Agent of Record Procedure

What do you do when you have the perfect insurance company to match your needs, but not the perfect Business Insurance agent? Or maybe you’re not sure about your insurance company and not happy with your agent? This comes up a lot in the Insurance world, so what is the solution? An Agent of Record (AOR) or a Broker of Record (BOR). It’s a form that you, and your future agent, fill out and submit to the insurance company. Below are some things to consider when considering an Agent of Record for your Business Insurance and the process to have it completed. 
 
Insurance companies typically will not accept an Agent or Record mid-term. Meaning, they must be submitted to the company near your renewal/expiring date. In most cases, no earlier than 90 days and not after the renewal/expiring. Each insurance company is different and may require different information. Most will require the form is done on company letterhead, though.  

Once filled out and submitted, the insurance company is going to notify your current agent that you’re essentially requesting a new agent. For an example of what an Agent of Record Form looks like, please see below. They will typically give the other agent (your current agent) an opportunity to contact you to make sure this is what you want to do. It’s called a rescinding period, which is usually 5 days. During this time period, you might get a call from your agent asking you what they did wrong and beg you not to leave them. This might sound funny, but at this point, are you prepared to divorce your agent because that is what you’re doing. 
 
Once completed, your new agent will have full visibility of the policy. This is a great time to do a policy review and is a great way to get to know your new agent and get their recommendations. I suggest getting together over coffee or lunch and sitting down together. Maybe the current policy isn’t right for you, or maybe things have changed since the inception of the policy.  Policy reviews after the AOR can uncover things like, lack of property coverage, wrong locations and even businesses that have been classified wrong. 
 
The Agent of Record process doesn’t happen overnight, so you will need to have patience. Insurance companies may have rescinding periods of 5-7 business days. Then it can take several days for the agent to get full visibility of your policy. If you’re not happy with your current agent, and not happy with your insurance company, I still recommend going the Agent of Record route. This will allow your new agent to do a side by side comparison. Maybe there's nothing wrong with the insurance company and the policy fits your current needs. I’ve had cases where the insured thought they didn’t like the insurance company, but it turned out the agent had extremely poor communication skills. For example, an insurance company conducted an audit and found the insured wasn’t classified correctly. They re-classed, which caused a re-write. It turned into a billing nightmare and lots of confusion. All the while, the agent never communicated any of this to the insured.

If you have any questions about the Agent of Record process, or have Business Insurance questions, please let me know, I work with a lot of businesses in the Austin, Cedar Park and Round Rock area. I'd love to meet you for coffee or tea and hear about your business. As always, thank you for taking the time to visit the site. 

Agent of Record Form
File Size:	651 kb
File Type:	pdf

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​Jason Matison
Commercial Insurance Agent
Austin, Texas