An agent for a successful, mid-size retail agent was preparing for the renewal of a long-term client. In a relatively short period, the client – a trucking firm – had grown from $30 million in revenue to $60 million. The agent approached several smaller wholesale firms and direct carriers but she became increasingly concerned that the trucking firm was thinking of replacing her with a larger, national brokerage firm. Specifically, the trucking firm questioned her ability to grow with their firm and provide peer group data and analytics around their insurance purchasing questions. They wanted to know what limits and coverages other trucking firms similar in size bought. With insurance rates rising and profit margins thin, they wondered if they were purchasing too much insurance – or, maybe not enough. With renewal looming just a month away, the retailer called CRC Group’s Brian Pickford, Casualty Broker for advice.

In discussions with the agent, Brian knew that the information the insured wanted would not be readily available from almost anywhere except CRC Group's REDY platform. Most carriers, brokerage firms and wholesalers do not have the scope or breadth of account data that CRC Group has collected over the years, nor have they invested the technology to harness the power of the data to answer fundamental questions about insurance decisions.

CRC GROUP’S PROPRIETARY BENCHMARKING REPORTS

Knowing limits purchasing trends of peer companies is one the few ways insureds can see how others are responding to recent litigation and claims settlements, especially private companies. Due to the thin operating margins in the trucking industry, buyers need to view insurance as an important financial security measure. One “nuclear” verdict could put the firm out of business.

This is where CRC Group’s commitment and investment in data and analytics provides valuable results for agents. CRC’s formidable size and the quality of data, allows the team to generate high-quality benchmarking data using reliable and meaningful peer information from REDY that retailers can share with their clients to assist in the decision-making process.

CRC Group’s Trucking Benchmarking Report, for example, is based on CRC’s proprietary transportation data and is filtered to show results only for trucking companies of similar fleet size and risk profiles. In the transportation category, CRC works with nearly every insurance carrier, writing more than $1 billion in transportation revenue annually. In addition, CRC’s Transportation practice includes the expertise and experience of dedicated professionals engaged in all aspects of the industry. Some of CRC Group’s benchmarking reports, such as those for Cyber and Trucking are not only exclusive to CRC, but also use algorithms that are unique in the marketplace and generate results that are intuitive for retailers and their insurance buyers.

DATA MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

Brian knew CRC Group’s Trucking Benchmarking Report would be the answer to the agent’s dilemma. He accessed CRC Group's REDY platform to generate a report including graphical representations, relevant industry and fleet size filters, and a sample size of peer results. These reports included companies similar in size to the insured, showed limits typically purchased, and displayed what the average claim settlements were in this peer group.

The agent presented the benchmarking report to her client. The report showed that 53% of trucking firms in their peer group bought $5 million or more in limits. The client was impressed with the retailer’s presentation and found the data especially useful. In fact, the results encouraged the client to increase their umbrella limits to $10 million. The difference according to the agent was the peer data about what other firms their size bought, and the expertise behind the data that clearly outlined the financial risks the firm would face if they did not buy enough insurance.

Contact your CRC Group Producer for more information about CRC Group’s REDY platform and proprietary benchmarking reports that could help you win accounts.

Contributor:

• Brian Pickford is a Broker in CRC’s Redondo Beach, CA office and a member of the Casualty Transportation Practice. Brian manages a wide-ranging portfolio of primary and excess casualty business.