Business insurance quality checklist for policy records

Quality means the insurance record accurately reflects the approved facts, service and documents, with exceptions sent to the right owner. Apply this checklist to a sample and every high-risk case. It does not replace underwriting, advice or legal review.

What to take away

Quality means the insurance record matches approved facts, service and documents, with exceptions owned.
Use the checklist on every high-risk case and a documented sample of ordinary work.
Score each control as pass, fail or not applicable with a reason, and record evidence.
For failures, capture containment, root cause, corrective owner, due date and retest.
Publish quality summaries with the denominator and period to make results meaningful.

Intake and customer record

Verify exact legal entity and trading name
Date sources for activity, locations, people
Record customer type, communication route, access needs
Keep unknowns visible with owners
Match permissions and service status to journey

Record the business's legal entity and trading name, activities, trading locations and the date and source of each fact.
Check the information relevant to the requested cover, such as employees, subcontractors, turnover, vehicles, premises, stock, equipment and contractual requirements. Mark estimates and forecasts clearly.
Record existing policies, renewal dates, relevant changes and known claims or incidents; note any information still to be confirmed.
Check the broker or intermediary's status and relevant permissions on the FCA Financial Services Register. Record the firm checked and the date; confirm the applicable regulatory status of the insurer, including PRA status where relevant.
Record the customer's cover requirements, any cover declined or left unrequested, and the reason for unresolved gaps.

Disclosure and submission

Knowledge owners were asked clear, relevant questions about the business and its risks.
Fact, estimate and forecast are distinguished.
Changes from the previous period are explained.
The proposal form or statement of fact matches the customer's confirmed information and is retained with its version and date.
The approved submission version cannot be silently overwritten.
Insurer questions and answers are preserved with the submission.

The Insurance Act 2015 provides the fair-presentation framework for non-consumer insurance. For a small business seeking commercial cover, check that the submission gives the insurer a clear and accessible presentation of material circumstances, and retain the information and answers used to prepare it. Qualified review should address statutory application and material uncertainty.

Quotation and decision

Insurer, policy, insured entity, activities and dates match the request.
Check each relevant coveremployers' liability for employee-related risks, public liability for third-party injury or property damage, professional indemnity for professional services, commercial property for premises and contents, and business interruption for loss of income following insured damage. Record why a cover is relevant, absent or not applicable.
Limits, excesses, exclusions, conditions and endorsements are captured and checked against the business's requirements.
Premium, IPT, fees, finance and payment timing reconcile.
Alternatives use comparable scope and units.
Advice and demands-and-needs records are stored where applicable.
Retained risks and rejected options have approving owners.

FCA Handbook ICOBS 6 contains policy and price-information provisions for firms within scope. Check the applicable requirements and confirm that the quote and issued documents identify the cover, price and material policy terms the customer needs to review; do not assume every provision applies identically to every commercial customer.

Policy issue and servicing

The issued schedule, wording and endorsements match the approved quotation and insured entity.
The schedule and wording are readable, accessible and stored with version control alongside the proposal form or statement of fact.
Claim and change contacts are available during system outage.
Payment failure and cancellation alerts reach an accountable person.
Mid-term changes retain the event, notification and response dates, with revised documents where required.
Renewal work begins before evidence or quotation deadlines.

Claims and complaints

Incident, policy, handler, evidence and next action are linked.
Safety and legal escalation are not delayed by administration.
Notification reaches a party with authority or is forwarded promptly; record when it was received and sent.
Customer progress communications, decisions and settlement records are retained.
Expressions of dissatisfaction reach the complaint process.
Applicable response and escalation dates are calculated from current rules and recorded.

FCA Handbook ICOBS 8 contains prompt and fair claim-handling requirements for insurers within scope and guidance for intermediaries. Section 13A of the Insurance Act 2015, inserted by the Enterprise Act 2016, implies a term requiring insurers to pay sums due within a reasonable time; it does not set one fixed payment deadline. DISP 1 governs complaint handling for applicable respondents. It generally requires a final response within eight weeks; an eligible complainant may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service and ordinarily has six months from the final response to do so.

Data, security and audit

Access follows role and is reviewed after staff changes.
Sensitive personal and commercial information is minimised.
Exports, corrections and deletion work as designed.
Supplier incidents and material changes trigger review.
Exceptions show cause, consequence, fix, owner and deadline.
A second reviewer can reproduce the result from the source submission, proposal form or statement of fact, quotation, schedule, wording and relevant correspondence.

Set sample frequency from risk and observed error, not convenience; document the selection method before choosing records. Track first-pass accuracy separately from correction speed, and do not present a risk-skewed sample as representative. Escalate recurring faults to a named quality or compliance owner and, where relevant, the underwriting or claims owner. For a broker, resolve material discrepancies before sending advice or documents; for a business reviewing a renewal, resolve them before accepting cover. Failed items need a named owner and a clear action.

Score and investigate the result

Use three outcomes for each control: pass, fail or not applicable with a reason. Pass requires evidence that the requirement is met; fail means the evidence is missing, inconsistent or unapproved. Do not award partial credit where a mandatory permission, insured entity or notification route is absent. Record the evidence inspected, reviewer and check date.

Select every high-impact case and a documented sample of ordinary work. Vary policy type, channel, handler, location and customer circumstance so the same easy files do not dominate. Keep the sampling rule before choosing records and report the sample's scope and period with the result.

For a failure, capture immediate containment, affected cases, root cause, corrective owner, due date and retest. Search for similar records rather than assuming the defect is isolated. Trend repeated errors by the process step that created them, not only the person who discovered them.

Publish quality summaries with the denominator and period. A 98% result means little without explaining whether it covered documents, fields or whole cases and which mandatory controls were excluded; treat it as a result to explain, not a universal target.

Before you act

Verify exact legal entity and trading name.
Record dated sources for activity, locations, people, vehicles, assets and contracts.
Distinguish fact, estimate and forecast in submissions.
Ensure approved submission version cannot be silently overwritten.
Match issued schedule and wording to approved quotation.
Record evidence inspected, reviewer and check date.

Common questions

What should be done when a control fails?

Contain the immediate risk, identify affected policies and notify the named quality or compliance owner. Record the source document, customer impact, corrective owner and retest; involve the underwriting, claims or complaints owner where that function is responsible.

How should sampling be selected for quality checks?

What do the three outcomes for each control mean?

Pass means the evidence supports the requirement; fail means it does not. Not applicable is for a control that does not apply to the business or policy, and must have a recorded reason. In every case, retain the evidence inspected, reviewer and check date.