Bringing speed, accuracy, and automation
to loss runs, Loss Run Pro improves loss runs and productivity
By Lori Widmer
Reghan Brandt is someone who lets frustration inspire change. Brandt, chief digital operations officer for Loss Run Pro, was trying to close deals for the premium finance company she’d founded in 2008. Yet the manual process of gathering and examining an organization’s claims history was tying everything up.
“I kept watching E&S quotes come back ‘contingent’ on loss runs, and then the whole deal would fall apart while everyone waited on paperwork nobody could get their hands on,” she explains.
In what Brandt calls a “moment of pure irritation” she realized that there had to be a better way. “I remember thinking that this cannot be how our industry runs.” That’s when she started digging.
What she found was a clear time and money sink. “Loss runs were quietly costing everyone time and money: agents chasing paperwork instead of writing business, carriers fielding the same requests over and over, and insureds stuck waiting on quotes because nobody could get the data fast enough,” says Brandt.
“It’s a small piece of the transaction that was creating an outsized headache, and it deserved a real fix instead of another workaround,” she adds.
The entire loss run process was, as Brandt puts it, “fragmented, with no standard way to request, receive, or even read the data. So, I figured, why can’t a Montana girl roll up her sleeves and just fix it?”
That’s exactly what she did. Loss Run Pro, born in 2020, replaces what Brandt calls the manual chase. The solution automates calls, emails, carrier faxing, and any follow-up communications through its request-and-delivery platform.
“Agents pull client info straight from their agency management system, Loss Run Pro sends the requests out across our carrier and MGA network, and the data comes back standardized and trackable, so nothing gets lost in someone’s inbox.”
An online platform, Loss Run Pro uses an application programming interface (API) to enable smooth communication and data transfer between internal and external systems. The platform integrates with agency management systems easily and allows for easy collection and upload of claims data. Boasting a network of over 5,000 carriers and MGAs, Brandt points out that Loss Run Pro speeds an otherwise cumbersome collection process and delivers data in a standardized format.
Implementation of the solution is just as easy. “Most agencies are up and running the same day since the system works right out of the box,” says Brandt. “Where it gets more involved is with our larger agencies who want the full build: syncing with their agency management system, connecting carrier portal access, and customizing the claims data schema to match how they run their book.
“If you’re piping your entire book through our API into your own data lake, that’s usually a three-to-four-week implementation.”
Still, the average agency that implements the basic solution without add-on services, says Brandt, can easily send their first loss run request “within the hour” of implementation.
What users say
According to Brian Thiemer, vice president of underwriting and marketing for The Mahoney Group, that’s been his company’s experience. Having used the product for just a few months, Thiemer says that, so far, Loss Run Pro has taken a clunky process and delivered a streamlined, easy fix.
Thiemer, who has worked in a lot of carrier systems over the years, was charged with looking for a solution that would address efficiency, speed, and response time. The Mahoney Group was trying to solve a number of different issues, Thiemer says. The most critical was managing the unwieldy loss run process, but also the authorization process. Producers were trying to get loss runs without alerting the client’s current agency that the client was shopping around their business.
Not only that, producers were also trying to get loss runs on current books of business that contained thousands of clients. “It can be a very cumbersome operation. You have either a client manager doing it or you have to sign on a third-party resource or other outsourced resource to do that kind of thing.”
While doing so, Thiemer says, the organization has been striving to bring a lot more insight into their loss run findings. “Especially for some of our larger clients that need in-depth loss run analysis, forecasting, and loss picks,” the data needed to be parsed quickly and accurately.
That was the shopping list Thiemer had when he went looking for a solution. He says the company looked at three or four different vendors that “offered varying levels of options.” In the end, Thiemer says they chose Loss Run Pro because the product was so easy to use. It’s also affordable at its entry point, he adds, which starts at $29 per user per month.
Thiemer says the solution allows for easy setup of authorization letters and digital delivery to clients. The loss run then “comes back to you directly as opposed to either being filtered through the current agent or putting the burden on the client to get them.”
While The Mahoney Group is currently using Loss Run Pro’s basic solution, Thiemer says the plan is to integrate the solution with his organization’s agency management system. “It’s going to be a huge lift for all of our customer service team from the client managers down to the client administrators to everyone who’s working to support the business for our clients.”
For other organizations looking to implement a loss run solution, Thiemer has this advice: “Have a really clear picture of what it is that you’re trying to accomplish. Make sure that all the different departments are on board.
“If this group is vetting for one problem and that group is vetting another set of things for a different problem, maybe one vendor could solve both problems,” he adds. “Have the whole operations team on the same page when vetting so that (the solution) hits on all of the needs that everyone has.”
The author
Lori Widmer is a Philadelphia-based writer and editor who specializes in insurance and risk management. BrokerTech Spotlight articles look at insurtech offerings from startups that have partnered with BrokerTech Ventures (BTV), a convening platform for brokers, carriers and wholesalers, and tech firms, and includes insight from other BTV member owners.
