Submitting the application for underwriting

The producer is the first underwriter

Before an application ever reaches the insurer's underwriting department, the producer has already done the first round of risk selection. That role is called field underwriting. The last step of it is submitting the application: checking that the paperwork is complete, accurate and properly signed, adding the producer's own report, attaching the required forms and any premium collected, and sending it all to the insurer promptly.

Check the application before it leaves your hands

An incomplete application is one of the most common reasons an application is delayed or returned. Before submitting, the producer confirms:

1. Every question is answered. A blank is not a "no". Unanswered questions go back to the applicant, not to the producer's guesswork.
2. The answers are the applicant's own. The producer records what the applicant says; the producer never fills in answers the applicant did not give.
3. Required signatures and date are present. The proposed insured signs, and so does the policyowner if that is a different person. The producer signs as the soliciting agent.
4. Corrections are made properly. An error is corrected by striking through it, writing the correct answer, and having the applicant initial the change. Never erase or use correction fluid, and never alter an answer after the applicant has signed.

If an application must be changed after it is signed, the change needs the applicant's approval. A producer who changes an answer on their own is misrepresenting the applicant's statements.

Add the producer's report

With the application, the producer submits an agent's report (also called the producer's statement). It gives the underwriter information the applicant's answers cannot: how long and how well the producer knows the applicant, anything the producer observed about the applicant's health, habits, finances or occupation, and whether the new coverage will replace existing insurance. The report goes to the insurer only; it is not part of the contract the applicant receives.

Attach what belongs with it

• Any premium collected, with a copy of the receipt given to the applicant.
• Signed authorizations allowing the insurer to obtain medical and other records, and the required privacy and consumer-report notices.
• Replacement forms, when the new coverage replaces existing coverage.
• Any other form the insurer or the policy type requires.

Then send it promptly. Delay can prejudice the applicant, particularly when premium was paid and a receipt promises coverage that depends on underwriting.

Why accuracy matters later

The application does not disappear into a file. In Florida, when a copy of the application is attached to or endorsed on the policy, the policy and the application together form the entire contract, and the applicant's statements are treated, absent fraud, as representations, not warranties. An application for a life or health policy that was not attached to or made part of the policy when issued cannot be used as evidence in a dispute about that policy. After a policy is reinstated or renewed, the insured may request a copy of the application in writing, and the insurer must deliver or mail it within 30 days of the request.

What happens next

The underwriter reviews the application, the producer's report and any outside information, then issues the policy as applied for, issues it with changes (a higher rate or an exclusion rider), or declines the risk. A policy issued with changes is a counteroffer the applicant must accept, usually at delivery.