Loss ratio gets the attention. Expense ratio decides it.

“Loss ratio is where the board looks. Expense ratio is where the money went.”

Underwriting result is watched daily. The expense side is watched annually, in total, and it is where the operating improvement usually is.

loss ratio
expense ratio
claims leakage
acquisition cost
bordereaux
reserve development
referral rate

Your words, not ours.

Where it concentrates here

Five places the money tends to go in insurance. Each one is concentrated — a single agreement, a single queue, a single account nobody reviews — which is why sampling walks straight past them.

Claims leakage — settlements above what the policy required — concentrated in particular claim types or handlers.
Acquisition cost and commission overrides negotiated historically and never revisited against the business each channel now produces.
Underwriting referrals in volumes that suggest authority limits are set wrongly rather than that risks are unusual.
Reconciliation and bordereaux processing absorbing effort disproportionate to the premium involved.
Reserve development patterns that repeat by line and are treated as actuarial rather than operational.

Not every insurance is the same business

Commercial lines brokerageCommission on premium that moves with the market, and service cost that does not — a hardening market flatters results that a softening one will not.
Employee benefitsPer-employee-per-month fees against client headcount that changes constantly and is reconciled annually at best.
Personal linesHigh account count, low premium, where cost to serve per policy is almost never calculated and is frequently above the commission.
Program and MGA businessDelegated authority, binding rights and carrier audit exposure on a book someone else underwrites.
Contingent and profit-sharing incomeMaterial, volatile, recognized inconsistently, and the first thing an acquirer normalizes away.

Where this data actually lives

Applied Epic or Vertafore AMS360 as the agency management system
A separate commission download reconciliation, frequently in Excel
EZLynx or Applied Rater for personal lines comparative quoting
Carrier portals holding the authoritative policy record, which the AMS mirrors imperfectly

Named because it changes what the intake asks for. An extract from one of these has known gaps, and the review is built around them rather than surprised by them.

Reported in your numbers, not ours

revenue per producer
organic growth
retention rate
commission rate by carrier
contingent income share
cost to serve
book concentration
EBITDA margin

The obligations that set the deadlines

Producer licensing and appointments per state per carrier, and their renewals
Surplus lines tax filings and diligent search affidavits
Carrier audits of delegated binding authority
E&O renewal disclosures, which ask about claims and procedures
Fiduciary handling of premium trust accounts where the state requires it

What the review would ask you for

7 requests written for insurance and asked of nobody else — 3 of them core. They sit alongside the operating spine every business has — finance, revenue, receivables, payables, contracts, people, IT, operations, risk, commercial and governance — which is 107 further requests.

Book by line, channel and month Core GWP, NWP, policy count.
Loss ratio and reserve development Core By line and accident year.
Expense ratio Core Acquisition and administration, split out.
Claims operations Cycle time, leakage, and cost per claim handled.
Distribution and commission By channel, with override arrangements.
Reinsurance program Structure, cost and recoveries.
Underwriting referral and authority Volume of referrals and their outcome.

Anything you do not have can be skipped in one click, with a reason. The intake is completed in the client portal, which saves each answer as it is given and can be returned to as often as you like.

When this stops being interesting and becomes urgent

An acquisition approach — brokerage consolidation is constant, and the buyer's first question is organic growth stripped of contingents
A carrier appointment lost, or a book moved
A producer leaving with accounts, testing what the agreements actually say
A commission reconciliation gap nobody can close
Perpetuation, where an internal buyer needs a defensible valuation

Who this involves

Signs it: Principal or agency president
Resists it: Producers whose book economics and service cost become visible
Has been asking for it: The operations lead, who knows which accounts consume the service team

Who commissions it

COOs, finance directors and heads of claims. Phase one is priced before phase two is discussed, the report is yours either way, and we take no vendor commissions or referral fees on anything we recommend.

See the proposal and the price Talk it through first

The proposal sets out the sequence week by week, what we would need from you, and what it costs for your number of operating units. No call required to see the number.

Closest to this

Operations that share more with insurance than the sector label suggests.