How to Manage Insurance Renewal in your Minnesota Homeowners Association

The process of renewing your association’s insurance can be quite the headache, mostly because of its time-consuming nature with stresses galore. HOA insurance can be even quite misunderstood due to its complexity. However, when you have a set, laid-out plan to help you manage and guide your next steps, it will keep the entire board and your association ready to receive quality proposals promptly. 
 
When it’s time for HOA insurance renewal, we recommend the following:  
 

You look at the time you have and think 120 days is a long enough period to stall until you reach 60 days, and it’s crunch-time. This is the perfect amount of time in the insurance world where you can start compiling information, aligning brokers, and building out your game plan. If you get stuck somewhere in the process, you have enough time to contact your local HOA insurance coordinator and obtain feedback without the panic of missing your deadline. You do not have to have multiple brokers, but you can ask for various quotes from the brokers you do have. When you start early, you are already on the right track for a positive outcome. 
 

There are multiple steps during the HOA insurance renewal process, so before you begin sending requests to different brokers for different offers, create a basic outline but with clear expectations. Be realistic with your plan and your proposal delivery date, which can be done by reaching out to your HOA insurance coordinator or association manager. These experts are there to help you streamline the process, and you should use them to your advantage. 
 

From the insurance coordinator to FirstService Insurance experts, FirstService Residential has the tools to help association managers and board members make their job easier, trickling down to enhance your value. As mentioned in the previous point, utilize these experts and make sure to hold them accountable. They should be providing expert advice and assessing which proposals will ultimately work best for your association in the long run. 
 

Insurance carriers are different from other vendors, and their process may be complicated for some boards to understand during the underwriting phase. Usually, insurance carriers will only issue new quotes within 30 days of the current policy’s expiration date, which can make adding insurance renewal to your meeting schedule difficult. This grace period is to ensure their underwriting appetite is not impacted if a claim occurs during the assessment period. Be sure that all members of the board understand this process and that quotes can – and will – come in the eleventh hour.