Ep. 597 Essential Steps Non-Profit Leaders Should Take in the Pre-Renewal Process

Rancho Mesa’s Alyssa Burley sits down with Vice President of the Human Services Group Sam Brown to talk about the essential steps non-profit leaders should take during the pre-renewal process.

Show Notes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sam Brown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Producer/Editor: Jadyn Brandt

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “Breaking News Intro” by nem0production

© Copyright 2026. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Alyssa Burley: You're listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne Podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive. I'm your host, Alyssa Burley, and I'm joined by Sam Brown, Vice President of the Human Services Group with Rancho Mesa. And today we're going to talk about the essential steps nonprofit leaders should take during the pre-renewal process. Sam, welcome to the show.

Sam Brown: Thanks for having me. Always good to be back in StudioOne.

AB: We're happy to have you. So I read an article you recently wrote where you covered the value of a pre-renewal strategy meeting. Why do you believe pre-renewal strategy meetings are so critical for nonprofit leaders? And what key outcomes should they expect when these meetings are done well?

SB: Great question. Probably the number one benefit to having the pre-renewal meeting with your agent is feeling informed. So you're going to review claims, either open or closed, that have taken place over the last 12, 24, 36 months, sometimes five years. It's important to understand those trends, see how they might be impacting your renewal as well as future renewals.

Also an important discussion, and the meeting is a great time to share with your agent any changes to operations because that's going to present new exposures to risk. And surprisingly, sometimes those operations and those changes don't come up during the policy period, either because people get busy or the insured isn't aware that that small change could trigger a big change at renewal. We may have some risk management updates that we need to provide to the underwriter. So yes, maybe that operational change took place. However, some risk management steps were then implemented to account for that change.

And then, of course, the strategy. What is the renewal strategy? How concerned or unconcerned should leadership be regarding premium changes? All those tie into one big ball of wax, which is helping the leadership feel informed.

AB: All right. So when you're reviewing an organization's claims history or changes in their programs, what are some of the common assumptions nonprofit leaders make? that you find yourself needing to gently correct or clarify?

SB: This is coming up quite a bit, and a lot of it has to do with affordability and the ability to ensure certain nonprofit and social service programs. A big one right now is foster family agencies and whether or not we can continue to ensure, at an affordable level, the practice of placing children in private homes for foster care.

So some organizational leaders are making tough decisions about whether or not certain programs need to sunset or go away. And the thought is, well, I can't afford that insurance anymore or don't want to afford that insurance anymore, so we're going to sunset the program. When I have to educate them that if they want to cover the organization, the board, and individual employees for future claims, that we can't just discontinue or cancel the insurance. We actually need to provide tail coverage, or keep the policy in force altogether. This is real education, and it is often met with, if not surprise, then at least they feel educated and can make informed decisions about how to move forward.

AB: Yeah, that really makes sense. So with costs becoming a growing concern, how should non-profit leaders think about balancing coverage limits, deductibles and risk management without needing to be insurance experts?

SB: It really comes down to risk tolerance. So in some cases, the subject of deductibles is kind of thrown upon us if maybe there's some property claims or too many property claims and the renewal comes back with a higher deductible. Other times, it's things that we can talk to the clients about and say, “Hey, if you had a $5,000 property claim, would you really submit that? No? Okay. Well, what's the lowest property claim you would feel like you would want to submit to the insurance carrier?” Okay, then maybe that is the platform to then discussing deductibles.

As well as looking at contracts. Okay, “We've had a $10 million limit because that's just the way it's been.” But does the contract require that? And I'm not one to tell my clients, “Hey, let's reduce limits.” But at the same time, if we're talking about affordability and it's a very real concern, then let's look at the contracts closely to make sure we're still in compliance. and still keeping our limits at something we're comfortable with while being able to pay for the insurance. That's really Important.

AB: Yeah. We want to make sure that our clients can actually pay for the insurance that they need.

SB: 100%.

AB: All right. Well, Sam, if listeners have questions about the pre-renewal process, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

SB: I can be reached at 619-937-0175 or my email sbrown@ranchomesa.com.

AB: All right. Well, Sam, thanks for joining me in StudioOne.

SB: Yeah, thanks so much.

AB: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.