Reinsurance Query Management: End the Email Back-and-Forth

Reinsurance Query Management: Ending the Email Back-and-Forth With Cedents and Brokers

Last reviewed: November 2026

The broker answered your question on Tuesday. Your actuary asked it again on Thursday, because the reply was buried in someone else's thread.

Short answer: Reinsurance query management replaces scattered email threads with one log of every open question per programme. Queries are consolidated, owned, tracked to closure and linked to the data they change, so cedents and brokers answer once.

Key Takeaways

• A query is a work item, not an email. It needs an owner, a due date and a status.
• Ask once, as one team. Consolidate underwriting, actuarial and modelling questions into a single request.
• Close queries against the answer. A reply is not a resolution until someone confirms it answers the question.
• Keep the trail. Recorded queries support fair presentation positions if a dispute arises later.

What Is Reinsurance Query Management?

Reinsurance query management is how a reinsurer raises, tracks and closes questions to cedents and brokers. It turns a conversation into a controlled list.

Queries arise at every stage. Pricing raises data questions, wordings raise clause questions, and accounts raise balance questions after binding.

This article focuses on the placement stage, where delays cost quotes. The same method applies after binding.

Why Does the Back-and-Forth Never Seem to End?

The back-and-forth continues because queries are raised piecemeal, answered partially and tracked nowhere. Each gap in that chain creates another round.

Why are queries raised piecemeal?

Queries are raised piecemeal because several specialists review the same submission at different times. The underwriter, the pricing actuary and the cat modeller each email the broker separately.

The broker then receives three requests in four days, some overlapping. Each request looks like a new demand from a disorganised reinsurer.

Why are answers often partial?

Answers are often partial because the broker forwards questions to the cedent and returns whatever comes back first. A reply saying "see attached" may cover two of five questions.

If nobody checks the reply against the original list, the missing three are discovered days later. That is the most expensive round of all.

Why are open queries invisible?

Open queries are invisible because the only record is the email thread. Nobody can see, across a programme or a renewal, which questions are still waiting.

Managers find out when a quote misses its deadline. By then, the cause is hard to trace.

What Does a Good Query Look Like?

A good query is specific, answerable and tied to a decision. Vague questions produce vague answers and a second round.

The strong versions state the format, the period and the reason. Brokers can forward them to the cedent without rewriting.

How Do You Run Reinsurance Query Management Step by Step?

You run it by treating every question as a logged item with a lifecycle. The process below works for treaty and facultative business.

1. Log every query. Record the question, programme, raised-by, owner and due date in one query log.
2. Consolidate before sending. Merge questions from underwriting, actuarial and modelling into one request per round.
3. Set a clear response date. Link it to your quote deadline, leaving time to review the answer.
4. Match replies to queries. Check each reply against the open list, item by item.
5. Close or reopen. Mark a query closed only when the answer is sufficient, and reopen it with a reason if not.
6. Update the data. Link the answer to the submission data it changes, so later reviewers see the latest figures.
7. Report what is open. Show open queries by programme, broker and age to underwriting managers.

Step four stops the hidden partial answer. Step six stops the same question being asked twice.

What Does a Well-Run Query Round Look Like?

A well-run query round is one consolidated request, one deadline and one item-by-item check of the reply. The illustrative example below shows the difference.

Illustrative example, before: on a property programme, the underwriter asks for large losses on Monday. The cat modeller asks about missing geocodes on Wednesday, and the actuary asks for rate changes on Thursday.

The broker sends three separate replies the following week. One covers only half the territories, and nobody notices until pricing is nearly done.

Illustrative example, after: the three questions are logged on Monday and sent as one numbered request on Tuesday. The request gives a response date three working days before the quote deadline.

When the reply arrives, operations ticks off each numbered item. The incomplete territory list is reopened the same day, with the specific gap named.

The questions are identical in both versions. Only the handling changed, and that is where the time was lost.

Email Thread vs Query Log: What Changes?

A query log changes who can see, track and close questions. The email thread remains the transport, but it stops being the record.

Why Does Query Management Matter Legally?

Query management matters legally because the duty of fair presentation interacts with what the reinsurer asks. Under English law, unasked questions can carry consequences.

Under the Insurance Act 2015, which applies to reinsurance contracts, the insured can give enough information to put a prudent insurer on notice to make further enquiries. That is an alternative to disclosing every material circumstance.

Commentary from Simmons & Simmons notes that waiver typically arises when a presentation would prompt a careful insurer to ask questions, and it does not. A dated query log shows what was asked and what was answered.

This is not legal advice. Treaty law and jurisdiction vary, so involve your legal team in how queries are recorded.

Who Should Own Queries?

Queries should be owned by underwriting or reinsurance operations, with each one assigned to a named person. Ownership must be explicit, not assumed.

• Operations owner: Keeps the log, consolidates questions, sends and chases.
• Raising specialist: Writes the question and decides if the answer is sufficient.
• Underwriter: Decides whether open queries block the quote or become subjectivities.
• Broker contact: One named person per programme on the broker side.

Where Does Automation Help?

Automation helps by reading replies and attachments and matching them to what was asked. It does not decide which questions matter or whether an answer is good enough.

Reinsurance Email Intelligence for broker correspondence reads emails with their PDF and spreadsheet attachments. It extracts treaty structure, premium, limits, commissions, claims history and exposure into one submission view.

It also flags information that is still missing or incomplete. Underwriters validate the extracted data and decide what to ask next.

Queries often expose deeper conflicts between documents. Our article on hidden data conflicts in reinsurance explains how those conflicts spread across teams.

After binding, unresolved questions move into set-up. See how onboarding delays for newly bound programmes build up when they are not closed.

How Do You Measure Query Management?

You measure query management by counting rounds, age and rework. Track these per programme and per broker.

Share the broker-level view with the broker. It turns a complaint into a joint fix.

What Should COOs Do Next?

COOs should make queries visible, owned and consolidated before the next renewal peak. These steps change behaviour more than tools do.

• Introduce one query log per programme, owned by operations.
• Require consolidated query rounds across underwriting, actuarial and modelling.
• Agree response dates with key brokers before renewal season.
• Report open and reopened queries to underwriting leadership weekly.

Key Terms

• Query log: A structured list of every question raised on a programme, with owner, status and answer.
• Query round: One cycle of questions sent and replies received.
• Partial answer: A reply that resolves some but not all open questions.
• Subjectivity: A condition on a quote that must be met before it binds.
• Fair presentation: The UK Insurance Act 2015 duty on the insured to present the risk fairly before the contract.
• Waiver: Where an insurer is treated as not needing information it could have asked for.

Sources

• CMS: Insurance Act 2015 – Fair presentation
• Simmons & Simmons: The Insurance Act 2015 – An insured's duty of fair presentation (21 January 2026)
• Insurnest: Reinsurance Email Intelligence