Case study · 01 - Commercial P&C agency
The Book Grew. Now the Agency Knows Where.
$18M revenue independent agency · 2,300 commercial accounts · 14 producers, 22 account managers
A construction-heavy commercial agency let Pulse watch its book for business change, found the clients that had expanded since their last renewal, then had FDEs automate the exposure review and renewal prep.
Company profile
- Revenue
- $18M
- Employees
- 96
- Commercial accounts
- 2,300, about 70% of revenue
- Team
- 14 producers · 22 account managers
- Niches
- Contractors, trucking, real estate
- Lines per account
- 1.7 average
Applied Epic
Outlook
Microsoft Teams
Salesforce
SlackPulse started read-only on Applied Epic, matched each insured to its public business identity, then added producer email and Salesforce over two weeks.
The challenge
The agency wrote most of its contractor accounts once a year and heard about changes when the client mentioned them, or when the carrier's premium audit found them first. Producers knew the book was growing. Nobody could say which clients had changed since the last renewal.
1 in 4
contractor renewals in the prior year came back from premium audit with payroll materially above the estimate, found after the fact.
3-4 hrs
of research per mid-size renewal, split across the AMS, the client's website, job boards, and state filings, done by hand when someone had time.
160+
accounts per producer, so mid-term check-ins happened for the largest clients and almost nobody else.
0
systems connected what was written in Epic to what had changed in the client's business since.
The exposure was never hidden. It just showed up at the audit, the claim, or the renewal, after the moment to get ahead of it.
The Book of Business Audit
- Accounts
- 450 commercial accounts renewing in the next two quarters
- Systems
- Applied Epic and producer email, read-only
- Window
- Baseline at last renewal, then 30 days of observation
- Outside
- State filings, job postings, permits, contracts, exec changes
Pulse recorded each account as written at its last renewal, matched every insured to its public footprint, and watched for 30 days. Producers rated each high-priority event on two questions: was it useful, and did we already know.
- 1
37 high-priority events across the 450 accounts. Producers rated 26 useful, and 17 both useful and something nobody was already working.
- 2
The strongest events were combinations: a new state registration plus hiring plus a schedule that had not changed. No single signal was enough on its own.
- 3
Nine accounts had registered in a state their workers comp did not list. Six had posted fleet roles with an auto schedule unchanged for a year.
- 4
Three accounts had acquired another business. Epic had no record of any of them.
What Pulse surfaced
Four of the events that came up in the audit review:
Exposure expanded into a new state
Nevada registration, headcount up from 52 to 88 in nine months, WC schedule lists one state
$146,000 premium
New to the teamFleet growing under an unchanged auto schedule
Fleet manager and 6 CDL roles posted, 11 scheduled units unchanged since last renewal
$88,500 premium
New to the teamInsured acquired another contractor
Acquisition announced, two new locations on the website, no change logged in the AMS
$212,000 premium
New to the teamContract that needs higher limits
Municipal contract award requiring a $10M umbrella, account carries $5M
$41,000 premium
Team already knew37
high-priority events in 30 days
70%
rated useful
46%
useful and non-obvious
What FDEs built on top
With Pulse live across the commercial book, FDEs encoded the agency's own exposure triggers as custom Revenue Events and built agents that prepare the conversation. A licensed producer reviews every item before it reaches a client.
Exposure Review Agent
Picks up every exposure event, writes what changed, which policies it may touch, and the questions to ask, then routes it to the producer with the evidence attached.
Renewal Prep Agent
120 days out, compares the client today with the client at last renewal and drafts the meeting brief, review items, and client questions. Producers edit instead of researching.
Custom exposure events
34 niche-specific rules for what counts as a material change in contractors, trucking, and real estate, signed off by the head of commercial lines.
Epic activity write-back
Each accepted event is logged as an activity on the account in Epic, with the next step and owner, so account managers see it where they already work.
The head of commercial lines asks Pulse directly, “which contractor accounts changed state since their last renewal?”, and gets the answer from precomputed Context with the evidence linked.
The rollout
Weeks 1-2
Book of Business Audit
Read-only connection to Applied Epic for 450 renewing accounts. Baseline and identity matching done in five days; first events the same week.
Weeks 3-6
Observe and rate
30 days of observation with producers rating every high-priority event. 17 of 37 were useful and new to the team.
Month 2
Pulse live on the commercial book
All 2,300 accounts monitored. Events routed to each producer by Epic producer code, with the account manager copied.
Month 3
FDE agents live
Exposure review and renewal prep agents in production. 81% of drafted briefs used by producers with light edits.
Results
$1.4M
premium in exposure changes
found mid-term in the first 90 days, before audit or renewal would have
118 days
median lead before renewal
versus finding out at the renewal meeting or the premium audit
1.7 to 1.9
lines per account, reviewed accounts
on the accounts with a worked exposure event
46%
useful + non-obvious
of high-priority events, rated by the producers who had to act on them
Value delivered
$160k-$230k year-one agency revenue
$110k-$160k
Commission on new lines and limits
Only bound changes with a documented exposure event counted, at the commission actually earned on each line, discounted to 70% for year-one attribution.
~2,900 hrs/yr
Producer and AM research time returned
Measured renewal prep time before and after on 60 renewals, applied across the commercial book, valued at loaded cost.
$50k-$70k
Commission protected at renewal
Renewals where a changed account was reviewed before marketing, credited only where the client confirmed the review influenced the outcome.
All estimates discounted for year-one realization. Commission varies by line, carrier, and agency arrangement; no universal rate is assumed.
Beyond the producer team
The same events now reach teams that were never in scope:
Account managers receive certificate and endorsement prompts when a client's operations change.
Agency leadership reviews a monthly view of how the book's exposure moved, by niche and producer.
Neither effect is included in the value figures above.