Preparing a large-loss file before the underwriter asks

A large-loss walkthrough in our office is mostly checking whether the file is ready to be asked about. Underwriters are not trying to catch you. They are trying not to take a number that has no paper behind it.

Before you bring a file to Level 8, look at four dates: last survey, last medical or quantum note, last recovery letter, last handler entry. If any of those is older than the outstanding would suggest, write a sentence in the notes now. A quiet file with a living reserve is harder to defend than an ugly file that is being worked.

Bring the reserve history. Bring the excess and any contribution you think exists. If a second insurer was mentioned in month two and never again, that belongs on the first page of the summary, not in a corridor conversation after the meeting. We can sit with you and mark the gaps. We cannot invent the missing survey.