Loss Runs: Definition, Fields, and Submission Readiness

A loss run (also called a loss run report or claims history report) is a document issued by an insurance carrier that lists claim activity on a specific commercial policy over a defined policy period. It is produced by the carrier of record on the term in question — not by the agent and not by the insured — and serves as the underwriting record of paid amounts, reserves, and claim status. In commercial property and casualty placement, a loss run is the standard evidence of prior loss experience for a prospect with continuous prior coverage.

Loss run fields and what they represent

A typical commercial loss run lists, for each claim, a defined set of fields. Field names vary slightly between carriers, but the data elements are consistent.

• Policy number and policy period. Identifies the contract and the term during which the loss occurred. A multi-year report contains separate sections per term.
• Claim number. The carrier's internal identifier for the claim.
• Date of loss. The date the underlying incident occurred.
• Date reported. The date the insured (or a claimant) reported the incident to the carrier. The interval between date of loss and date reported is itself an underwriting signal.
• Cause of loss. A coded or descriptive field indicating the peril or event type — for example, water damage, fire, theft, slip-and-fall, employer's liability, auto liability. Cause coding allows pattern analysis across claims.
• Claimant. The name of the party making the claim, sometimes redacted to initials or a case identifier for privacy.
• Description. A short narrative of the event.
• Claim status. One of the standard values: open, closed, reopened, denied, or subrogated. Each status carries a defined meaning in claims handling and is described in the next section.
• Paid amounts. The total disbursed by the carrier to date, typically broken into indemnity, medical (for workers compensation), expense (allocated loss adjustment expense), and recoveries (deductible recovery, salvage, subrogation).
• Reserves. The amount the carrier is currently holding against the claim — its estimate of remaining liability not yet paid out.
• Total incurred. The sum of paid amounts and reserves. This is the carrier's full estimate of the claim's ultimate cost.
• Subject premium (per term). The earned premium on the policy term, used as the denominator in loss-ratio calculations.

Most carrier-generated reports also include policy-period summary lines — total claim count, total paid, total incurred, and total subject premium for the term. Standard ACORD forms in the submission package (ACORD 125 general application, ACORD 126 commercial general liability section, ACORD 140 property section) reference loss-run data but do not replace the carrier-issued document.

Reading the document

Three distinctions are central to interpreting a loss run.

Open vs. closed status. A closed claim has been resolved and the file is final, subject only to reopening. An open claim has unresolved liability — the carrier has not yet paid out the full amount it expects to pay. A reopened claim was previously closed and has been reactivated, typically because additional facts emerged. A denied claim is one the carrier rejected on coverage or merit grounds; it carries paid expense but typically no indemnity. A subrogated claim is one for which the carrier paid the insured and is pursuing or has pursued recovery from a responsible third party.

Paid + reserves = incurred. Paid is cash already disbursed. Reserves are the carrier's estimate of remaining liability on the file. Total incurred is their sum and represents the carrier's full view of the claim's cost. A claim with $5,000 paid and $45,000 in reserves is treated for loss-ratio and experience modifier purposes the same as a $50,000 paid claim, because the carrier expects to pay the difference.

Reserve movement. When multiple consecutive valuations are available, the change in reserves on an open claim between valuation dates is descriptive: rising reserves indicate the carrier's assessment of liability has increased; falling reserves indicate it has decreased. Closed claims have zero reserves by definition.

For workers compensation, the same data feeds the experience modifier calculation performed by the rating bureau (NCCI or an independent state bureau). For other casualty lines, total incurred divided by subject premium yields the loss ratio for the term — a single descriptive metric used in account evaluation.

Currency requirements

Underwriters typically require that a loss run be currently valued within 90 days of submission, and some markets require valuation within 60 days. The currency rule exists because reserves on open claims are revised continuously as new information arrives — medical bills, attorney involvement, settlement negotiations, litigation events. A valuation issued months earlier may understate or overstate current liability on any open claim. To evaluate the risk against present-day reserve estimates, the underwriter requires a recent snapshot.

A loss run with all claims closed for a completed term is less time-sensitive in principle, but most underwriting guidelines apply the currency rule uniformly to avoid case-by-case judgment.

How to request a loss run

A loss run is requested in writing from the carrier on the relevant policy term. The standard mechanism is the loss-run request authorization letter — a document signed by the named insured (or an authorized officer) that authorizes the prior carrier to release claim records to the requesting party. Without the signed authorization, the carrier will not release records to a third party because claim data is treated as confidential to the policyholder.

The authorization letter typically contains the named insured, the policy number(s) and term(s) requested, the recipient's contact information, and the insured's signature. It is sent to the carrier's claims department, producer-services unit, or a dedicated loss-runs mailbox depending on the carrier's intake process.

State delivery deadlines. Most U.S. states regulate the timeframe within which an admitted carrier must respond to a properly submitted loss-run request. The statutory window is commonly 10 to 30 days depending on the jurisdiction; the regulatory anchor is the state's department of insurance and, in many states, a section of the insurance code that addresses producer access to claim records on behalf of the insured. The deadline applies once the request is received with valid authorization.

Escalation path. If a carrier does not deliver within the statutory window, the escalation sequence is: a follow-up call referencing the original request and acknowledgment, a written follow-up via certified mail referencing the applicable state statute, and — if necessary — a complaint filed with the state department of insurance. Most requests resolve at the first or second step.

When a loss run isn't required

Several categories of placement do not require a full multi-year loss run.

• New ventures with no prior coverage. A business with no prior policy has no loss history to produce. Carriers typically substitute a signed no-prior-coverage attestation from the named insured, sometimes accompanied by loss runs from the principal's prior business if applicable.
• First-time placement of certain monoline lines. Standalone cyber, certain professional liability lines, and some short-tail crime or fidelity placements may require only the current term's claims data, or none for a true first-time placement.
• Personal lines. Personal auto and homeowners use a different document — a CLUE report — pulled by carriers from a centralized industry database rather than requested from a prior carrier. CLUE reports are out of scope for commercial loss-run procedures.
• Sub-threshold small-business placements. Certain low-hazard small-business programs accept self-attestation of claims experience under a defined premium threshold, with verification at quote or bind.

The applicable rule is set by the carrier's underwriting guidelines, not by general convention.

Loss runs and submission readiness — RTU's mechanics

ReadyToUnderwrite (RTU) is a pre-submission intelligence platform. It evaluates a prospect against an agency's configured carrier appetite before the submission is built and sent. Loss-history evidence is one of the inputs the platform tracks, and its handling is rule-driven.

At intake. The questionnaire engine captures whether prior coverage exists, the number of years of loss-run evidence in hand, and the most recent valuation date for each year. A missing year, an absent document, or a valuation date older than the configured threshold is recorded as an open submission-readiness item on the prospect record.

Quote Readiness Score (QRS). RTU produces a QRS for each prospect. Loss-history completeness contributes to the submission-readiness component of the score. The score reflects two checks: presence of the document and sufficiency of its coverage and currency against the configured rules. A gap produces a specific, fixable callout on the prospect — for example, "five years requested, three years on file" or "most recent valuation older than 90 days" — rather than an opaque numeric reduction.

Carrier matching. Each agency configures appetite rules per appointed carrier. Loss-history-completeness can be marked as a hard rule on a given carrier, in which case the platform suppresses that carrier from the matched list with a reason code when the rule fails. It can alternatively be marked as a soft rule, in which case the carrier is shown with a flag indicating the gap. The configuration is the agency's, applied uniformly across prospects.

The platform does not predict any specific underwriter's decision. It applies the configured rules and surfaces gaps that would otherwise reach an underwriter as a request for information. RTU sits upstream of comparative raters and quoting platforms — the comparative-rater vs. submission-intelligence reference describes the boundary, and What is Pre-Submission Intelligence? defines the broader category. The submit-or-pass decision reference describes how readiness signals combine with appetite signals in the QRS, and the platform's full intake-to-match flow is documented at how it works. Self-serve plans are listed on the pricing page.

FAQ

How many years of loss runs do carriers typically request? Three to five years is the common range in commercial property and casualty for accounts with continuous prior coverage. Some specialty lines (excess casualty, habitational, transportation, certain professional liability) request longer histories. The applicable number is set by the carrier's underwriting guidelines.

What does "currently valued within 90 days" mean? The valuation date — the as-of date the carrier ran the report — must be within 90 days of submission. Reserves on open claims change as the carrier receives new information; a recent valuation reflects present-day estimates of remaining liability.

Can a producer or insured generate a loss run? No. A loss run is the carrier's record of claim activity and must be issued by the carrier on the policy term. A summary prepared by a producer or by the insured is not a loss run for underwriting purposes.

What is the difference between paid and incurred? Paid is the amount the carrier has disbursed on the claim to date. Incurred is paid plus reserves — the carrier's full estimate of the claim's ultimate cost. Underwriters evaluate incurred for open claims because reserves represent expected future payments.

What happens if a prior carrier does not respond to a request? The standard escalation path is a follow-up phone call, a certified-mail letter referencing the state's delivery-deadline statute, and a complaint to the state department of insurance. Most requests resolve before the third step.

How does RTU treat a missing or stale loss run? At intake, the questionnaire engine flags the gap. The QRS reflects it as a submission-readiness deficit with a specific callout. In carrier matching, agency-configured rules determine whether the gap is a hard suppression or a soft flag for each appointed carrier.

What document substitutes for a loss run on a new venture? A signed no-prior-coverage attestation from the named insured. Some carriers also accept loss runs from the principal's prior business if relevant to the new venture's class.