| Book type | Renewal rate | Leakage rate | Typical driver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal lines (auto / home) | 85–88% | 12–15% | Price shopping at anniversary |
| Small commercial (BOP / WC) | 80–84% | 16–20% | Price comparison, carrier non-renewal |
| Mid-market commercial | 78–83% | 17–22% | Coverage review, broker competition |
| With 60-day active outreach | 89–92% | 8–11% | Retention program, review meetings |
| With 90-day outreach + formal review | 92–96% | 4–8% | Multi-year incentives, account rounding |
| Top-quartile independent broker | 93–97% | 3–7% | Proactive outreach, carrier relationships |
One-page checklist covering the 90-day renewal pipeline method, the proactive outreach cadence template, how to structure a formal renewal review meeting, carrier stay-on incentives to use before quoting alternatives, and the client communication templates that reduce price-shopping. PDF sent to your inbox within 24 hours.
Renewal leakage is calculated as the difference between expected premium at renewal and actual premium that renewed. If you have 150 policies averaging $3,500 premium at an 85 percent renewal rate, you expect 127.5 policies to renew ($446,250 in premium). If 20 policies did not renew, you have $70,000 in leaked premium — a 13.3 percent leakage rate on a $525,000 total book.
Commission at risk uses a standard independent broker commission rate of 15 percent of annual premium. The $70,000 in leaked premium represents $10,500 in commission lost. With a structured 60-day outreach program that recovers 40 percent of leaked policies — a conservative estimate based on industry retention data — you recover $4,200 in annual commission. The program cost for outreach calls, template letters, and a review meeting is typically $50 to $100 per policy, or $5,000 to $10,000 for a 100-policy book. The math: $4,200 recovered at a cost of $5,000 gives a simple payback of just over 12 months, and the recovered client renews every year thereafter.
Renewal leakage is premium revenue that walks out the door at policy renewal because the broker did not know the renewal was coming, did not contact the client early enough, or did not present a competitive offer before the incumbent carrier or a competitor did. It is expressed as the percentage of in-force premium that fails to renew. A 15 percent leakage rate on a $10 million book means $1.5 million in premium is lost — not just once, but every year the book does not recover it. The compounding effect over five years is severe: a 15 percent annual leakage rate on a stable book destroys roughly 54 percent of the original premium base by year five through pure non-renewal, even with identical new business offsetting.
Industry data consistently shows that brokers who initiate renewal contact 60 or more days before the expiration date retain 5 to 10 percentage points more business than those who begin outreach at 30 days. The reason is not persuasion — it is logistics. Most commercial accounts need 2 to 4 weeks to internally review renewal terms, compare alternatives, and get approvals. A broker who reaches out at 90 days gives the client adequate time to process. A broker who reaches out at 25 days creates urgency but also pressure, which often produces the opposite effect: the client accelerates their own carrier shopping rather than renewing on the broker's timeline. The math on an average commercial policy: a 5 percentage point retention improvement on a 200-policy book with a $4,000 average premium is $40,000 in premium retained per year, or roughly $6,000 in additional commission at a 15 percent rate.
The standard industry benchmark for personal lines is 85 to 88 percent. For mid-market commercial accounts, 80 to 84 percent is typical without an active retention program. With a structured outreach cadence beginning 60 to 90 days out and a formal renewal review meeting, top-performing independent brokers push retention to 92 to 96 percent. Below 80 percent is a warning signal — it typically means either the book has a competitive exposure, the broker is not conducting proactive outreach, or the client base has a high proportion of price-sensitive one-year policies with no multi-year commitment. The goal is not 100 percent — some attrition is natural. The goal is understanding why the rate is what it is and whether the gap is controllable or structural.
The clearest signal is a gap between your reported retention rate and your carrier statement renewal numbers. If the carrier shows a 78 percent renewal rate but you booked an 85 percent retention on your end, there are seven policies that left without a formal non-renewal notice. Another indicator: carriers that send cancellation notices less than 45 days before expiration, which is legal in most states but creates a de facto non-renewal that you cannot competitively respond to. The fix is a 90-day renewal pipeline report: every policy within 90 days of expiration gets a status tag — contacted, awaiting response, quoting alternatives, bound. If a policy is not in the pipeline, it is at risk. Brokers who run this report weekly catch leaks that brokers who run it quarterly miss entirely.
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