Guides
The broker of record letter, explained
Moving brokers and moving insurers are two different actions. Here is how a broker of record letter works.
Calgary Region
Commercial Insurance Broker in Calgary
Calgary has more brokers than anywhere else in Alberta, and most of them will hand you to a service team the week after you sign. This page sets out what we do instead, and why owners here move.
The size of this market works against the person buying. Hundreds of offices compete for a commercial file here, and the ones that win on price usually win by processing volume, so your account gets standardised and your questions join a queue behind three hundred others. Velocity took the opposite trade on purpose, and gave up the volume. Mandy Stierman has spent more than twenty years in the industry, a good deal of it on hard-market renewals and placements other brokers had already given up on, and she runs a book small enough to know every file in it.
Why Owners Move
What we hear fromCalgary business owners.
01
I never speak to the same person twice, and they never know my business
One person sells the policy, another services it and a third handles the renewal. None of them has the history, so every year you introduce your own company to your own broker again. Calgary owners raise this with us more than price.
02
My renewal just turns up as a bill
Nothing gets re-tested, nobody asks whether last year’s revenue figure still describes you, and the number simply climbs. In a city where property pricing has moved as hard as it has since 2024, a renewal nobody argued about is a renewal you overpaid for.
03
I found out at claim time that it was not covered
Exclusions are where commercial claims die, and most owners have never had theirs read to them. After a hailstorm is a bad moment to learn what a roof clause said. We would sooner have that conversation while there is still time to change something.
04
Nobody has ever asked what we do on site
A downtown professional firm, a shop on 17th Avenue and a contractor working the ring road are three different risks that get sold the same package with the name swapped. If nobody asked how you operate, the wording is describing somebody else.
Why We Stand Out
What you get insteadas our client in Calgary.
- Proudly independent, with fourteen insurance partners behind you
- No insurer holds a share of this brokerage and none of them hands us a target to hit, so the file goes wherever it fits best. When a Calgary renewal comes back with an increase nobody can justify, there are thirteen other underwriters to put it in front of.
- Relationships, not transactions
- The same broker every time, with no call centre, no automated service and no queue. Mandy quotes the file, places it, issues the certificates and picks up the phone when a storm has taken your roof off.
- Deep commercial expertise
- Twenty years of hands-on work across front-line underwriting, complex placements, hard-market renewals and claims advocacy. Calgary property has been a hard market for years, and knowing how an underwriter is measured will often turn a decline into a quote.
- Built around how you really operate
- There is no standard approach to managing risk. We ask what the business does before recommending a thing, then build to that. Take on a new contract or open a second location mid-term and it is a phone call, never a surprise twelve months later.
- Explained in plain language
- You are told what a policy does, and what it will refuse to do, without needing an insurance background to follow it. That includes the deductible structure, which on a Calgary property file is often where the real money sits.
- Superior service, backed by advanced technology
- We write our own systems instead of buying whatever the industry is selling, so a Calgary file moves at the speed of your work and not the speed of a shared inbox. Certificates, renewal papers and billing live in a portal you sign into yourself. Nothing in it needs a manual, because it was designed around how owners think and not how insurers file.
Your Broker
Mandy Stierman · Founder & Principal Broker
Licensed Alberta broker · 20 years in insurance
Velocity Insurance Inc. is a proudly independent, female-led commercial brokerage founded and owned in Alberta. Mandy was formerly an Account Executive with Spruceland Insurance and is a member of the Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta.
What clients sayabout working with us.
★★★★★
“She took the time to explain everything clearly in a way that actually made sense… her rates were more than competitive, and the level of service she provided was truly exceptional. It’s so refreshing to work with a woman entrepreneur who is not only amazing at what she does, but also genuinely cares about her clients.”
TJ Aneca · a month ago · Google
Reviews come from clients across Alberta, Calgary included. Read them on Google
Common Questions
Choosing a brokerin Calgary.
Does Velocity have a Calgary office?
No, and it changes nothing that matters. Alberta brokers are licensed provincially, so the markets, the wordings and the claims process are identical wherever the desk is. We run remotely by design and most of the work happens by phone and email either way.
Who will be handling my account?
Mandy Stierman, the owner and principal broker. She quotes it, places it and services it, and she is the person on the other end of the phone afterwards. Nothing is handed to an account team once the sale closes.
What sets Velocity apart from a large Calgary brokerage?
Scale is the thing working against you on a commercial file. A big office is measured on policies processed, so accounts get standardised and questions get queued. We hold fewer clients, put one experienced broker on each of them and keep enough market access to move a file that has stopped being competitive.
You are independent. How do I know the price is competitive?
Because it has to be proven every year rather than asserted once. With fourteen insurance partners there is no house insurer taking the file by default, and you are shown what the alternatives came back at. A captive agent can only tell you their number is the best one they are allowed to offer.
What happens at my renewal?
It gets looked at before it renews, not after. We check whether revenue, payroll and operations have shifted, decide whether the market needs testing, and if we take it out you see what came back and why we recommend what we do.
How quickly do you respond?
Same business day for a question, and a certificate as soon as we can turn one around once the policy is bound. Where something will take longer because it is sitting with an underwriter, you are told that at the time instead of left guessing.
What does it cost to use a broker?
Nothing you pay to us. The insurer pays a commission out of the premium it charges, and that commission is in the price with or without a broker attached. Buying direct does not give it back to you. It just removes the person arguing on your behalf.
How easy is it to switch insurance brokers?
It takes one signature and nothing else. A broker of record letter moves the existing policy to us untouched, with the same insurer, the same wording and the same premium, and no gap in cover at any point. You do not have to wait for the renewal date to do it.
Could you review my current insurance program?
Yes, at no charge and with nothing attached to it. Send the current policy documents and Mandy reads them herself, then tells you where the gaps sit, whether the limits still make sense and whether you are paying over the odds. If the program is already right, you get told that just as plainly.
The Next Step
Talk to the brokerwho would handle your file.
Send us what you have and we will tell you what we would do with it. If we are not the right brokerage for your business we will say so on the first call.
Talk to a Calgary broker
How do you prefer to work through your insurance?
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