Insurance Renewal: Should You Worry 30 Days Out?

Should you worry about your aircraft insurance renewal that's due within 30 days? The short answer is: No. 

The aviation insurance underwriting community is very small by comparison to the overall insurance market for other property and casualty type risks. There are only about 20-22 aviation insurance underwriting companies here in the U.S. that cover aircraft hull and liability policies. 

Of those 20-22 markets, only a faction of those are viable for mid and large cabin aircraft–typically 8-9 in total. If you pare things down to light piston aircraft, there are about 10 markets that underwrite light piston policies. So depending on what you operate the amount of viable insurers is a smaller subset of those 20-22 total insurers. 

The aviation insurance market is for the most part “captive.” This means the majority of the aviation insurers in the turbine space only accept a submission from one broker and it’s “first-come, first-served”. 

For example, you can’t own a Challenger 350 and call five insurance brokers expecting you’re going to get all of them to quote the policy. The underwriters in this class work as noted on a first-come, first-served basis. Thus, the first broker that approaches them on a specific policy is the broker of record who will receive their quote. That is, if they’re indeed interested in quoting you. 

Insurers generally don’t quote policies 45-60 days out from the expiry date. Typically the broker gets traction with interested underwriting carriers inside of 45 days and in most cases inside of 30 days. 

As such, if your insurance broker is being completely thorough in the market, you should receive your renewal proposal within 2-3 weeks of the policy expiration date. Thoroughness is what you should expect in your broker, but also transparency. Your broker should outline the underwriting markets that they shopped your policy to, and which replied/declined or quoted the risk. 

Lastly, do not expect to receive quotes from every insurance carrier as insurers won’t “quote just to quote” each year. If an insurer has quoted your business in prior year(s), and didn’t obtain the business, they may not offer terms the subsequent year on your policy. Your specific risk may not perfectly fit in the insurer's underwriting box based on the underwriting metrics associated. This depends on limits carried, insured value, single-pilot operations, dry leases, etc. 

At the end of the day, you should receive your renewal package from your broker about 2-3 weeks prior to your policy’s expiry. That window will allow plenty of time for you to review the options in the market, ask questions and secure any revisions needed to the formal insurance proposal. 

Binding a policy takes a broker mere minutes so once you give your insurance broker the “ok” you’ll promptly have an insurance binder evidencing your coverage for the coming year’s policy.