What Is a Loss Run Report?

Definition

A loss run report (also called a loss history report or claims experience report) is a document produced by an insurance carrier that summarizes the claims history for a specific policy or insured. It lists every claim filed during a given period — typically five years — along with key details like dates of loss, amounts paid, reserves held, and claim status.

Loss runs are the primary source of truth for underwriting decisions in P&C insurance. They answer the question every underwriter asks: "What has happened with this risk in the past, and what does that tell us about the future?"

Why carriers produce loss runs

Carriers produce loss runs as part of their standard reporting obligations. When an agent, broker, or insured requests a loss run, the carrier's claims department generates a report from their claims management system. This report is the carrier's official record of all claims activity for the policy.

Loss runs serve several purposes:

• Underwriting evaluation — Underwriters use loss runs to assess the risk quality of an account based on its claims history
• Renewal decisioning — Carriers review loss runs when deciding whether to renew a policy and at what rate
• Re-marketing — When an agent shops a risk to new carriers, loss runs from the current carrier are required with the submission
• Audit and compliance — Loss runs serve as the official claims record for regulatory and audit purposes

Who requests loss runs?

• Agency account managers and CSRs — The most frequent requesters. They pull loss runs as part of renewal cycles, re-marketing exercises, and new business submissions.
• Insurance brokers — Request loss runs when placing business in specialty, surplus lines, or London markets.
• Underwriters — Review loss runs submitted by agents as part of the risk evaluation process.
• Named insureds — Can request their own loss runs for internal risk management or when changing agents.
• Third parties — Lenders, landlords, or contractual counterparties sometimes require loss run documentation as part of due diligence.

What a typical loss run contains

While formats vary dramatically by carrier, most loss runs include two categories of information:

Policy-level fields

• Named insured
• Policy number and policy period
• Carrier name
• Line of business (general liability, commercial auto, workers' compensation, property, umbrella, etc.)
• Aggregate totals — total incurred, total paid, total reserves

Claim-level fields

• Claim number
• Date of loss and date reported
• Claimant name (for liability claims)
• Claim type or cause of loss
• Amounts paid (indemnity and expense, separately or combined)
• Reserve amounts
• Claim status — open or closed
• Description of loss

The critical challenge for agencies: every carrier formats this information differently. A Travelers loss run has different column headers, layouts, and page structures than a Hartford loss run, a CNA loss run, or a Zurich loss run. There are over 5,000 carriers in the US market, and no two loss run formats are identical.

How long it takes to get a loss run

Turnaround times depend on the carrier and the request method:

• Carrier self-service portals — Immediate to same-day. Carriers like Travelers, Hartford, and Liberty Mutual offer loss run downloads through their agent-facing websites.
• Email requests — 3-10 business days. Most carriers handle emailed requests through their claims service center.
• Phone requests — 3-10 business days. Same process, different channel.
• ACORD 35 form — Some carriers accept loss run requests via the standardized ACORD form. The form is standard; the turnaround is not.

Common causes of delays: request sent to the wrong department, missing policy information, carrier backlog during heavy renewal periods, and multi-state or multi-line policies requiring separate reports.

For a detailed walkthrough of the request process, see our guide: How to Request a Loss Run Report — Step by Step.

Loss run vs. claims history — the difference

These terms are used interchangeably in practice, but they're technically distinct:

• Loss run — The carrier's official report. It reflects exactly what's in the carrier's claims management system for a specific policy.
• Claims history — A broader term that can include loss runs, agent notes, supplemental documentation, or data aggregated from multiple carriers or sources.

For submission and underwriting purposes, carriers almost always want the official loss run — not a summarized or agent-compiled claims history.

How underwriters use loss runs

Loss runs are the most important document in a commercial insurance submission. Here's what underwriters look for:

• Claim frequency — How many claims has the insured filed? High frequency (even at low severity) signals operational or risk management issues.
• Claim severity — What are the individual and total dollar amounts? Large individual losses or high aggregate incurred amounts indicate potential for future exposure.
• Loss ratio — Total incurred losses divided by total premium. Ratios above 60-70% are a red flag for most lines of business.
• Trends — Are losses increasing, stable, or improving? The direction matters as much as the absolute numbers.
• Open claims — Active reserves on open claims represent uncertain future costs. Large open reserves can make an underwriter hesitate or decline.
• IBNR exposure — For lines with long reporting tails (workers' comp, professional liability), underwriters estimate additional losses beyond what appears on the loss run.

Common problems agencies face

Format inconsistency

Every carrier formats their loss runs differently — different column headers, layouts, page orientations, fonts, and data organization. There is no universal standard, which means every loss run requires manual interpretation.

Manual data entry

When an agent needs loss run data in their AMS, spreadsheet, or submission package, they re-key it by hand. Field by field, claim by claim. This is the single most time-consuming data entry task in most agency operations.

Error cascade

Manual re-keying introduces errors — misread numbers, transposed dates, skipped rows. These errors propagate through the entire workflow: from loss run to spreadsheet to AMS to submission.

Scale at renewal time

The pain grows linearly with account volume. An agency managing 200 commercial accounts renewing quarterly is processing hundreds of loss runs per year, each one a manual extraction exercise.

How LossRunGuru automates loss run processing

LossRunGuru is an AI-powered extraction tool that reads any carrier loss run PDF and converts it into clean, structured data — automatically. No manual re-keying, no format-specific configuration, no carrier setup.

Learn more about loss run automation →