How a wholesale broker runs retail submissions on Riska
- Written by
- Riska teamProduct
- Published
- Length
- 3 min read
What a wholesale desk's inbox looks like on a Monday
The desk is a handful of placement brokers working E&S property for retail agents in several states. Submissions arrive in one shared inbox: an ACORD 125 and 140, a statement of values as a spreadsheet, sometimes the loss runs, and a line from the agent asking for terms by Thursday.
Before anything can go to market, somebody reads each email, opens a folder, checks whether the insured is already on the book and writes back for whatever is missing. The follow-ups live in a spreadsheet. The phone calls live in a notebook.
None of that is placement work. It is the work that has to happen before placement can start.
The same desk, before and on Riska
Five jobs every submission needs done, and who does them.
Intake
someone opens every email and builds the folder
each email is read and matched to its account on arrival
Clearance
a search through last year's folders
checked against the accounts and submissions already held
Missing documents
a reply typed from memory, tracked in a spreadsheet
a sequence from your own mailbox that ends on a reply
Agent calls
notes in a notebook
transcript and summary on the submission, next steps as tasks
Renewal
rebuilt from old emails
one record with last year's emails, documents and calls
Intake: the agent's email becomes a submission
The desk connects the mailbox agents already write to. Nothing changes for the agents. Submission triage reads each email as it lands, identifies every attachment, and shows what came in and what did not.
A reference number in the thread, an existing conversation or a known sender ties the submission to an account the desk already holds. Anything new opens as new business. When the evidence is split, a person decides instead of the system guessing.
Values read from the ACORD forms arrive as a proposed change. Nothing reaches the account until a broker reads it and applies it.
A submission's first week on the desk
One retail submission, from the agent's email to a complete file.
- 01
Read and match the email on arrival
The submission opens on the right account with its attachments identified. The queue shows that the loss runs are missing before anyone has opened the email.
- 02
Ask the agent for what is missing
A sequence sends the request from the broker's own address, with a follow-up a few days later. It ends the moment the agent replies, and the reply is filed on the submission with the loss runs attached.
- 03
Take the agent's call
The call is transcribed and summarised onto the submission. "Send the updated schedule by Wednesday" becomes a task with an owner and a due date rather than a line in a notebook.
- 04
Check the file before it goes to market
The broker asks Ask Riska what the agent asked for and what is still outstanding. The assistant answers from the record: the emails, the parsed documents and the call.
- 05
Work the renewal from the same record
Ninety days out, the renewal starts from the account that already holds the year's conversation. Nobody rebuilds it from an inbox search.
What this use case does not cover
This example stops at a complete file. It does not cover sending the risk to markets or comparing the quotes that come back. The desk works its markets the way it does today and records the outcome on the account.
That is deliberate. The time a wholesale desk loses is usually in front of placement, in the inbox and the follow-ups, and that is the part this use case changes.
Why one record beats five tools on a wholesale desk
Most desks already have an inbox, a spreadsheet of chases, a notes app and a folder per account. Each holds part of the submission, and the broker is the only thing joining them.
Riska is built the other way round. The email, the documents read out of it, the follow-up sequence and the call summary all land on the same record. So the question a broker asks at renewal, "what did we promise this agent last year?", has one place to be answered from.
Questions we get asked
- Is this wholesale broker a real Riska customer?
- No. It is an illustrative use case describing how a wholesale E&S desk would run retail submissions on Riska. It names no customer and reports no results.
- Do retail agents have to change how they send submissions?
- No. The desk connects the mailbox agents already email, and submissions are read from there. A producer portal is available for agents who would rather submit through a form.
- What stops a follow-up sequence to a retail agent?
- A reply on the thread, a meeting booked on the calendar, an unsubscribe or a bounce. The reason is recorded and anything still queued is cancelled.
- Which address do the follow-up emails come from?
- The broker's own Gmail or Microsoft mailbox, connected once. Sends go out inside the hours and timezone the desk sets, and replies land in that inbox and on the record.
- Does Riska send the submission to carriers for the broker?
- Not in this use case. It covers intake, follow-ups, calls and renewal up to a complete file. The desk works its markets as it does today and records the outcome on the account.
Keep reading
How an MGA rates, reprices and quotes commercial property by asking
A commercial property and crime MGA gives its underwriters, assistant underwriters and account managers one way to rate, reprice and quote: they ask Ask Riska in plain language. It reads the actual record, prices it through the MGA's own rate book and workbook, and shows the premium line by line with the factor behind each one. Nothing on the record changes, and no quote goes out, until a person approves it.
How a program administrator tracks loss ratio and premium against plan
A program administrator writing commercial property, crime and auto runs its annual plan as portfolio metrics in Riska: written premium, loss ratio, bind ratio and mix, each split by line and program and read against the target in the plan. Every number opens onto the policies and claims behind it, so a ratio that drifts in week three becomes a list of accounts to review, not a surprise at the carrier meeting.
How a property carrier automates appetite decisions on submissions, referrals and renewals
A middle-market commercial property carrier scores every submission and every renewal against its own appetite model in Riska before an underwriter opens it. In-appetite risks move straight on to quoting, borderline ones stop as referrals with the rule and its note attached, and knockouts go to decline with the value that fired them. Underwriters still own every referral and every change to the model.
See it on your own submissions.
Bring a real ACORD form and a real appetite guide. We will run them through Riska on the call.