New to the role
You inherited a six- or seven-figure program. Nobody handed you the manual — here's what to ask for in your first 90 days.
You have a binder, a broker's name, and a renewal date. What you don't have is any way to know whether the program you inherited is any good — and the people who would tell you are the people who built it.
Ninety days, three moves
Make it yours before you have to sign for it.
In this order. Everything here is a request a new person is entitled to make and expected to make; how fully and how quickly the answers arrive tells you as much as the answers do.
First week — get the complete policy set, not the summary.
First month — ask three questions, in writing.
Before the renewal — establish a baseline you didn't inherit.
The part nobody explains
What most new CFOs don't know
The program you inherited was designed for your predecessor's understanding of the business, at the time they understood it. Businesses change faster than programs do. New revenue lines, new states, new contracts, an acquisition — each is an exposure the program was never asked about, and nothing in the binder will flag it.
Your broker has a longer relationship with the company than you do. That is an asset. It is also the reason they may not volunteer where the program has fallen behind: nobody points at their own work unprompted. The questions have to come from you, and they have to be in writing.
The renewal is the moment the program stops being inherited. Everything before it, you can call someone else's. Everything after it, you signed. Your first renewal is the only one where “I'm new, and I want to understand what we're buying” costs you nothing — politically or otherwise.
What actually happens
Here's what happens when you start with a baseline
The inherited program gets read against the business as it is now.
Not as it was when someone else designed it.
You get it in writing: what's covered, what isn't, what nobody decided.
The third category is the one that matters, and the one no summary contains.
Your first renewal is a decision you can explain.
Not a signature on someone else's program — and the baseline every renewal after it is measured against.
Looking costs you nothing, and nobody finds out.
We work only from documents you already have. Your broker and your carriers are never contacted, and the analysis is free — the fee, when there is one, is a flat fee quoted plainly in the first conversation.
Private by default
- Nothing is shared with your broker or your carrier. Ever.
- No changes to your program. Looking is not switching.
- You decide who sees the findings — including whether we ever speak again.
You have a binder, a broker's name and a renewal date.
Bring what you were handed to a 15-minute review: what you actually inherited, what has changed underneath it, and what to ask for before you sign anything in your own name.
Fifteen minutes with Michael Stoop, our founder. Nothing to prepare — bring the question you can't get a straight answer to.
Or call us now — 347.252.6150
Not ready for a conversation?
Take the blind-spot check
Ten questions about your own program, answered from memory in ninety seconds. Nothing uploads.
Get one policy reviewed, free
Send the policy you are least sure about. We read it against how you operate and send back the three findings with the most at stake, each tied to its page.
Run your own loss pick
Premium and losses in, your ratio against the 50% line out — one year is enough. Nothing is submitted to anyone.
Walk a full engagement
A sample account, start to finish — the blueprint, the gaps, the scored quotes, the decision. Judge the work before the pitch.
- Flat annual fee — never a percentage of your premium
- Broker commission disclosed on every quote, in writing
- No contingency payments, overrides, or profit-sharing