Renewal season is the make-or-break period for any independent insurance agency. Retention is won or lost here, while E&O exposure and administrative workloads spike to their highest annual levels for agencies. Agencies using Vertafore AMS 360 can manage renewals at scale, provided they correctly structure the surrounding professional agency workflows.
Most agencies use AMS 360 at a fraction of its capacity. Agencies use the system for document storage rather than as the powerful workflow engine it was originally designed to be.
This creates a slow, error-prone process dependent on staff memory instead of the structured efficiency of the AMS 360 system.
This guide details a complete renewal workflow from start to finish, helping agencies handle high volumes without adding more headcount.
Why Most AMS 360 Renewal Workflows Break Down
The first problem is timing. Missing the 60 to 90-day renewal window creates an unrecoverable bottleneck. Carriers must have time to requote, while insureds need time to review options. Finally, you must process endorsements and coverage changes before the renewal date.
When agencies work renewals reactively — pulling them from the expiration report the week before they are due — the quality of the renewal review suffers. There is no time for remarketing. There is no time for a meaningful coverage conversation with the client. And there is certainly no time to catch the coverage gaps that create E&O claims down the road.
The second problem is consistency. In most agencies, the renewal process varies by producer, by line of business, and by account size. Some accounts get thorough reviews. Others get rubber-stamped. The variation is not intentional — it is the natural result of a process that lives in individual habits rather than in a documented, system-supported workflow.
The 90-Day AMS 360 Renewal Workflow
90 Days Out: Pull the Renewal Pipeline
Every renewal workflow starts with a pipeline pull. In AMS 360, use the Expiration Report filtered to the 90-day window. Sort by premium volume and line of business so that your highest-value and most complex renewals surface first. These are the accounts that need the most lead time.
Your VA can run this report on a weekly basis and populate a renewal tracking spreadsheet that your producers and account managers work from. The spreadsheet becomes the single source of truth for renewal status across the agency.
75 Days Out: Order Loss Runs and Carrier Submissions
For commercial accounts, loss runs need to be ordered from the incumbent carrier at least 60 days before expiration to give you time to use them in remarketing submissions. Your VA handles the loss run requests — by phone, carrier portal, or email depending on the carrier — and uploads the results to AMS 360 when they arrive.
For accounts being marketed to alternative carriers, the VA prepares the submission package: completed ACORD applications, supplementals, loss runs, and any account-specific documentation the markets require. Submissions go out at 60 days to give carriers adequate quoting time.
60 Days Out: Remarketing and Quote Comparison
When alternative quotes come back, your VA enters them into AMS 360 and prepares a comparison for the producer or account manager. The comparison should show the incumbent quote alongside alternatives, highlight coverage differences, and flag any significant premium changes that need to be communicated to the insured.
This is where the producer earns their commission. They review the comparison, make the carrier recommendation, and have a meaningful renewal conversation with the client. They are not doing data entry — they are advising.
45 Days Out: Client Communication
Your VA generates the renewal letter or email from AMS 360 and sends it to the insured with the proposed renewal terms. The communication should include the renewal premium, any coverage changes from the prior year, and a call-to-action for the insured to confirm or request changes. Personalizing this communication — referencing the client by name and mentioning their specific policies — dramatically improves response rates.
30 Days Out: Follow-Up and Binding
Any insured who has not responded to the renewal communication gets a follow-up call or email from the VA at 30 days. The goal is to confirm the renewal, address any questions, and bind coverage before the expiration date. The VA documents all communication in AMS 360 so the account history is complete.
15 Days Out: Policy Checking and Document Delivery
When the renewal policy arrives from the carrier — either through IVANS download or manual delivery — the VA performs a policy check against the binder and prior-term policy. They verify that coverage limits, deductibles, endorsements, and named insureds match what was quoted and bound. Errors caught here are far cheaper to fix than errors discovered at claim time.
Using AMS 360 Activities and Suspenses to Drive the Workflow
The most powerful feature in AMS 360 for renewal management is the Activity and Suspense system. Every step in your renewal workflow should have a corresponding activity type and a defined suspense date — a date by which the activity must be completed before it escalates.
When your VA completes a renewal step — orders a loss run, sends a quote comparison, makes a follow-up call — they document it as an activity in AMS 360 and set the suspense for the next step. Your producers and agency manager can see the entire renewal pipeline in real time, with a clear view of what is current, what is overdue, and what needs attention.
This eliminates the most common failure mode in renewal management: things falling through the cracks because no one knew they were outstanding. With a properly maintained AMS 360 activity trail, nothing falls through. The system surfaces it.
Metrics That Tell You If Your Renewal Workflow Is Working
How do you know if your renewal workflow is actually performing? Track these four numbers every month.
- Renewal retention rate — percentage of accounts renewed vs. accounts due. Industry average is 84 to 88 percent. Best-in-class agencies hit 92 percent or higher.
- Average days to bind — how many days before expiration are renewals being bound? Under 30 days is reactive. Over 45 days is proactive.
- Policy check error rate — percentage of renewal policies that contain errors when checked against the binder. Above 5 percent indicates a carrier or workflow problem worth investigating.
- Remarketed account percentage — what percentage of renewals are being shopped to alternative markets? If this number is below 20 percent, you are likely leaving retention and revenue on the table.
How a Trained VA Transforms Your AMS 360 Renewal Process
The renewal workflow described above is not complicated. But it requires consistent, disciplined execution across dozens or hundreds of accounts simultaneously — and that is exactly where in-house teams struggle. People have competing priorities. Renewals get pushed. The workflow slips.
A dedicated insurance VA who works exclusively on your agency operations does not have competing priorities in the same way. Their job is to execute your renewal workflow, on schedule, across every account in the pipeline. And because they are trained on AMS 360 specifically, they are productive from the first week — not after a months-long learning curve.
Agencies using X Assure VAs for renewal management consistently report higher retention rates, fewer last-minute bindings, and producers who are actually able to have quality renewal conversations instead of processing paperwork. The workflow does not just get faster — it gets better.
Let an X Assure VA run your AMS 360 renewal workflow. Try free for 2 weeks at xassure.co/try-free.