A quicker turnaround

Hiscox has made changes to its Professions and Specialty Commercial (PSC) renewal process, improving both timings and documentation after consulting brokers about how the service could be made better.

“We visit brokers around the country regularly and, in our discussions, we asked what they would like to see changed with regards to renewals,” says Underwriting Centre Manager Laura Shaw. “We talked about what worked well and what didn’t, and decided on the direction we wanted to take.”

For continuous renewals, a new single pack of documentation will be sent to brokers for their clients instead of the previous two sets of posted papers. This notification will now go out six weeks before the renewal date instead of 13, after broker feedback suggested that Hiscox was sending it too early – often meaning that clients would forget to renew. “We often get calls from brokers looking to clarify the premium,” says Laura, “but now that information is on the documentation.”

Annual renewals currently require the client to complete and sign a paper proposal form with all their details, even though most of the time these haven’t changed in 12 months. “We’ve now made it much quicker and easier,” Laura says. “We’ll send the broker a renewal declaration that can be emailed to the client and completed electronically without the need for a signature.

“The team here was almost treating renewals like new business by asking the client for the same information again. But now that we appreciate that it is existing business and we know most of their details already, the broker can get the electronic form back to us in no time at all and we can give them renewal terms very quickly.” The new process launches for renewals due on 4 January.