Firm Insurance Renewal Checklist

Pull every page of the expiring policy from the broker portal — dec page, schedule of forms, all endorsements, and any prior-acts or extended reporting endorsements. PL policies are claims-made; the retroactive date on the dec page is what controls coverage for old work, and it must carry forward to the renewal.

Reconcile the named insured schedule against the firm's current legal entities and DBAs. Common gap: the PLLC formed mid-year for the new partner's separate book never got added, leaving that work uncovered.

Most PL carriers want a complete submission 60 days before expiration; AICPA-endorsed markets often want 75. Block the partner's calendar for the application review and the broker call, and set a hard internal deadline two weeks before the carrier's.

Pull trailing-12 gross fees split by service line — tax prep, attest (audit / review / compilation), bookkeeping, advisory, SOC, forensic. Carriers rate each line differently; attest and SOC carry the highest factor. Misstating the mix on the application is the single most common renewal foot-fault.

Walk every partner through the claims question on the application: any actual claim, any subpoena, any client letter alleging error, any fee dispute that could turn into one. Failure to disclose a known circumstance voids coverage on that matter — partners need to err toward over-disclosure.

For each claim or circumstance, draft a short narrative: facts, date reported, current status, reserves set by the carrier, and any remediation or quality-control change implemented since. Underwriters discount remediated single events; unremediated patterns drive surcharges or non-renewal.

Survey partners for work added since the last renewal: new SOC 1 / SOC 2 engagements, ERC consulting, R&D credit studies, fractional CFO arrangements, AI-assisted tax review, crypto reporting. Several of these are excluded by default on a base PL policy and need a specific endorsement or separate placement.

Have the broker pull options for the new exposure: SOC-specific endorsement, ERC consulting carve-back, fiduciary coverage for 401(k) advisory, separate cyber tower if PII volume jumped. Confirm sub-limits and retention separately for each — the headline limit on the dec page is rarely what applies to specialty exposures.

For AICPA-endorsed markets (CAMICO, CNA, Aon Affinity), use the current-year application — they reissue annually and reject prior-year forms. Answer every question; "see attached" only works where the application explicitly invites it.

Standard practice is incumbent plus two to three alternates. Going to market every year keeps the incumbent honest; going every third year is enough if the incumbent's renewal increase tracks market. Confirm with the broker that no two markets are quoting the same paper through different MGAs.

Side-by-side: premium, limit, retention per claim and aggregate, defense inside or outside limits, retroactive date, prior-acts treatment, sub-limits for cyber and subpoena response, and any exclusions added since last term. The cheapest quote with defense inside the limit and a $50K retention is rarely the best deal.

Show the partner group what a $25K, $50K, and $100K per-claim retention does to the premium and to the firm's downside on a single bad engagement. Most small firms over-buy retention reduction; one bad claim every five years is cheaper to retain than to insure.

Get explicit sign-off on the carrier, limit, and retention before the broker binds. Allocate the premium across partner profit centers per the firm's compensation model — attest partners typically absorb a higher PL share than tax partners.

Most PL carriers ask for the prior year's compiled or reviewed financials and a current YTD P&L. Redact partner draws if the partner group is uncomfortable; underwriters care about firm revenue and margin, not individual comp.

Cyber underwriters want the IRS Pub 4557 / FTC Safeguards Rule WISP, an MFA attestation, and evidence of endpoint detection and offsite backups. A firm without a written WISP gets a sub-limit or a non-renewal on cyber — this is the single biggest cyber underwriting lever in the small-firm market.

Follow-ups land 2-3 weeks after submission and have a 5-7 business-day window. Late responses push the firm into the broker's overflow pile and risk a non-renewal letter that triggers state-board notification requirements in some jurisdictions.

Push back on three things in particular: any new exclusion not present last term, any retroactive-date change, and defense-inside-the-limit if the prior policy had defense outside. These are negotiable; premium itself usually is not after the underwriter has run final pricing.

Read the form against the prior year's, not against the quote summary. Confirm the extended reporting period (ERP / tail) cost is locked at a stated multiple of the expiring premium — usually 100% / 200% / 300% for 1 / 3 / 6 years. Without this, retiring partners are exposed when the firm dissolves or sells.

Application is signed by a partner, not by an admin — the warranty in the signature block is personal. Wire or ACH the down payment, then confirm the binder shows correct effective date, named insured, limits, retention, and retroactive date before filing.

Pull the COI tracker — engagement letters with attest clients, government contracts, and SOC subjects typically require a fresh certificate within 30 days of the prior policy expiring. Send proactively; chasing them after a client's compliance team flags expiration is twice the work.

If the limit, retention, or carrier changed, update the standard engagement letter language and any letters in flight that reference specific coverage figures. This is the easiest place for an outdated reference to live for years and become a problem at claim time.

Refresh every partner and senior on the claims-made trigger: report any client letter, subpoena, or fee dispute within the policy period, even if no demand has been made. Late reporting is the most common reason an otherwise-covered claim gets denied. Document the training in the firm's quality-control file.