Insurance policy review checklist
Work through this list once a year, a month before renewal, and any time your life changes. It takes about an hour per policy and focuses on the checks that actually affect what you pay and what gets paid out.
Want this checked on your own policy? Use the Policy Review tool — upload your schedule and policy wording and get gaps, exclusions and duplicates flagged in minutes.
1. Gather your documents
- This year's schedule (the page with your name, limits, excess and premium).
- The full policy wording or PDS, plus any endorsements attached to it.
- Last year's renewal notice, so you can compare like for like.
- A list of every other policy you hold, including cover bundled with bank accounts or credit cards.
2. Check the schedule
- Names, addresses, vehicles and drivers are correct and current.
- The sum insured reflects today's rebuild or replacement cost, not the figure from when you bought the policy.
- You know your excess (deductible) for each type of claim and could afford to pay it tomorrow.
- Single-item limits cover your most valuable items (jewellery, bikes, laptops), or they are listed separately.
- Compare the premium to last year's — note any increase where nothing else changed.
3. Read the wording that decides claims
- Read every endorsement — they change the standard wording for your policy specifically.
- Check the definitions of key words such as "flood", "storm", "accident" and "unoccupied".
- List the exclusions that could realistically affect you.
- Note conditions you must follow (security, maintenance, notifying the insurer of changes) to keep cover valid.
- Look for anything that moved from included to optional since last year.
4. Match the cover to your life
- Tell the insurer about renovations, new drivers, working from home or other changes since last renewal.
- Remove duplicate cover you're paying for twice — duplicates rarely pay out twice.
- Confirm you have cover for any gap you found (e.g. underinsured contents or missing flood cover).
5. Before you renew
- Get at least three like-for-like quotes.
- Ask your current insurer to match the best quote.
- Write down your decision and set a reminder one month before next year's renewal.
What to do with what you find
Turn every unchecked item into an action: a call to your insurer, an updated sum insured, a cancelled duplicate, or a new quote. If something in the wording is unclear, ask the insurer to confirm in writing how it applies to you.
Check your own documents
upload your schedule and policy wording and get gaps, exclusions and duplicates flagged in minutes.