Business Insurance Renewal Checklist: The 90-Day Review

Business insurance renews once a year per policy, and a company with medical, fleet, property, liability and cyber cover has five or more renewal dates spread across the calendar, each arriving with a broker’s email a few weeks out and a request to confirm by return. The default outcome is a rollover at a higher premium with the same cover as last year, whether or not that still fits. This guide sets out a pre-renewal review that starts 60–90 days before each policy ends, what to check for each class of cover, how to get quotes that are actually comparable, which documents to keep, and a checklist table you can reuse.

Why 60–90 days out

Insurers and brokers work to their own timetable. Renewal terms are usually prepared four to six weeks before expiry, and by the time they reach you there is rarely time to gather alternative quotes, let alone correct the information the quote was based on. Starting at 90 days gives you time to update the underwriting information, obtain two or three comparable quotes, review claims history, and still have a margin if the market has hardened for your class of risk. At 60 days you can still do most of this; at 30 days you are choosing between the renewal offer and a gap in cover.

The pre-renewal review

Run the same review for every policy, adjusted for the class.

1. Has the business changed?

Insurers price on the information you gave them last time. Changes that commonly go unreported until a claim is refused:

• Headcount, payroll and turnover (liability and medical)
• New premises, extensions, changed use of a building, or stock values (property)
• Vehicles added or disposed of, new drivers, changed usage such as deliveries (fleet)
• New products, services, markets or contracts with unusual indemnity requirements (liability, professional indemnity)
• New systems, cloud migrations, remote working, or a data breach (cyber)

2. Review the claims history

Ask the broker for the claims experience for the last three to five years, per policy. Check it is accurate: closed claims still showing as open inflate your premium. Note any pattern — recurring vehicle damage from one site, repeated medical claims in one category — because fixing the cause is cheaper than paying the loading.

3. Check sums insured and limits

Building reinstatement values, contents, stock and business-interruption periods drift away from reality within a couple of years. Underinsurance can reduce a payout proportionately under an average clause. For liability, check the limit against what your contracts and clients now require.

4. Read the exclusions and conditions

Renewal terms can introduce new exclusions or warranties — alarm conditions, driver age limits, cyber security controls that must be in place. A condition you do not meet is cover you do not have.

Class-by-class notes

Medical insurance. Confirm the member list matches payroll: leavers still on the scheme cost money, and new joiners not on it are a problem the first time they need care. Where medical cover is a legal condition of residence or work permits, as it is in several Gulf states, the policy period must cover the permit period — align the dates. Check the current official rules for minimum benefit levels where they apply.

Vehicle fleet. Reconcile the insured vehicle schedule with the vehicles you actually own or lease. Check that any vehicle whose registration or roadworthiness test lapses during the policy period is dealt with. Telematics data, driver training records and a clean claims year are all negotiating material.

Property. Update reinstatement valuations every three years or after any significant works. Confirm the policy covers the premises you occupy today, including any temporary or storage sites.

Liability (public, product, employer’s, professional). Check the limits against client contracts signed in the last year; a single new contract requiring a higher indemnity limit is a common reason to adjust at renewal. For professional indemnity, note whether cover is claims-made and what run-off you would need if you changed insurer.

Cyber. Insurers now ask detailed questions about multi-factor authentication, backups, endpoint protection and incident response. Answer accurately; a misstatement here is the most common reason cyber claims are declined. If you have improved controls since last year, say so — it may reduce the premium.

Getting comparable quotes

Quotes from different insurers are only comparable if they are built on the same information and the same cover. To make them so:

1. Prepare one written submission: business description, turnover, headcount, locations, vehicle schedule, claims history, current sums insured and limits, and the controls in place. Send the same document to each broker or insurer.
2. Ask for quotes on a like-for-like basis with your current cover first, then for any recommended changes as separate options.
3. Compare excesses, limits, exclusions and warranties side by side, not just premium.
4. Ask what the premium would be at the proposed sums insured if you adjust them as part of the review.
5. Check the insurer’s financial rating and claims-handling reputation; a cheap policy from an insurer that disputes claims is not cheap.

Documents to keep

For each policy, keep together: the policy schedule and wording, the proposal or statement of fact you signed, the claims history used at renewal, broker correspondence confirming cover and start date, premium invoices and payment confirmations, and any mid-term endorsements. Keep expired policies for as long as a claim could still arise under them — for liability classes that can be many years. A refused claim is usually argued on what was disclosed, so the proposal form matters as much as the policy.

Renewal checklist table

How Trackords helps

Trackords is a free tracker with no credit card required. Create an “Insurance policy” record type with custom fields for insurer, broker, policy number, premium, sums insured and excess, and add one record per policy. Each record carries up to three email reminders at a chosen number of days before expiry — 90, 60 and 21 map neatly onto the table above — plus an optional alert on the renewal day itself.

Reminders go to every active user in the workspace and an optional extra address per record, so the broker’s contact or the department head can be included. Attach the schedule, wording and proposal form to the record so they are in one place when a claim arises, and let the audit log show who changed the sums insured and when. The finance tracker page shows the finance-team setup; the features page lists everything else. If a policy auto-renews unless cancelled, our guide to auto-renewal notice periods explains how to find the real deadline.