The Client: AssuredPartners
AssuredPartners is one of the fastest-growing independent insurance agencies in the U.S. with offices in 38 states and two countries. AssuredPartners’ leadership team has more than 55 years of experience in the insurance industry and places a strong value on lasting relationships built on trust. They use their experience from the insurance industry and relationships they have built to create products and solutions tailored to each client’s individual needs.
“We have integrated COI (certificate of insurance) and contract tracking into our services for our clients to assist in reducing risk to our clients from their tenants, vendors, and contractors.” – Annie Kokolus
AssuredPartners believes being an insurance broker is about more than selling policies. They are a partner to their clients to develop a strategy for risk management. To do this they started tracking tenant certificates of insurance (COIs) for their real estate accounts. One of the tools they use to help their clients manage risk is SmartCompliance. That was a huge added value to their clients as it took the burden of certificate tracking off their plates and created a clear and concise way to track which tenants were in compliance and which were in default on their lease.
The Challenge: Finding a Partner to Assist in New Value-Adding Services
Before coming across SmartCompliance, AssuredPartners used their version of a certificate management software that was available on their web portal. Their software could track certificates, but they found it wasn’t user friendly enough or able to create detailed reports to exhibit compliance. It was at this point that the search for a more user-friendly and detailed software began which ended in them selecting SmartCompliance as their platform of choice.
“We at AP value relationships and it is evident that SmartCompliance holds that same value, which has kept us as a client over the years. There is a clear and direct line of communication between us, our account executive, and the support team should an issue ever arise.” – Annie Kokolus
By using SmartCompliance, AssuredPartners could take the burden of tracking hundreds or even thousands of certificates out of the hands of property managers. Doing so allowed AssuredPartners clients to focus on other aspects of their jobs while having peace of mind that compliance was met.
The Solution: User Friendly, Accessible Information
SmartCompliance’s dashboards allowed AssuredPartners to view client compliance percentages without having to generate reports. Because of the customization features of SmartCompliance, AssuredPartners could use the software for all their clients, no matter how many documents there were.
The ability to store data in SmartCompliance was beneficial to AssuredPartners because tenants who moved out of properties that were clients of AssuredPartners remained in the system.
“It is typical for a claim to arise a few years down the line, so the ability to keep tenants’ information after they move out has been very beneficial to us.” – Annie Kokolus
SmartCompliance allowed AssuredPartners to take over certificate tracking processes for their clients, and the user-friendly interface and customer support allowed ease of use for AssuredPartners employees. “If I ever had an issue with the system or wanted to do something that I didn’t see a capability for, within 24 hours of arising the question, I either have a workaround or a ticket in for a new system feature,” added Annie.
The Present: Service Offerings & Experience
AssuredPartners offers SmartCompliance certificate of insurance management to every potential real estate client they sit down in front of. Certificate tracking isn’t something most brokers do, so it’s a huge value-add that AssuredPartners can offer.
AssuredPartners use SmartCompliance to give their clients peace of mind knowing their compliance is in line and ensures the limits in their contracts are met. For clients who have limits that are not met, SmartCompliance allows a way to show which tenants have been contacted and where the next steps can begin.
“SmartCompliance has been a huge value-add and we look forward to expanding our use of it, not only on my team but through AssuredPartners as a whole.”
