Access to your small business’s financial data can help automate or speed up the underwriting process, getting you your insurance options faster. Small businesses, especially in harder hit industries, have struggled to get insured in the past year. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 9% of all small businesses claim they could not find an insurer willing to offer coverage. It’s crucial for small business owners to be able to find and access the small business coverage they need and for the broker to understand the business they’re insuring.
The good news is that a brokerage like Zensurance offers a modern (and faster) way to provide coverage to small businesses. Moving away from manual underwriting and submitting data from the small business side saves you time and challenges compiling all this data for the potential insurer. Let’s explore how your business’s financial data can impact your insurance coverage.
How Are Small Business Insurance Policies Calculated?
Underwriting is the process of assessing the risk your business presents when you apply for insurance, which in turn impacts your coverage and premium. Some of the most common aspects that insurers take into consideration when calculating commercial insurance quotes are:
- Likelihood to file a claim, which can be based on past behaviour of the business or exposure to risk
- Operating expenses, revenue, and other financials of the business
- Your business operations, which may include what you make or sell
- Your business’s industry
- Years in operation
- Location of business headquarters and operation
- How much coverage your business is seeking
How Does Your Business Data Support Insurance Policy Calculation?
When you provide your business’s financial data to a broker like Zensurance, they begin the process of shopping from more than 50 insurance providers to determine your coverage and eligibility. Your business uses tools like accounting software or service providers, which collect a lot of financial information. Sharing this information with your licensed broker allows them to provide small business insurance policies faster since they automate the gathering of the information they need.
Brokers and insurance providers can also use the financial data from small businesses for benchmarking. For example, the comparison point allows the insurer to take in data on businesses like yours, perhaps in the same industry or revenue size or location, and use that data to compare your likelihood of filing for claims or the type of coverage your business will benefit from most.
How Insurers’ Access to Financial Data Influences Your Premium
With access to financial data, the underwriting process can be vastly sped up while mitigating fraud and risk for the insurer so that you can get insured. Your broker can offer a more accurate quote and insurance package based on your business compared to similar small businesses. Thanks to advancements in access to financial data, your broker can provide you with top insurance package options for your business’s needs.
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