Claims History
The record of an insured's prior claims, used by underwriters to evaluate risk and price coverage at submission and renewal.
What It Is
Claims History is the documented record of all reported claims, paid losses, reserves, and incident only reports against an insured's prior policies, typically over a five year look back period. It is captured on carrier issued loss runs, which list the date of loss, claimant, cause, status (open or closed), paid amount, and outstanding reserves.
Underwriters use claims history to evaluate frequency (how often losses occur), severity (how large losses are), and trend (whether losses are increasing or decreasing). The data drives quote decisions, pricing, deductible levels, and whether to apply schedule debits, surcharges, or non renewal. Some lines, especially Workers Compensation, formalize claims history through the experience modification rate (Mod), while others rely on raw loss runs.
Brokers typically gather five years of currently valued loss runs from each prior carrier as part of any new business submission. Loss runs older than 90 days are usually re ordered before binding to ensure the underwriter sees current valuations.
Why It Matters for Brokers
Submitting a clean, organized claims history can be the difference between a competitive quote and a decline. Conversely, submissions that omit known claims, present stale loss runs, or fail to explain large incidents can earn the agency a reputation for sloppy underwriting and lose carrier appetite over time. For accounts with adverse history, narrative cover letters that explain root cause and post loss corrective action often unlock better pricing than the raw numbers would justify on their own.
Real-World Example
A trucking account has a $400,000 auto liability claim two years prior. The broker secures current valued loss runs, prepares a one page summary describing the driver termination, route audit, and new dashcam program implemented after the loss, and routes the package through Submission Intake. Two carriers that initially declined re engage based on the narrative and one binds at terms 12 percent below the expiring premium.
Common Mistakes
- 1Submitting loss runs older than 90 days, which underwriters routinely reject and which signals to the market that the agency is not paying attention.
- 2Omitting incident only or first party only claims that the underwriter will discover through carrier databases, damaging credibility on the entire submission.
- 3Failing to explain large or repeated losses with a narrative, leaving underwriters to interpret raw numbers in the worst possible light.
- 4Forgetting to retrieve loss runs from a non renewing carrier before access is cut off, which forces a costly broker of record dance later.
How brokerageaudit.com Handles This
Submission Intake auto requests current valued loss runs from each carrier on the prior coverage and stores them in the Document Pipeline. The Review Queue prompts the producer to add narrative cover letters for adverse claims, and Renewal Manager re orders loss runs 90 days before renewal so the marketing package is always current.