The insurance agency operating model
Underwriting agencies and insurance brokers run the same intermediary pattern as lending: the fee is earned on judgement and relationships, the week is consumed by documents, renewals and queries. This concept applies what we have built for brokers and builders to the cover side, and it is where we would start a discovery session with an agency. It is shown here as an underwriting agency with a binder; the broker version differs in who holds the client and who signs the advice, and we would draw it separately.
Renewal season, with the packs already built.
Demonstration environment with an invented agency. Every panel reads the agency's existing policy system and inbox in place; nothing is migrated and no new platform is introduced.
Same intermediary economics as lending. Same leaks.
Alvo's founder was founding CEO of a property portal's embedded insurance business, working with Hollard and Zurich, and has since built the operating model for commercial finance brokers and construction estimators. The shape repeats: a small team paid for judgement, a large volume of documents and queries that could be handled before a person sees them, and a book that only gets attention at renewal.
What changes in insurance is the compliance surface. Every automated step here produces a file note in the agency's own format, and nothing is sent to a client, broker or insurer without a person signing it off. That is a design constraint, not an afterthought.
What is automated, what never is, and how it is evidenced.
Automated: assembly and triage
Renewal packs, document completeness checks, claim acknowledgements and document requests, first drafts of file notes and broker responses with the wording cited. All inside your policy system and inbox, read in place.
Never automated: the decisions
Claims decisions, declines and anything inside a complaint or IDR timeframe. Underwriting outside delegated authority. Advice to a retail client. Each is written into the design as a hard stop before a workflow is built, and the controls sit with your claims and underwriting managers.
Evidenced: the trail
A file note in your format for every automated step and every sign-off, so the audit trail your AFSL, your Code of Practice obligations and your insurers' third-party requirements expect is produced as a by-product of the work, not reconstructed afterwards. Data handling reviewed with MyCISO before go-live.
Alvo is not a licensee and does not give financial product advice. The design is built with your compliance manager and, where required, your insurers, and it changes where your authorisations say it must. Data, access and who does the work ›
Four questions we would ask an agency first.
Where does the week actually go?
A two-week baseline of inbox, renewal and claims time per person, so any improvement is measured against a number rather than a feeling.
What can be read in place?
Policy system, inbox, document store. The design principle is to read where the data lives and hold as little as possible, which is the easier conversation to have with insurers and brokers.
Which decisions stay with a person, always?
Claims decisions, declines, referrals above delegated authority, anything touching a complaint or an IDR clock. These are written down with your compliance manager before a single workflow is built.
What would the book be worth if it were worked between renewals?
Under-insurance, cover gaps and lapses across the whole book, with a dollar figure, so the first milestone pays for the programme.
Run an agency or brokerage that looks like this?
A discovery session costs nothing. A two-week baseline sits under the $3,000 Assess, and milestones run $3,000 to $5,000 each, priced and measured on their own. Your outsourced IT provider is welcome in every session.