The Commercial Insurance Renewal Checklist
Renewal is not a quote comparison. It's an operational audit. Most premium surprises — at bind, at audit, or at claim — trace back to something that changed in the business during the year that nobody updated the carrier on. Use this checklist 60–90 days before your effective date.
1. Audit your payroll — by class code, not just total
Workers' Comp and General Liability premiums are payroll-rated. Carriers don't care what you paid out in total — they care which class codes the work falls under. A year of changes (new hires, role shifts, subcontracted work pulled back in-house) usually means last year's class split is wrong.
- Pull a current payroll report broken down by job function — not just by department.
- Map each role to the correct class code; flag anyone whose actual day-to-day differs from their original code.
- Identify owners, officers, and clerical staff that should be excluded or rated separately.
- Compare this year's payroll split to the audit results from your last renewal — if they don't match, expect an audit-driven premium adjustment.
2. Map your subcontractor exposure
Subcontractors are one of the most common sources of unexpected premium at audit. If a sub can't produce a valid Certificate of Insurance with the right limits and additional insured language, the carrier rates them onto your policy as if they were your employee.
- List every subcontractor used in the past 12 months — including one-time hires.
- Confirm a current COI on file for each, with limits that meet your contract requirements (typically $1M / $2M GL minimum).
- Verify each COI lists your business as Additional Insured, with Waiver of Subrogation where required.
- Total subcontractor spend by trade — this drives a separate premium charge on most GL policies.
3. Re-check your jurisdictional footprint
Insurance is regulated state by state. Adding work in a new state — even one job — can create coverage gaps, require new filings, and change your Workers' Comp rates dramatically.
- List every state you performed work in over the last year, including remote employees.
- Confirm Workers' Comp is endorsed for each state (3A states require separate monopolistic coverage).
- Check that your Commercial Auto policy covers the states your vehicles operate in.
- Review professional licensing or contractor registration requirements in any new state.
4. Review vehicles, drivers, and equipment
Fleet composition changes faster than policies do. New vehicles get added mid-term as 'we'll fix it at renewal' and then don't get fixed.
- Pull a current vehicle schedule — VIN, year, make, model, garaging address, primary driver.
- Pull current MVRs for every driver; flag tickets, accidents, and license issues.
- Reconcile owned vs. hired vs. non-owned auto exposure — most claims come from the categories you forgot to insure.
- Schedule high-value tools and equipment separately on Inland Marine if total value exceeds the unscheduled limit.
5. Read your contracts before your policy
The fastest way to find a coverage gap is to read the insurance requirements section of your largest customer contracts and check them against your declarations page.
- Pull insurance requirements from your top 5 customer or landlord contracts.
- Match required limits, additional insured wording, waiver of subrogation, and primary/non-contributory language to your current policy.
- Confirm any required coverages you don't carry today (Umbrella limits, Professional Liability, Cyber, Pollution).
- Identify contracts that have changed in the last year — new requirements rarely make it back to the broker.
6. Pressure-test the coverages most businesses skip
Renewal is the moment to ask whether the policies you don't have are starting to matter. The cost of adding them mid-term is almost always higher.
- Cyber Liability — required by most contracts now, and the single most common uncovered claim.
- Employment Practices Liability (EPLI) — wage-and-hour, discrimination, and wrongful termination exposure rises with headcount.
- Umbrella / Excess Liability — primary limits that were enough at $2M of revenue are rarely enough at $10M.
- Directors & Officers — relevant the moment you take outside investment, add a board, or operate as a non-profit.
The 90-day renewal cadence
- 90 days out: payroll audit, subcontractor COI sweep, contract review.
- 60 days out: jurisdictional check, vehicle and driver schedule refresh, gap-coverage decisions.
- 30 days out: finalize updated exposures with the broker, request market comparisons where appropriate, lock in binding.
Want this run on your actual policy?
A Commercial Risk Analysis is the same audit, applied to your business. Initial review back within 24 hours.