Commercial Insurance Submission Checklist for Agents

Commercial Insurance Submission Checklist for Agents

A complete commercial insurance submission typically has six parts: a confirmed carrier appetite match, a signed ACORD 125, the ACORD line form for each coverage requested, any carrier-specific supplemental application, currently valued loss runs, and exposure data and attachments that back up the numbers. Carriers differ on what they require, so confirm with each carrier. The list below is the common core.

This page is the hub for QuoteSweep's submission guides. Each section links to the deeper page on that part of the job.

The checklist

Print it, paste it into your AMS, or use it as the intake form for a new account.

1. Appetite and fit

• Carrier writes this class of business. Check the appetite checker or the carrier's guide.
• Carrier writes in the insured's state, at this size and for these coverages.
• Any hard exclusions (operations, loss history, years in business) are cleared up front.

2. Insured and operations

• Legal name, DBA, mailing and physical addresses, FEIN, entity type, date started.
• Operations described in plain words, including the risky parts and what is subcontracted.
• Class codes and industry codes, matched to the operations. See the GL class codes guide and the class code lookup.
• Revenue and payroll estimates for the coming term, checked against financials or tax returns.
• Employee count (full and part time), number of locations, ownership details.

3. ACORD forms

• ACORD 125, the master application, completed and signed by the insured.
• A line form for each coverage requested. Typically that means the ACORD 126 for general liability, plus the forms for property, workers' comp, business auto or umbrella as needed. Details are in the ACORD forms guide, and a property example is in ACORD 140 and real estate quoting.
• The carrier's own supplemental application, where it requires one. Supplementals typically cover class-specific hazards (for example, contractors' subcontracting practices or restaurants' cooking and liquor operations).
• Every yes answer explained in a line, and no blank sections. Write "none" instead of leaving a field empty.

4. Prior coverage and loss history

• Current and prior carriers, policy numbers, premiums, and any cancellations or non-renewals.
• Loss runs for each line, currently valued. Carriers typically look back three to five years, but confirm the period each one wants.
• A short narrative for any large or open claim, with what changed afterward.

Loss runs usually decide how fast a submission moves, because the incumbent carrier controls when they arrive. See how to get loss runs fast and the loss runs glossary entry.

5. Exposure details by line

• General liability: sales or payroll by class, subcontracted cost, products and completed operations, additional insured and contract requirements.
• Property: addresses, construction, year built, occupancy, protection, values and valuation basis, and a statement of values for multiple buildings.
• Workers' comp: payroll by class and state, ownership and officer inclusion or exclusion, and the experience mod if there is one.
• Commercial auto: vehicle list with VINs, driver list with license and driving-record information, garaging, radius of operation.
• Umbrella or excess: schedule of underlying policies and limits.

6. Attachments and extras

• Contracts, leases or certificate requirements that set limits or additional insureds.
• Safety program, written procedures and licenses where they help the carrier get to yes.
• Photos, inspection reports or financials for larger or more complex risks.
• Target effective date, requested limits and deductibles, and who the decision maker is.

For a buyer-side version of the same documents, see what you need for a business insurance quote, which you can send to an insured who is slow to collect them.

Why submissions fail, and which page to read

Most unquoted submissions fail before documents matter. QuoteSweep's analysis of the problem, which cites IVANS research for a 60% unquoted rate, points to appetite mismatch as the main cause: the agent sent the risk to a carrier that would not write it. Read why 60% of commercial submissions go unquoted, which also has an audio version on the QuoteSweep podcast. A related look at quotes that stall at the last step is in one in three commercial quotes dies at the last button.

The second most common cause is an incomplete or inconsistent package. Class codes that disagree with the operations description, a blank loss section, exposure numbers that do not match the financials, and missing supplementals each trigger a request for more information, which costs days.

The third is data entry. Every time a person re-keys the same facts into a different carrier portal, an error can creep in, and an error on an application is an E&O exposure. Reducing E&O risk in commercial submissions lays out which errors matter most and how to cut re-keying.

How to run the process

1. Check appetite. Rule carriers in or out before you collect anything.
2. Collect once. Capture the insured's facts in one place, and build every ACORD form and portal entry from it.
3. Request loss runs the same day. They are the slowest part, and some carriers need the insured's signed authorization before they release them.
4. Build the package. Walk the checklist above and fill gaps while the insured is still engaged.
5. Submit and track. Log what went to whom, and what each carrier asked for next.
6. Close the loop. Note which carriers quoted, which declined and why, and how the quote compared with an indication. See quote vs indication vs binder and bind ratio, which carriers use to judge how well an agency pre-qualifies risks.

For the definition of a submission and how the steps fit together, see the insurance submission glossary entry.

Tools and workflow

Submission software changes who does the data entry, not what the carrier needs. Agencies that already own a submissions tool sometimes find that setup, not the checklist, is the hard part. See the Commercial Submissions install that never happened for one version of that story. For a broader comparison of options, see commercial insurance quoting tools compared and what a comparative rater is.

All QuoteSweep submission pages

What we checked and what we did not

This page is a workflow guide, not a statement of any carrier's requirements. The "typically" items (loss run look-back of three to five years, the contents of supplemental applications) come from QuoteSweep's existing guides linked above and common agency practice, and each carrier sets its own rules. The 60% unquoted figure is IVANS research as cited in our analysis, which we did not re-verify. We did not review ACORD form editions for this page; confirm the current edition with ACORD or your AMS before you send forms.