Art. 07 · What the policy says · 3 min read
It is the clauses, not yes or no
"Should we insure it?" is the wrong question. Every policy is a set of dials, and the money is in the ones nobody turns.
Most renewal conversations are about one number: the price. But the price is an output. The inputs are a set of settings, each of which you can change, and each of which changes what you are actually buying.
Two policies quoted at £18,000 can be so different that one would cover a serious loss and the other would leave you carrying most of it. The headline is the same. The dials are not.
- Where your policy sits today
- A setting worth having priced
The productive move at renewal is to stop asking "can you do better?" and start asking for priced alternatives. A broker can usually get three variants quoted with a single instruction, and the differences between them tell you more about your risk than the headline number ever will.
Use it
- Ask for three, not one. As quoted; with the excess raised to a level you could genuinely absorb; and with the liability limit doubled. The price differences are the information.
- Price the extras separately. "What would it cost to extend the indemnity period to 24 months?" is often a surprisingly small number.
- Write down what changed. Year on year, the settings drift. A one-page record of the six dials makes drift visible.