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Claims & policy agent

Certificate of insurance requests

Every certificate of insurance request answered from the policy as written, drafted from your templates and sent. Non-standard wording waits for a person.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
The review screen for Certificate of insurance requests: four items, three done, and one (Not endorsed) waiting for the account manager, who is asked: Waiver of subrogation requested but not endorsed. Send to the underwriter?
How it works

Certificates out the same day, true to the policy as written.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Certificate of insurance requests, in 5 steps. It starts with “A holder asks for a COI” and ends with “Certificate out, logged”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Certificate of insurance requestsA typical run
Starts withA holder asks for a COICrane Street Dev emails for Kettering Builders’ certificate, with the contract’s insurance clause pasted in.
The agent: Finds that the Crane Street contract wants $2M general liability, Crane Street as additional insured, and a waiver of subrogation.
~35h/mo

Step 1 of 5Read the request

  • The agent

    Finds that the Crane Street contract wants $2M general liability, Crane Street as additional insured, and a waiver of subrogation.

    Requirements hide in clause 14.3 of a forty-page contract, or in one line from the site office.

Reads
  • Shared inbox
Writes
  • Request log

~35 hours a month back

Where teams differSome holders send the whole contract. Others send a sample certificate and expect it copied word for word.

Automation: Fetches the insured’s policies in force, with their limits, dates and endorsements, from the agency system.
~12h/mo

Step 2 of 5Pull the policies

  • Automation

    Fetches the insured’s policies in force, with their limits, dates and endorsements, from the agency system.

    The insured is known, and the agency system lists what’s in force today.

Reads
  • Agency system
Writes
  • Request log

~12 hours a month back

Automation: Confirms $2M per occurrence meets the $2M asked for, and that the policy is in force until March.
The agent: Finds a blanket additional insured endorsement for holders a written contract requires, and no waiver of subrogation on file.
~30h/mo

Step 3 of 5Check each requirement

  • Automation

    Confirms $2M per occurrence meets the $2M asked for, and that the policy is in force until March.

    A limit is enough or it isn’t, and a date falls in the term or it doesn’t.

  • The agent

    Finds a blanket additional insured endorsement for holders a written contract requires, and no waiver of subrogation on file.

    Blanket endorsements say “where required by written contract”. Whether this contract counts means reading both.

Reads
  • Agency system
Writes
  • Request log

~30 hours a month back

Where teams differA waiver can come from a blanket endorsement already on the policy, or one the carrier adds per holder.

IfYour team: Sends the waiver to the underwriter for an endorsement, or tells Crane Street the certificate can’t show one yet.
~6h/mo

Step 4 of 5Settle the wording

  • Your teamIf wording isn’t on the policy

    Sends the waiver to the underwriter for an endorsement, or tells Crane Street the certificate can’t show one yet.

    A certificate showing cover the policy doesn’t give is a promise nobody can keep. Someone has to own that.

Reads
  • Agency system
Writes
  • Request log

~6 hours a month back

The agent: Fills your certificate form with the policies, limits and holder, and writes the project description the contract asks for, nothing more.
Automation: Emails the certificate to Crane Street with a copy to Kettering, and logs the holder so it can be reissued at renewal.
~40h/mo

Step 5 of 5Issue it

  • The agent

    Fills your certificate form with the policies, limits and holder, and writes the project description the contract asks for, nothing more.

    The description box is free text. It has to name the project without hinting at cover the policy doesn’t give.

  • Automation

    Emails the certificate to Crane Street with a copy to Kettering, and logs the holder so it can be reissued at renewal.

    Logging the holder is what lets the certificate be reissued at renewal without anyone asking again.

Reads
  • Agency system
Writes
  • Shared inbox
  • Request log

~40 hours a month back

Ends withCertificate out, loggedDrafted from your template, sent to Crane Street with a copy to Kettering, and logged against the policy.
Total~123h/mo

What changes

Certificates go out the day they’re asked for, straight from the policy as written. Requests for wording the policy doesn’t have go to an account manager.

  • 3steps automated
  • 3steps for the agent
  • 1call kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~123 hours a month back

$59,000 a year in time

For an agency issuing about 500 certificates a month, at $40 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Never adds wording the policy doesn’t support
  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentRequests from email and your portal, policies from your agency management system.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentYour certificate templates, and the wording each insured’s policy supports.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe account manager for non-standard wording, the underwriter for any endorsement.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentEmail to holders and insureds, a daily list for your service team.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentAn issued certificate, logged against the policy and the holder.

First notices of loss and claim document chasing are their own agents in this catalog. Endorsements, and advising a client on the coverage they need, stay with your brokers and underwriters.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your account managers and service team.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past certificate requests, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real certificate requests.
The number we agree

Hours from a certificate request to the certificate sent. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, three months of certificate requests and the certificates you issued, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and three months of certificate requests and the certificates you issued.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past certificate requests.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

Can it issue certificates for any holder?
For any holder the policy already covers as written. A request that needs new wording or an endorsement goes to your account manager.
Does it use our own certificate forms?
Yes. It fills the forms and templates you already use, and keeps a log of every certificate issued and who it went to.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the hours from a certificate request to the certificate sent. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

Want certificates out the same day they’re asked for?

Tell us how your team handles certificate requests today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

New to Switchboard Agents? How it works, what’s included, and what it costs.
  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
See the service
Switchboard Agents$12,500 fixed · live in 3 to 6 weeks How it works Let’s build your agent