Looking at multiple renewal options saved this MSP over $40k
One of the biggest faults of the insurance industry is not putting more effort into renewals for small/medium business/enterprise (SME is generally defined in insurance as businesses making less than $100mm/yr revenue.) There are multiple factors for this at play which make it systemic, including but not limited to:
Investor backed agencies focused entirely on new clients
Reduced/no agent commissions for renewals
Less effort/time for the agency
At Beltex we handle renewals a few different ways:
For types of policies that are currently experiencing a stable market, we will notify the client but ask them if they would like us to quote other options. For example, our team writes a lot of professional liability for wealth management. Currently we are seeing the majority of these policies renew at the exact same price. If a client gets other options, it results in more paperwork for a tiny savings (if any), sometimes even a few dollars.
For types of policies that experiencing rapid change in pricing (either up or down), we always quote multiple options. A managed services provider (MSP) reached out this month with a renewal from their current agency that was a substantial increase “but I keep reading that cyber insurance pricing is going down” - they were correct. The Beltex team was able to find another policy for them that had functionally identical coverage for $40k less. The worst part? Their previous agency had access to the same policy, a small amount of effort would have made the client happy and retained them.
Another common occurrence with the current state of cyber is additional coverage for the same price. Business interruption was not a common coverage the last few years, but most policies offer it now, often as a standard option. Beltex’s new MSProtect Technology Errors & Omissions (Tech E&O) policy offers a full $1mm or $2mm business interruption coverage that is lacking in common legacy MSP policies, typically for approximately the same price.
The key takeaway is don’t just sign a renewal app. Make sure your agent explains why they are not offering renewal options. Sometimes there is a good reason, but if not, you are probably leaving good options on the table.