06 Sep Are You Doing the Necessary Follow-Up?
There is no doubt that life at the agency side of the business is hectic, with no signs of slowing down any time soon. It is very easy to have an element of “trust” on many issues that producers and CSRs deal with daily. One of those areas involves “trusting” that the application you sent was received and is being acted on.
With standard lines business, this is probably more easily handled via technology. You can secure some type of confirmation that the application forwarded has been received.
What about the non-standard lines business? Take, for example, submissions to your E&S wholesaler or a residual market of your choosing. You complete the application and forward it on. Are you “trusting” that it was received? A best practice is to “trust but verify.” This would involve contacting the wholesaler or the residual market to verify that they have received the application. You want to note the date and person you spoke with. It is probably also recommended that the agency person inquire whether any additional information is needed to secure a proposal or bind coverage. Possibly, the carrier has a specific app that is needed or some other requirement involving premium payment, affidavits, etc.
After Super Storm Sandy struck, several E&O claims involved the agents’ desire to place flood coverage. The agency sent in the app and trusted that the app was received. As the storm approached, the flood program indicated that they had no record of receiving the app when the agency followed up. Time was now working against the agency.
Another situation revealed that the flood program had received the application and provided a proposal. The agency went to bind the account only to find out that the flood program was awaiting an elevation certificate before they could bind the coverage.
It is highly recommended that the agency has a procedure that requires a follow-up by the staff with the applicable market to verify receipt and to inquire as to any other key items/issues that need to be handled if the binding of coverage is required. Taking a few minutes today to handle this could save you some major E&O headaches later.