Risk & Business Magazine JGS Insurance Risk & Business Magazine Summer 2018 | Page 30

REMARKETING YOUR INSURANCE
BY: RYAN HAGER, CLCS
ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT,
JGS INSURANCE
Remarketing
Your Insurance
I
f I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it 1,000
times. I’m sitting across the table from
a prospective client who wants me to
quote their insurance. They want me to
go back and go to the marketplace (and
approach the same markets their current
broker has approached) and bring back a
customized proposal that is slightly less than
what they are paying now. They see this
process as an opportunity to show my value.
What most people are shocked to learn
is that this is the least important part of
my job and the least effective way to save
money. Before you stop reading because you
think I am out of my mind (I am, but just
not with this), you need to understand how
an insurance company comes to their final
pricing. There are a few different categories
that dictate your final pricing, and only one
or two of them is within your control. The
factors that are out of your control include
the state of the marketplace, global losses,
reinsurance costs, your industry and the
values of what you are insuring. What you
can control are your losses and the way you
are marketing your program.
Does your current plan to lower the cost
of your insurance go any further than
remarketing your insurance? If you are
30
currently relying on this method to control
your premiums, I can guarantee you that,
yes, you are currently overpaying on your
insurance. The only way to take control of
your insurance program is to do two things:
1. INSTALL CONTROLS
2. CHANGE THE PROCESS
By installing risk management programs
unique to your company’s risk, you will
mitigate the insurance company’s exposure
to claims, which allows them to be more
aggressive in their pricing. The only
investment involved with implementing
these loss control programs is the time
associated with implementing them.
Not only will the company benefit from
implementing these programs by looking at
their bottom line, but at the end of the day,
the employees benefit from working in a
safer work environment that allows them to
return home in the same condition they left
it in the morning.
Once you develop and implement the
controls needed to help mitigate risks
in your workplace, it is time to change
the process in which your insurance is
marketed. Unfortunately, gone are the
days when my grandfather would take an
underwriter out to lunch and get a deal
done on a napkin. With the advancement
of technology, knowledge has become
power when it comes to an insurance
company’s underwriting guidelines. As a
result of this, it is imperative to start the
renewal process at least four months prior
to expiration and to provide underwriters
with a detailed narrative of what controls
have been implemented that warrant lower
premium rates. When you are marketing
your insurance in this fashion, you are
putting yourself in the driver’s seat, whereas
previously, you were put in a position of
being beholden to the marketplace and its
rates. Implementing these measures is the
only way to see a significant change in the
value of your insurance program. +
Ryan Hager is the third generation to enter into the family owned and operated JGS Insurance.
At JGS Ryan has worked with both family owned businesses and large corporations to provide
them with Captive Based Solutions. Ryan specializes in providing proactive services to his
clients to reduce their losses and premiums in order to gain control of their insurance destiny.