By the end of this you will know whether outsourcing certificates makes sense for your agency, which of the three options fits, and how to work out what you are spending now.
Should your agency outsource certificates of insurance?
Outsource them if routine certificates are pulling producers and CSRs away from revenue work. Keep them in house if volume is low and each one needs a judgment call that only your team can make.
Most agencies land in between: plenty of routine requests, plus a few that need real attention. That is why the question is rarely all or nothing. You hand off the preparation and keep the approval.
How do a VA, a BPO and an AI desk compare?
They differ in who does the work and how much of your time goes into managing it.
| Virtual assistant | BPO | AI desk | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | One person you hire | A vendor's team | Software with people checking it |
| Who trains them | You | The vendor, on your process | The desk comes trained |
| What you manage | The person, daily | The vendor relationship | Approvals |
| When they are out | You cover | The vendor covers | Not an issue |
| Handles a renewal wave | Slowly, one at a time | With notice | Yes, as a batch |
| Insurance knowledge | Varies, ask | Often trained for it | Built into the checks |
| Who reviews wording | Usually you | Their staff, then you | The desk flags it, you approve |
| Who it fits | Steady, simple volume | Larger agencies wanting a managed team | Agencies that want to forward and approve |
For a look at named vendors, including software, see the best certificate of insurance software for agencies.
What does a certificate cost you today?
Almost every agency underestimates this, because the cost sits in small pieces of many people's days. You can work out your real number in about ten minutes.
Take a normal week and count these:
- Requests. How many certificates did you issue, including revisions?
- Minutes each. Include finding the policy, reading the wording, filling the form, replying, and filing. Time a few real ones rather than guessing.
- Who did it. Use the fully loaded hourly cost of each person, with benefits and taxes.
- Rework. How many came back wrong or needed a reissue?
- Interruptions. A producer pulled off a sale costs more than their hourly rate. Note how often it happens.
The formula is simple. Requests times minutes each, divided by 60, times hourly cost, is what you spend per week before rework. Divide by requests to get your cost per certificate. Then add the renewal wave, which a normal week will not show.
That number is what to compare against any quote. Salience Cert Desk is built to come in under it: it costs less than your current overhead on certificates.
When does a virtual assistant make sense?
When your volume is steady, your requests are simple, and someone at the agency has time to train and check them. A good VA becomes part of the team and can take on other work too.
The catch is that you become a manager. You write the process, handle sick days, review the output, and start over when they leave. A VA also tends to need direct access to your systems, so settle how that works before you hire.
When does a BPO make sense?
When you want a managed team, you have enough volume to justify one, and you are comfortable directing a vendor. Selectsys, for example, offers dedicated COI processing teams working inside systems such as AMS360, Applied Epic and HawkSoft.
A BPO covers staffing for you. You still own the relationship, the quality checks, and the instructions they follow.
When does an AI desk make sense?
When you want the work gone rather than reassigned, and you want to keep the final say. Requests arrive as messy emails and pasted contract clauses, which is exactly what a language model reads well, and people check the result.
With Cert Desk you forward the request, Salience prepares the ACORD 25 and checks it against the policy, and you approve it. It works with agencies on AMS360 today, and after setup most certificates are ready by the next business day. It fits small agencies with nobody on certificates and high-volume commercial agencies alike. Our AMS360 page covers that setup.
It is not the right fit if you need someone to do many other kinds of work at the agency each day, which is where a person earns their keep.
What must stay with your agency?
Three things stay with you whoever does the preparation.
Approval. The certificate carries your agency's name. Someone at the agency should see it, or sample it under a clear rule, before it goes out.
Coverage decisions. If a holder asks for something the policy does not grant, that is a conversation with your client about an endorsement, not a certificate. Our guide on how to fill out an ACORD 25 explains why the marks need an endorsement behind them.
The client relationship. Decide who answers when a holder calls. Whoever it is should know where to find the certificate.
What should you ask before you sign?
Ask these of anyone, whichever option you choose:
- Who reads additional insured and waiver wording against the policy?
- What happens to a request the policy does not support?
- How quickly do certificates come back, in writing?
- Can I find any certificate, and who approved it, six months from now?
- How do you protect my clients' information?
- What happens at renewal, when an entire account needs reissuing?
- What does my E&O carrier need to know?
The answers will tell you more than a price sheet. For the full path from request to issued, see certificate of insurance automation.
Would you rather approve this than type it?
Forward the request or the prior application. Salience prepares the form, flags what's missing, and nothing goes out until you approve it.
Frequently asked questions
Should my insurance agency outsource certificates of insurance?
Yes, if certificates pull producers or CSRs away from revenue work and the requests are mostly routine. Keep approval and any coverage question inside the agency, whichever option you pick.
How much does it cost an insurance agency to issue a certificate of insurance?
Work it out from your own numbers: minutes per certificate including finding the policy, checking wording and replying, multiplied by the hourly cost of whoever does it, plus time spent on rework and reissues.
Virtual assistant or software for COI requests?
A virtual assistant is a person you train and supervise. Software makes your own staff faster. If nobody at the agency wants to own certificates, neither solves that alone, and a managed service may fit better.
Who is responsible if an outsourced certificate is wrong?
Treat it as your agency's responsibility, because the certificate goes out under your name. Keep an approval step, and ask your E&O carrier how they view outsourced issuing.
How is an AI desk different from a BPO?
A BPO assigns people who follow your process. An AI desk uses software to read the request and prepare the certificate, with people checking it, and the agency approves the result. Both take the work off your staff.