What is Insurance Submission Triage?

The scene plays out in insurance companies across the country every Monday morning: underwriting teams face inboxes flooded with new submissions from the weekend. For a typical mid-sized commercial carrier, this often means 100+ new submission emails, each containing multiple documents that require review.

According to industry reports, commercial lines underwriters now spend approximately 40% of their time on administrative tasks rather than core risk assessment work. The reality is stark:

• Most underwriting teams can only thoroughly review about 30-40% of the submissions they receive
• Studies show that roughly 50% of submissions don't match carriers' risk appetites or are incomplete
• Without proper sorting, high-potential submissions might wait days for review, while underwriters waste hours on submissions they'll ultimately decline

One commercial property underwriting manager we spoke with put it plainly: "Our team was drowning in submissions. We'd spend half our day just opening emails and sorting attachments. By the time we identified the good submissions that matched our appetite, brokers had often already placed the business elsewhere."

This submission backlog creates a painful cycle: delayed responses lead to lost business, which puts pressure on underwriters to process more submissions, further reducing the time they can spend on quality risk assessment.

This is where submission triage comes in - and why it's becoming essential for competitive insurance operations today.

What is Triage in Underwriting?

Insurance submission triage is the process of sorting, evaluating, and prioritizing incoming insurance applications. It's similar to how emergency rooms sort patients - the most urgent cases get seen first.

In insurance, triage means:

• Sorting submissions by how well they match your appetite
• Identifying complete vs. incomplete submissions
• Prioritizing high-potential business
• Quickly declining submissions that don't meet your criteria

Without good triage, underwriters waste time on submissions they'll never write, while potentially profitable business waits in line.

What is an Underwriting Submission?

An underwriting submission is the package of information and documents that brokers send when requesting insurance coverage for their clients.

Typical submissions include:

• Application forms (like ACORD forms)
• Loss history reports, or Loss Runs, showing past claims
• Statement of values, or SOVs, outlining properties and assets
• Risk details specific to the business
• Supporting documents like financial statements and others

These documents come in many formats - PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, emails, and more. Some are structured forms, while others are free-form text, making them challenging to process quickly.

What is Insurance Triage?

Insurance triage is the broader practice of sorting and prioritizing work across different insurance operations. While submission triage is the most common example, triage can be applied to:

• Claims processing: handling the most critical claims first
• Customer service requests: routing questions to the right team
• Renewal reviews: identifying which policies need special attention

The core idea is simple: sort work by importance and urgency so your team works on the right things first.

The Underwriting Process: Where Triage Fits In

The typical commercial insurance underwriting process follows these steps:

1. Receive submission from broker or agent
2. Triage the submission - sort by appetite fit and completeness
3. Extract key information from the documents
4. Assess the risk based on underwriting guidelines
5. Price the policy if the risk is acceptable
6. Issue quote or decline the submission
7. Bind coverage if the quote is accepted

Triage is the crucial second step that affects everything that follows. Getting it right means:

• Underwriters spend time on submissions that match your appetite
• Brokers get faster responses
• Your team can handle more submissions without adding staff
• Quote-to-bind ratios improve because you focus on the right risks

Why Traditional Triage Methods Fall Short

Traditional triage typically involves:

• Underwriting assistants manually opening each email
• Reading through attachments to determine submission quality
• Sorting submissions into different priority queues
• Sending acknowledgment emails to brokers

This process is slow, inconsistent, and doesn't scale well as submission volumes increase. It also often requires experienced staff who could be better used on more complex tasks.

"Our team was drowning in submissions. We'd spend half our day just opening emails and sorting attachments. By the time we identified the good submissions that matched our appetite, brokers had often already placed the business elsewhere."

How Modern Triage Solutions Are Changing the Game

Today's AI-powered triage solutions, like SortSpoke's TriageAI, have transformed this process by:

• Automatically analyzing incoming emails and attachments
• Identifying document types without manual review
• Extracting key information to match against underwriting guidelines
• Scoring and routing submissions based on your appetite
• Triggering automatic responses to brokers for incomplete submissions

The technology works alongside your underwriters - enhancing their work rather than replacing them. Underwriters remain in control, but spend far less time on administrative tasks.

Real Results from Better Triage

Insurance companies using modern triage solutions report:

• Processing submissions up to 5 times faster
• Responding to brokers within hours instead of days
• Increasing quote-to-bind ratios by focusing on better-matched risks
• Growing premium without adding staff
• Improving broker relationships through consistent, prompt communication

Getting Started with Better Submission Triage

Improving your triage process doesn't have to be complicated:

1. Define what "good business" means: Be specific about your appetite
2. Document your minimum submission requirements: What information do you absolutely need?
3. Create clear priority levels: What makes a submission urgent or high-value?
4. Consider technology solutions: Look for tools that enhance your team's capabilities
5. Communicate with your brokers: Help them send better submissions

The Bottom Line: Why Submission Triage Matters

In today's competitive insurance market, carriers and MGAs face mounting pressure: more submissions, fewer underwriters, and demands for faster service. Effective triage is no longer just an operational nice-to-have - it's a competitive necessity.

By focusing your underwriters' expertise on submissions that match your appetite and have the highest chance of binding, you can write more premiums without sacrificing quality or burning out your team.

For insurance carriers implementing automated triage solutions, the results are measurable and significant. Many report processing their submission backlogs in hours rather than days. More importantly, they can now focus their underwriting expertise on the estimated 30% of submissions that ultimately drive 80% of premium growth - a game-changer for both productivity and profitability.