord 140 and used for rating the building, including lost runs. With your complete applications for your new business submission will always help get your submission to the top of a broker's stack of submissions. If there have been large losses, an explanation of those losses and anything done to prevent them from reoccurring also helps us present this risk to a carrier for consideration.

Amanda Knight:

I guess one question I would have. You know, you've given us a lot of information that agents need to know. Right, these are things that need to be in your submission. Do we find that this is stuff they know needs to be in there and they, you know, just fall through the cracks? Oh, I missed that. Or do we find that there are agents out there that don't yet understand everything that needs to be in there?

Destinie Kindle:

I think it's a little bit of both. Sometimes it can be agents that are new and don't realize the importance of these details and they don't take the time to ask for updates on buildings if there's sprinklers, things like that that would help us get better coverage, and they're just not asking. And me personally, I will always go back and say, well, you know, I need this and this and I can give you special. I'm not the type of broker that just throws it out the door with basic ACV. I want to help you get something better. So I go back and I ask for updates and nine times out of 10, they have been updated. Nobody asked and they just didn't put it on there.

Amanda Knight:

Well, and we talked about some of the details in here that you want to see, you know construction type, electrical panels. Does it have sprinklers? Do you find that there are specific things, even outside of these, that they tend to leave off or forget about as being important?

Destinie Kindle:

Most commonly the sprinkler information is left off an alarm. If they have an alarm. If you're asking for BPP on a building and you don't have an alarm, we can't warrant theft on that building or BPP. And so if we know that there's a sprinkler, that's going to get you a large credit and if we know there's an alarm that's going to get you theft coverage, and to me those items are the most left off of the application. Other than that, they'll give you your bill, square footage and everything. Construction type can often be wrong, but we on my team generally Google every building. We're going to write and look at it and see if we agree with your construction type and if we don't, we'll second guess it with you and then sometimes we agree on. Well, let's do it as JM and maybe it's vacenary non-combustible and we'll give you more money back.

Amanda Knight:

Right, absolutely. Who doesn't want to get money back? That seems like the smart way to do this. You know there are some things, obviously, that you said no carrier is going to want to cover like specific electrical panels In you said no carrier's going to want to cover like specific electrical panels. In that case is the only option because you can't remarket, it is the only option that they literally have to redo their electrical system.

Destinie Kindle:

Yes, I have one right now that I'm actually working on that I just had to give them. We're going to give them 60 days on because it was so bad. But they had A federal Pacific panel box and B fuses and this building had been written in the standard market for years and years and my only assumption is that they don't do inspections in the standard market. So sometimes, when it's been written in standard market all these years, these things are never found until it doesn't fit the standard market and it comes to ENS. And now we do inspections and we find the things and their only option is to fix it and it can be costly. But most people when they understand the risk of fire hazard, then they fix it and the fact that they're not going to be able to get any insurance anywhere else because nobody is going to write fuses on this one, for example. But federal Pacific is a big one. Some don't like square D. There's a. There's a long list of the electrical components that are prohibited with most carriers.

Amanda Knight:

And that seems like knowledge, as a retail agent, you want to have in hand in advance. Like through our written article companion piece, we listed out some real specific things that our retail agents need to be on the lookout for. But if I'm an agent and I happen to send you a submission that doesn't have everything in it that maybe it should, how does that impact the process for you? Like, does it extend it by a significant amount of time? Do you have to hold it and not go to the market yet because no underwriter wants to touch it multiple times? What does it do for you guys when you get something that you just can't work with yet?

Destinie Kindle:

It really slows the process down because we can't quote a building if we don't have all the information. And if we do have the information but maybe there's better information like updates then we're just touching it twice because we're rating it once with what you gave us, Then we're going back and asking for more information and you're touching it multiple times where if we had just had it all up front, you probably would have gotten it a lot faster. And if it's a brokerage play, the brokerage markets don't like you going back and forth, back and forth. Well, here's some more updates and here's some more updates. They want it all and they want it all up front. So sometimes I won't submit it to a brokerage market until I know all of that, because they don't like that.

Amanda Knight:

Right. I totally get that. I can understand why that would be a pain for everybody. So in what ways can collaborating with a knowledgeable wholesale brokerage company enhance our retail agent's ability to secure favorable terms for their small business and middle market clients?

Destinie Kindle:

Here at CRC, we're looking to provide the agent with the best terms available for the best price for them to be able to sell it to their insured and know what they are selling as a good product. If they have any questions, they can always count on our brokers to give an explanation or help educate them on the matter that they may not know much about or understand. Our organization is full of very knowledgeable brokers for just about every line of business or risk you can think of, and that is why CRC should always be your first thought.

Amanda Knight:

And do you find that once they work with us Destiny, they want to keep coming back?

Scott Gordon:

I do.

Amanda Knight:

Shameless plug.

Scott Gordon:

I do Good, you can tell them, it is your destiny.

Destinie Kindle:

I've heard that a time or two.

Scott Gordon:

I've been waiting the whole podcast to say that Sorry.

Amanda Knight:

Now, destiny, you haven't joined us before so you may not know what's next, but it is a fun segment called Rapid Fire. We have just a couple of fun questions. Since you're done with the hard part, you just go with whatever pops into your head first, and we just did two for this episode. So question number one if you could live in any historical period, including current day, I guess, which one would you choose, and why?

Destinie Kindle:

I don't know. I don't know, maybe the 50s or the 60s would be a good time to live. I don't know. I've never really thought about that, to be honest with you. That's what makes it a fun question. I mean, anything's got to be better than these days.

Amanda Knight:

Right, lots of things happening, okay. And then your favorite recent binge watch TV show. Or, if you're not a TV person because we found not all of our guests are Do you have a favorite movie or book that you have gotten into lately?

Destinie Kindle:

Not a huge reader, but I do like to watch murder mystery crime shows. I just finished re-watching Making a Murder with my husband because he has not seen it, but we watched Dateline in 2020 and any of those murder mysteries. We watch those all the time.

Amanda Knight:

Me too. I am a true crime junkie. Junkie, I'll have to email you my list of current Netflix favorite crime documentaries for you to dive into.

Scott Gordon:

Well, Destiny, thanks so much for being here.

Destinie Kindle:

It was fun. Thanks for having me on.

Scott Gordon:

And if you're a listener, oh boy, we appreciate you too. We're so glad you joined us. We know there's a million podcasts out there for you to listen to and you chose us, and we're super, super pumped about that, Because providing current insights into the marketplace is just one more way that CRC Group is placing you first. Don't forget to subscribe and share this bad boy.

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