Renewal Season Starts Now: The 90-Day Checklist + What to Do If You're Non-Renewed (2026)
The short answer
When your church's insurance renewal lands with a surprise — a big rate increase or a non-renewal notice — a 90-day head start makes all the difference. Here's what Georgia churches should be doing right now, plus a plain-English plan for the worst-case scenario.
When your church insurance renewal lands on your desk, the worst time to start asking questions is the week before it’s due. Georgia ministries that build a 90-day runway into their renewal process almost always end up with better coverage, better pricing, and far less stress — whether the news is routine or genuinely difficult.
A Story From the Pews
A pastor at a mid-sized congregation outside Macon — a composite of several ministries we’ve walked through this scenario with — had been serving his church for eleven years. Insurance renewals were routine — the packet would arrive, the treasurer would sign off, done.
Then one spring the packet arrived with a letter clipped to the front. Their carrier wasn’t renewing them. No claim history. No explanation beyond a reference to “portfolio restructuring.”
The renewal was six weeks away.
What followed was a scramble — phone calls to agents who weren’t familiar with Georgia church coverage, quotes that didn’t include workers’ compensation, and a board meeting where nobody could agree on what the church actually owned or what it would cost to rebuild.
They landed coverage, but it was rushed, and a gap slipped through that nobody caught until months later.
The small takeaway: a non-renewal notice isn’t the end of the world, but six weeks is not enough time to handle it well. Ninety days is.
What Does a Non-Renewal Actually Mean?
A non-renewal means your insurance carrier has decided not to offer you another policy term — it has nothing to do with fault, and it doesn’t mean you’re uninsurable. It means you need a new carrier, and the clock is ticking.
Carriers make non-renewal decisions for reasons that often have nothing to do with your ministry specifically — portfolio realignments, changes to their appetite for religious institutions, reinsurance pressures in your region, or a change in how they’re underwriting older buildings. Georgia churches in certain counties have seen this more frequently as carriers reassess coastal and storm-risk exposure inland.
What it doesn’t mean: that you did something wrong, that a claim is coming, or that coverage is impossible to find. It means you have work to do, and you need to start immediately.
A non-renewal is different from a cancellation (which happens mid-term, usually for nonpayment or a serious underwriting issue). Non-renewal happens at the end of a policy period — which gives you at least a little runway, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
For a deeper look at how non-renewals work and what your rights are as a Georgia ministry, see our guide to church insurance non-renewal.
The 90-Day Renewal Checklist
Starting your renewal process 90 days out — not 30 — gives you time to gather information, compare options honestly, and avoid the kind of rushed decisions that catch churches off guard.
Here’s what that window looks like in practice:
Days 90–60: Get your information in order
- Confirm your building’s square footage and year of construction
- Pull any recent appraisals or building permits — renovations that weren’t reported to your carrier can create coverage gaps
- List all properties, vehicles, and trailers your ministry owns or leases
- Review your volunteer and staff count — Georgia workers’ compensation applies at 3 or more employees (volunteers are covered differently, if at all)
- Note any new programs: a childcare ministry, a food pantry, a counseling center — each one affects your coverage needs
Days 60–30: Review what you have
- Read your current declarations page — not just the premium, but the limits
- Check whether your building limit reflects what it would actually cost to rebuild today, at current Georgia construction costs — this number drifts upward every year and deserves a real sanity check
- Confirm you have abuse and molestation coverage — and whether defense costs are paid inside or outside your main limit (outside is meaningfully better)
- Verify your workers’ comp is current if you have employees
Days 30–0: Make decisions
- If you’re shopping, have all quotes in hand at least 2–3 weeks before renewal — not the day before
- Read the actual coverage terms, not just the premium line
- Confirm your new policy is bound before the old one expires — a single day without coverage is a real exposure
If You’re Non-Renewed: A Plain-English Plan
If your carrier has sent a non-renewal notice, the most important thing you can do is start immediately — most Georgia carriers require at least 45 days to underwrite a church policy properly.
Here’s the sequence:
1. Note the exact non-renewal date. Your current coverage runs through that date. You need a new policy bound before then — not on that day.
2. Gather your underwriting information now. Carriers writing church coverage will ask for your loss runs (claims history for the past 3–5 years — your current carrier is required to provide these), a property schedule, your ministry’s programs, and your employee/volunteer counts.
3. Work with an agent who specializes in ministries. Standard commercial lines agents often don’t know the church market well — coverage gaps show up later. Church-focused carriers and programs exist specifically because a congregation’s exposures are different from a retail business’s.
4. Don’t just replace what you had. A non-renewal is an opportunity to review whether your prior coverage was actually adequate. If your building limit was set five years ago and Georgia construction costs have risen since — they have — rebuilding what you have could cost more than what you’re insured for.
5. Be honest with potential carriers. If you’ve had claims, disclose them. Carriers will pull your loss runs anyway, and any mismatch creates problems.
A Note on Premium Increases
Not every difficult renewal ends in a non-renewal. Sometimes the carrier stays but the price moves — and depending on the year and the carrier’s loss experience across Georgia, that adjustment can pinch a ministry budget.
In our experience across Georgia church policies, moderate premium increases are common in the current market as property replacement costs adjust. Larger jumps — especially anything climbing past a third of your prior premium — are less routine and usually signal a change in how the carrier views your roof, building age, or loss record. Those are worth examining closely, either by reviewing what changed in your underwriting or by having a specialist review the market.
What matters more than the premium line is whether the coverage is adequate. A lower-priced policy that leaves your building underinsured or omits abuse and molestation coverage isn’t a better deal — it’s a worse one that hasn’t revealed itself yet.
Start Here
If your renewal is coming up in the next 90 days — or if you’ve received a non-renewal notice — we’re glad to do a coverage review and give you an honest read on where you stand. If we can’t improve your situation, we’ll tell you, and we’ll stop there.
Request a coverage review and we’ll take it from there.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much notice does a Georgia church get before a non-renewal?
Georgia law generally requires carriers to provide at least 45 days’ written notice before a non-renewal. Some carriers provide more. Check the notice date carefully — that’s your countdown clock, and the earlier you act, the more options you have.
Does a non-renewal mean we’ve done something wrong?
Not at all. Most church non-renewals have nothing to do with the ministry’s claims history or operations. Carriers routinely restructure their portfolios, change their appetite for certain building types or geographies, or respond to reinsurance changes — all of which can result in non-renewals for churches that have been model policyholders.
How long does it take to get new church insurance after a non-renewal?
Plan for at least 3–4 weeks for a complete underwriting process, and longer for larger or more complex ministries. Rushing it increases the risk of coverage gaps. If you have 45 days or more, use all of it — don’t wait until the last week to make decisions.
What is abuse and molestation coverage, and why does it matter?
Abuse and molestation coverage pays for defense costs and settlements if your ministry faces a claim involving misconduct — a real exposure for any organization that works with children or vulnerable adults. The critical question isn’t just whether you have it, but whether defense costs are paid inside or outside your main liability limit. Outside the limit is significantly better protection.
Should we just renew automatically if we haven’t had any claims?
A clean claims history is a good thing, but it doesn’t mean your coverage is still right for your ministry. Buildings appreciate (and so do rebuild costs), programs change, staff counts shift, and coverage terms evolve. A renewal is worth at least a brief review — even when everything looks routine — to confirm your limits still reflect reality.
What’s the difference between a non-renewal and a cancellation?
A non-renewal happens at the end of a policy term — your carrier simply declines to offer another year. A mid-term cancellation happens during an active policy period, usually for nonpayment or a serious underwriting concern, and comes with shorter notice. Non-renewals are far more common and give you more time to respond.