When I first started in insurance at Farmers, I don’t think I ever even used an ACORD application other than seeing a Certificate of Insurance that at the bottom said ACORD. They can be a bit scary looking at first, but what is actually required of you is quite simple. So lets dive straight into it!
So what is an ACORD application? It’s a generic Insurance document application that is used by insurance carriers or underwriters to review and cross-check information for a particular line of business that you’re looking to get a quote from. So you fill out this super generic application form, you submit it to an insurance underwriter (let’s just say a wholesaler or directly to a company that wants the ACORD.) They will usually also add another supplemental document that’s specific to the class let’s just use as an example a plumber. If you’re looking to get a quote for a plumber from a non-standard carrier for general liability, you will need to fill out the ACORD 125 and 126 along with another little questionnaire about what they’re doing and their jobs. This is because the ACORD application is very generic, it doesn’t ask specific stuff about the classification, it’s just a generic informational form.
So you submit those two things and in turn they’ll return you a quote, then you go off and sell your policy to your customer.
It’s a little confusing because these applications have all kinds of different information and questions in them. If you Google ACORD 125 & ACORD 126 and you can see what these ACORDs look like and they are filled with a bunch of information that is not necessarily always very applicable to the customer that you are quoting.
There are certain fields in there that are going to be mandatory every single time, like their name, address, revenues, payroll, number of employees, location, operations, things like that that you need no matter what. Then there’s usually yes no questions that are generic about their operations.
Don’t get too scared or confused by the applications! You’ll also need to know which applications you need for each line of business.
For example, if you’re doing general liability, you need ACORDs 125 & 126. If you’re looking for a property like a commercial building or property you need the ACORD 125 and the 140. If you’re looking for workers comp you have to get the 125 and the 130. If you’ve noticed, all of them need the 125. ACORD 125 is consistently required across the board.
The best way to fill out an application is by having a management system that already has ACORD built into them. We use EZLYNX which has been a great system for us.
From there you basically fill out your customer application information and then you go and you press generate ACORD and it’ll take you to the ACORD section where you fill out the rest of the ACORD and then it spits it out for you specifically for the class that you’re looking for.
so the best thing to do is have a management system that’ll generate ACORD applications for you based on the information you input into your management system for that customer and then you can send it off to the underwriting team to give you a quote if you don’t have a management system a lot of people are just kind of starting up and they’re using Excel and all that stuff which is fine for the first couple months but definitely recommend getting yourself a management system the best thing to do is just
If you don’t have a management system yet, the best advice I have for you is to download the ACORD app from google or ask the underwriters to send you a blank one. Like I mentioned, there are a bunch of random things that you don’t really need to fill out on the Application so just fill it out to the best of your ability.
Lastly, these applications are also a layer of protection for you when you fill them out in case there ever was an errors and omissions related issue. If there was ever a claim like that filed against you, you are able to refer back to the ACORD application that the customer has signed before they proceeded to bind the coverage.
Hopefully this provides a bit more information on what these ACORD applications are and how to fill them out. Good luck, that’s all I got. See you at the top, see you soon. Peace!