Guides
How to prepare an insurance submission underwriters will read
What goes into a commercial insurance submission: ACORD forms, loss runs, exposure data, a risk narrative and supplements, with a checklist and common mistakes.
A good submission lets an underwriter understand your business in ten minutes and decide whether to quote. It has four parts: signed applications, loss history, exposure data and a short narrative that explains what you do, what has gone wrong before and what you have done about it. Complete, accurate and early beats long and late, and an incomplete file often goes to the bottom of the pile.
What underwriters are actually doing
An underwriter at a carrier or wholesaler may see dozens of submissions a day. The first pass is triage: is the class in appetite, is the information enough to price, and is there anything alarming? Gaps in the information tend to produce either no quote, or a quote loaded for uncertainty with broad exclusions. See underwriting appetite: why one insurer wants you and another doesn't for why a carrier may decline a class entirely.
The four parts of a submission
1. Applications
Most commercial lines use ACORD forms as the standard application format. The common ones:
- ACORD 125, Commercial Insurance Application (general information, applicable to all lines)
- ACORD 126, Commercial General Liability Section
- ACORD 140, Property Section
- ACORD 130, Workers Compensation Application
- ACORD 127, Business Auto Section
- ACORD 131, Umbrella/Excess Section
Carriers and wholesalers often add their own supplemental applications: contractors, restaurants, habitational, professional liability, cyber. The cyber supplement in particular asks specific control questions, as described in the cyber insurance application: what underwriters ask and how to answer.
The signature is a warranty of truth. An application with wrong answers can lead to rescission or claim denial under the law of the state involved. Read the forms yourself before you sign, and see insurance applications: why accuracy matters and what misrepresentation costs.
2. Loss history
Provide currently valued loss runs (usually valued within 60 to 90 days) for every carrier in the last five years, by line. For workers' compensation, carriers also want the experience mod worksheet. If you were self-insured for any period, provide the TPA's reports. Add detail for claims above a threshold: what happened, what it cost, what changed. Unexplained large losses are what an underwriter remembers. See loss runs: what they are and how to request them.
3. Exposure data
Exposure bases are what premium is calculated on. Provide:
| Line | What underwriters want |
|---|---|
| General liability | Gross sales or receipts, split by operation; payroll for contractors; subcontracted cost and whether subs carry insurance; products sold |
| Property | the statement of values: what property underwriters need: address, construction, occupancy, year built, roof age and type, sprinklers, alarms, square footage, protection class, values for building, contents, business income |
| Workers' compensation | Payroll by class code, headcount, states, officers' inclusion or exclusion, subcontractor costs |
| Auto | Vehicle schedule (year, make, VIN, use, radius, garaging), driver list with license and MVR data, hiring and monitoring practices |
| Professional liability | Revenue by service, largest clients, contracts, scope of services, claims-made history |
| Cyber | Records held, revenue, security controls, vendors |
| Umbrella | Underlying limits and carriers, exposure to bodily injury |
4. Narrative
One to two pages that answer: what the company does, how long, who runs it, where, what its customers are, what makes its risk quality better than average, what changed since last year, and a plain explanation of any bad loss. Include safety programs, written procedures, training, driver selection, quality control, subcontractor controls, and any third-party audits. Photos of the premises help property underwriters. If the business is new, include the owners' resumes.
A submission checklist
- Named insured exactly as it appears on legal documents, and all affiliates and operations.
- Effective date and expiring policy summary: carrier, limits, retentions, premium.
- Signed and dated ACORD applications and any carrier supplements.
- Five years of loss runs, plus large-loss narratives.
- Exposure schedules above, reconciled to financial statements or payroll records.
- Contracts that drive requirements: leases, customer agreements, the insurance clauses, indemnity language.
- Safety program, loss control reports and risk improvements.
- Financials if requested, typically for larger accounts, professional lines and surety.
- Specific coverage requests: limits, deductibles, endorsements, and why.
- A realistic timeline for quote needs.
The What business insurance do I need? helps identify lines worth including.
Where the submission goes
Your broker chooses markets by appetite. For standard business, that may be a direct appointment with several admitted carriers. For harder risks, the account may go through a wholesale broker or managing general agent into the surplus lines market; see wholesale brokers and surplus lines placement: how hard risks get insured and Declined for coverage? Where hard-to-place businesses find insurance. Ask the broker which markets they will approach and why, and avoid duplicating submissions that could block a market.
Common mistakes
- Late and incomplete. A submission delivered two weeks before expiry limits options.
- Exposure that does not reconcile. Revenue on the ACORD that differs from last year's audit invites questions.
- Class descriptions that are vague or wrong. "Contractor" or "consulting" is not a description. Say what you do and what you do not do.
- Omitted operations. A restaurant that adds delivery, a contractor that starts residential work, or a manufacturer that starts exporting changes the risk; failing to disclose it creates coverage disputes.
- Dressing up losses. Underwriters see the loss runs; explanations that do not match them harm credibility.
- Copying last year's application without review. Changes in operations, headcount, vehicles and locations matter.
- No contact for follow-up. Name a person who can answer questions in 24 hours.
A short hypothetical
Say a 25-employee HVAC contractor's broker sends a package on day one: ACORD 125, 126, 130 and 127; five years of loss runs with a one-paragraph explanation of a $48,000 water damage claim and the new procedures that followed; payroll by class code; the vehicle and driver list with MVR practices; sales split between service, new installations and commercial work; and a note on how subcontractors are insured. The underwriter's first questions are about how much work is residential new construction. They are answered in the narrative, so the quote arrives faster. The numbers are invented for illustration.
Key takeaways
- A submission has four parts: signed applications, loss runs, exposure data and a narrative.
- Accuracy matters more than volume: the signature warrants your answers, and mismatched numbers cost credibility.
- Explain losses and what changed, rather than hoping the underwriter does not ask.
- Start 90 to 120 days before expiration so your broker can approach more than one market.