When a carrier says no: three answers on a loss-run request, and the one button beside each

Most loss-run requests end the way you want: the carrier sends the loss run and you move on to the submission. But anyone who has chased loss runs for a renewal knows there are three other answers, and they come back often enough to slow a whole book down.

Declined. The carrier will not release the loss run on this request.
Use our form. The carrier wants the request on its own form, not yours.
You are not the agent of record. The carrier will not send it to you.

Until now, when one of those replies came back on a loss.run request, it landed in a mailbox. To find out what the carrier said, and to get the form or letter it attached, you had to ask InsurEco to dig the reply out for you. That meant a message, a wait, and a forwarded email, all before you could do the next thing.

That step is gone. The carrier's reply now sits on the request itself, under that carrier, with the attachment. And each of those three answers comes with one next step, shown as a single button beside it.

What a request looks like now

Take a renewal where you asked four carriers for loss runs. Three of them answered with something other than a loss run. On the request, it reads like this:

Carrier on the request Carrier's answer Attachment Next step Carrier 1 Here it is Loss run Nothing to do Carrier 2 Use our form Carrier's form Download the form, then upload it signed Carrier 3 You are not the agent of record Carrier's reply Ask the insured to sign Carrier 4 Declined Carrier's reply Ask the insured to sign

Each row is the carrier, what the carrier actually said, the file it sent, and one button. You do not have to open an inbox, search a thread, or work out what the reply means before deciding what to do. The reply is there to read, and the action is next to it.

"Use our form": download it, sign it, upload it

Some carriers will only act on their own authorization form. When that is the answer, the form they attached is on the request under that carrier.

The next step is:

Download the carrier's form from the request.
Get it signed.
Upload the signed form back onto the request.

Once you upload it, loss.run sends it to the carrier on the same thread the carrier replied on. That matters on the carrier side. The person who asked for their form gets it back as a reply to their own message, with the original request above it, so they can see what it belongs to without matching it up by hand.

You do not write a new email, look up who replied, or re-attach anything. The form goes back where it came from.

"Ask the insured to sign"

When the answer is that you are not the agent of record, or the carrier has declined, the button beside it is Ask the insured to sign.

Press it and the insured gets a sign link. They open it, sign, and the request carries their signature. The insured does not need to know which carrier said what, or download and print anything. They sign one link.

This keeps the work with the person who can move it. The carrier has told you it will not release the loss run to you on the current request; the insured's signature is the next thing to put in front of it.

What loss.run will not show you

When a carrier says you are not the agent of record, it is natural to wonder who is. loss.run does not tell you. loss.run never names a competing agency. Not on the request, not in the reply view, not anywhere else.

If a carrier's reply says another agency holds the account, that is between you, the insured and the carrier. loss.run shows you that the carrier answered "not the agent of record" and gives you the one next step. It does not point at anyone else's office, and it is not a place to settle broker-of-record questions. If you have one of those, it belongs with the insured and whoever advises you on it.

Each of these answers has a next step that almost always applies. A carrier asking for its own form needs its own form back, signed. A carrier that will not release to you needs the insured's signature in front of it. Putting one button beside each answer means an account manager working through a stack of renewals can clear these without thinking about which of several options fits.

It also means the request tells the truth about where things stand. A row that says "Use our form" with a download button is plainly waiting on you. A row that says "Ask the insured to sign" after you have pressed it is plainly waiting on the insured. Nobody has to remember that a reply came in last Tuesday and is sitting in a mailbox somewhere.

For the carrier and MGA staff on the other end

If you answer loss-run requests, very little changes for you, and that is the point. You reply the way you already do: decline, attach your form, or say the requester is not the agent of record. Your reply and attachment show up for the agency on the request. When the agency uploads your form signed, it comes back to you on the same thread you replied on, not as a fresh message you have to place.

loss.run does not decide how fast a carrier releases a loss run; that is yours. What it does is keep your reply, and the agency's response to it, together.

What to do today

Open a request that has been sitting with a reply you have not acted on. Under each carrier you will see what it said, the file it sent, and the button. Download and upload where it asks for a form; press Ask the insured to sign where it says no. Then move on to the next one.

The agency user guide, section 6, walks through each answer and the button beside it.