# How a wholesale broker runs retail submissions on Riska (https://riska.io/blog/wholesale-broker-retail-submissions)

_2026-10-12 · Riska team · use-case_

This is an illustrative use case, not a customer report. It follows a wholesale E&S broker that places risks for retail agents. Each submission is read and matched to its account on arrival, missing documents are chased from the broker's own mailbox until the agent replies, and every call lands on the record the renewal team works from.

## Key takeaways

- A retail agent's email becomes a submission on the right account before anyone on the desk opens it.
- Missing loss runs and schedules are chased from the broker's own mailbox, and the chase stops the moment the agent replies.
- A call with the retail agent is transcribed onto the submission, and each commitment becomes a task with an owner and a due date.
- At renewal the desk starts from one record that already holds last year's emails, documents and calls.

> **NOTE: An illustrative use case**
> This post describes how a team of this shape would run the workflow on Riska. The broker is a composite, not a named customer, and nothing here is a reported result. Every capability it relies on is one the product ships today.

## 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.

|  | Before | On Riska |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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](/platform/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.

1. **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.
2. **Ask the agent for what is missing** A [sequence](/platform/sequences) 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.
3. **Take the agent's call** The call is [transcribed and summarised](/platform/call-intelligence) 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.
4. **Check the file before it goes to market** The broker asks [Ask Riska](/platform/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.
5. **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](/platform/sequences) and the [call summary](/platform/call-intelligence) 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.