How do I request a quote?

Select a product of interest from the list and click once. Review the Underwriting and Coverage page for eligibility and then click on 'Request a Quote' and follow the screens.

How do I know when a quote is issued?

You will receive an email from Big "I" Markets (bigimarkets@iiaba.net) anytime there is any activity on your quote request whether it is the underwriter requesting more information, or providing a quote. You may need to add our email address to your list of 'approved' senders in order to keep the email notification from being rejected by SPAM blockers. Please be sure to update us if there is a change in your email address; it will appear in the Quote Detail for your customer so you can see what we currently have on file.

Why was my quote declined?

The underwriter will give you a specific reason for the declination; however, most declinations could be avoided if caution was taken to read the Underwriting and Coverage page carefully. It will provide the majority of the underwriting criteria for each product. The reason will either be listed in the Message Log or appended to the end of the Quote Request. You may need to scroll down to see it.

How do I contact the Underwriter?

The best way to see if a risk will qualify if the Underwriting and Coverage page does not address the area of concern is to submit it for the underwriter to review. Once a quote request has been submitted electronically, you can click on the link for 'New Message' in the quote detail for your customer and complete the fields that appear in the pop-up window. Your communication will be date/time stamped and the underwriter will respond in the same fashion. Of course, sometimes it is necessary to have a conversation in person; therefore, we have listed the Underwriter's contact information in the Company Credential section of the Underwriting & Coverage page for each product.

1. You were timed out while entering the information and the connection to Big “I” Markets was lost. This happens if you do not interact with the Quote Request Wizard for 20 minutes or more. In this case you will need to start over.
2. You logged in as someone else and selected yourself as the Primary Contact or vice versa. In this case the quote will be in the Activity Box of the person selected as Primary Contact. Click on Quote Reports to search for it.
3. You accidentally Archived your quote. Go to My Activity Box and click on the box next to “Show Archived Quotes”. To archive or un-archive a quote click on the box to the left of the quote (it will then have a mark in it) and click on the “Archive Quotes” or “Unarchive Quotes” button.

I can't open the quote.

Once in your "Activity Box", just hold your mouse over the quote until it is highlighted in yellow, and then click the left mouse button. This should open the Quote Detail page. If it does not open, hit F5 or click on the refresh button on your browser and try again. The small boxes on the left side of each quote are used only to archive and un-archive quotes. The message log works the same way. Hold your mouse over any particular message until it turns yellow and left click. Please keep in mind the Message Dialogue box will remain open in the background, but does not automatically come forward if you click on additional messages. Use the Next/Previous buttons to go from message to message.

I can see the quote but I can’t open the file.

The paperclip in a box icon merely indicates an attached file. You need to open the message line to access the file. The icon to open/download a file is an arm holding a manilla file folder. Click on this icon and a small window will open giving you an option to ‘Open’ or ‘Save’ the document. In some cases you may only have the ‘Save’ option and clicking on it will open up the “Save As” window. Occasionally clicking on the ‘Open’ button opens up the “Save As” window as well. This occurs when our two computers are unable to agree on the specific type of program used to read the file. In either case you will be able to open the file once you have downloaded it, provided you have the appropriate program.

1. The product actually is not available to quote through BIM
   The Product may be handled by your state association (e.g. Personal Umbrella). Look for direct contact information on the Underwriting & Coverage page.
   
2. The product may not be available for new business (e.g. Balboa Non-standard HO). These products pages are still visible in states with existing policies; however they will have a discontinuation notice at the top of the Underwriting & Coverage page.
   

OR: The product may be temporarily suspended for contractual/legal reasons. (This almost never happens.) Please call us at 800-221-7917 if you get this error message and do not see evidence of the first two reasons.

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