Guide
What is a loss run report
A loss run report is a record from an insurance carrier listing every claim filed on a policy over a period, usually five years. For each claim it shows the date of loss, cause, status, amounts paid, reserves still open and total incurred. Underwriters use it to price the next policy.
A loss run in plain terms
Think of it as the claims history of a business, as recorded by each insurer it has had.
Every insurer keeps a file of the claims on each policy it writes. When the business shops its insurance or renews, the new or renewing carrier wants to see that history. The report the prior carrier produces is the loss run.
A loss run covers one carrier and usually one or more policies of that carrier. A business that changed insurers twice in five years needs loss runs from three carriers to show its full history. A business with no claims receives a no-loss letter, which serves the same purpose.
The report is a snapshot. It shows claims as of its valuation date, so paid amounts and reserves on open claims change over time. That is why underwriters ask for currently valued loss runs, generally less than 90 days old.
Who can get it? The named insured, and any agent or broker the insured authorizes. Our guide on how to request loss runs covers the steps and the authorization.
- CA-22-00143Closed
Jackknife, third party injury
01/27/22Incurred $82,900 - CA-23-00388Closed
Side-swipe on lane change
04/05/23Incurred $13,550 - CA-24-00266Open
Intersection, two claimants
02/21/24Incurred $77,100 - CA-25-00112Open
Rear-ended, insured struck
01/16/25Incurred $24,150 - CA-25-01120Open
Lane departure
10/04/25Incurred $14,440
| Claim | Loss date | Status | Paid | Reserve | Incurred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA-22-00143 | 01/27/22 | Closed | $82,900 | $0 | $82,900 |
| CA-23-00388 | 04/05/23 | Closed | $13,550 | $0 | $13,550 |
| CA-24-00266 | 02/21/24 | Open | $38,600 | $38,500 | $77,100 |
| CA-25-00112 | 01/16/25 | Open | $10,150 | $14,000 | $24,150 |
| CA-25-01120 | 10/04/25 | Open | $5,440 | $9,000 | $14,440 |
CA-23-00388 and CA-23-00391 look like one claim reported twice
Column by column
Carriers use different labels and layouts. The facts are the same. Here is what each column means and what to look for.
| Column | Meaning | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Valuation date | The date the report was run | Within 90 days of the submission |
| Policy number and term | Which policy and period the claims belong to | Every term in five years is present |
| Claim number | Carrier identifier for the claim | No claim listed twice |
| Date of loss | When the incident happened | Falls inside the policy term |
| Report date | When it was reported to the carrier | Long reporting lags raise questions |
| Claimant | Injured person, employee or third party | Repeat claimants |
| Cause or description | What happened, often a code plus text | Patterns, such as rear-end collisions or slips |
| Status | Open, closed or reopened | Old claims still open |
| Paid indemnity | Paid for the loss itself | Size relative to premium |
| Paid medical | Medical payments, mainly workers comp | Medical-only versus lost time |
| Paid expense | Defense and adjusting cost | Litigated claims |
| Reserves | Expected future payments on open claims | Large reserves on recent years |
| Recoveries | Subrogation and salvage collected | Whether incurred is net of them |
| Total incurred | Paid plus reserves, often net of recoveries | The figure used for loss ratio |
Want these columns in a spreadsheet? Download the insurance loss run template, which uses the same layout.
What an underwriter does with it
Counts claims
Frequency per year shows how often things go wrong. A steady count tells more than one bad year.
Measures cost
Severity and loss ratio against earned premium show whether the account has paid for its own losses.
Reads the big ones
Large losses and open reserves are read one by one, along with what the insured changed afterwards.
A worked example with numbers is on the loss run analysis page. Workers comp reports have their own logic, explained in loss runs for workers comp.
Why loss runs are hard to work with
There is no standard layout. Each carrier prints its own report, some as landscape PDFs with dozens of columns, some as one page per claim, some as spreadsheets exported from a portal. Labels differ, incurred is defined differently, and older reports arrive as scans.
For a business with five years and three or four carriers, the agent ends up with several documents that need to be read, retyped and added up before anyone can say how the account performs. That is the work loss run software exists to remove: requesting the reports, chasing them and reading them into one table automatically.
Questions about loss run reports
How far back does a loss run go?
Most commercial requests ask for five years plus the current term. Carriers can usually provide more on request.
Is a loss run the same as a CLUE report?
No. CLUE is a shared industry database used mostly for personal auto and homeowners. A commercial loss run comes from the carrier that wrote the policy.
Does a loss run cost anything?
Carriers generally provide loss runs to the insured or its authorized agent at no charge, and several states require them to provide loss information on request within a set time.
What if the business never had a claim?
The carrier issues a no-loss letter for the term. Include it in the submission so the year does not look missing.
Why do two reports for the same claim show different amounts?
They were valued on different dates. Paid amounts and reserves change as a claim develops, so always compare reports with the same or recent valuation dates.
See your own loss run read in under a minute
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