Placements rarely fail dramatically. They slip: a loss run that arrives a fortnight late, a market approached at 40 days, a line with one quote presented as if it were a market result, a carrier below the security floor that was cheapest, a surplus lines affidavit assembled the day after binding. Each slip is small. Together they are most of a practice’s E&O exposure and most of its unhappy renewals.
In short
- Ten checks catch most of it, and each can be written as one sentence.
- Some should warn, some should refer to a senior person, a few should block.
- They only work if they run on every placement, every time — not in a quarterly file review.
Ten slips, ten checks
| The slip | The check | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| A selected carrier below the security floor | A selected carrier rated below A- | block |
| Surplus lines without the paperwork | A surplus line with fewer than three admitted declinations | block |
| Binding with a carrier the broker can’t place with | A selected carrier without an appointment | refer to compliance |
| A price shock delivered unreviewed | Recommended program more than 25% over the expiring | refer to a leader |
| Less cover than asked, quietly | A selected quote short of the limit asked | refer to a leader |
| Loss runs chased too late | Loss runs missing inside 60 days | refer to a leader |
| Marketing started too late | No market approached inside 45 days | refer to a leader |
| A stale schedule | SOV older than a year | warn |
| A schedule full of blanks | More than 10% of SOV rows with gaps | warn |
| A one-quote “market” | A line with a single quote at quoting or proposal | warn |
These are the ten placement controls that ship in InsightPlacement’s starter set. The thresholds are starting points a practice tunes, not industry standards.
Warn, refer, block
and on Home;
work continues"] W -- refer --> B["A named role signs off:
practice leader or compliance"] W -- block --> C["The bind order waits
until it clears"] style A fill:#fff4e2,stroke:#f4a03a style B fill:#e8f8f4,stroke:#10b981 style C fill:#fdecec,stroke:#e57373
The effect matters as much as the condition. A stale SOV is worth knowing about but not worth stopping a renewal for. A program 38% over the expiring is worth a senior look before the client sees it. A carrier below the floor should stop the bind until someone with authority resolves it.
Why file reviews miss them
A quarterly review samples a few closed placements and finds the slips after they mattered. A check that runs on every placement, at every Analyze, finds them while there is still time — and puts the warning on the account’s insights where the account team already looks.
Above: the Rules Studio home on the illustrative book, with the controls that fired most in 30 days. The Rules Studio post covers how a control is written, tested and published.
