What an insurer's RFQ form actually asks, line by line

An insurer does not read a broker’s email; it fills in a form. Every Indian insurer that quotes commercial lines at scale runs an RFQ system with fixed fields per product, and the underwriter prices what is in those fields. A submission that arrives in that shape is quoted quickly and on complete information. One that arrives as prose and attachments is keyed in by someone junior, with gaps filled by assumption — and each assumption becomes a difference between quotes you will find in the comparison later.

What follows is what those forms ask, read out of insurer-side RFQ systems, product by product. It is what Bridge’s intake captures for each line, in the same order, so a client’s requirement arrives at the insurer already structured.

Group medical

The insurer’s wizard runs in four steps — basic information, demographics, benefits and add-ons, review — with a document upload that pre-fills what it can. Demographics means the census: lives by relation and age band, and the family definition. Benefits and add-ons is the cover-wanted list on the insurer’s own vocabulary. Bridge produces exactly that: the roster counted from the employee list, the expiring schedule read into the benefit list, and the claims MIS attached with paid and outstanding split by benefit head.

Fire and property

The standard-product forms ask, per risk location: district and pincode, occupancy or nature of business, and the sum insured by head — building and plinth, plant and machinery, furniture and fittings, electronic equipment, plate glass, other contents, stock — then the add-ons (earthquake, STFI, terrorism, burglary), business interruption with its indemnity period, previous insurance details and claims history. Which product applies follows from the total sum insured: Sookshma to ₹5 crore, Laghu to ₹50 crore, SFSP above. Bridge holds the location schedule as a table with exactly these heads, so the per-location sums are there before the form is opened.

Engineering

Six products, two shapes.

Project covers — Contractors’ and Erection All Risks — ask for the insured, contractor and principal; the project name, location and scope of work; construction type or risk code; contract value or the sum insured by section (contract works, third-party liability, existing property); project start and end, testing period, maintenance or defect-liability period; zone, earthquake zone, STFI and terrorism, and whether premium is paid up front; and the site factors the underwriter credits — 24×7 watchmen, dewatering, fire-fighting facilities, underground utilities marked, years of experience, loss ratio.

Annual covers — Plant and Machinery, Machinery Breakdown, Boiler and Pressure Plant, Electronic Equipment — ask for the plant or facility, its location and description, whether the policy floats, the policy period, the sum insured (for electronic equipment: hardware, external data media and increased cost of working separately, with the time excess and indemnity period), and — for machinery and boilers — last and next inspection, the inspection agency and whether an AMC is in place. All six close with claims in the last three years.

Public liability

One form per proposal type — industrial, non-industrial, construction, lift liability, housing society, school — each asking the same spine: insured name, designated premises, nature of business, annual turnover, policy period, the limit as any one accident and any one year, whether terrorism is included, and claims in the past three years. The proposal type is the first question because it selects the wording; a submission that leaves it to the insurer to infer has already lost a day.

What this means

None of these forms asks for anything a client cannot supply. They ask for it in a particular order, split a particular way, with the documents behind it. That translation — from what the client sent to what the insurer’s system expects — is the broker’s daily work, and it is the work Bridge does: read the documents, fill the structure, flag what is missing, and send one pack every insurer answers in the same shape.