# Starting an MGA: from rating guide to first live quote

> A practical route for a new MGA's first product: agreeing terms with capacity, building and testing the model, picking channels and watching rates after launch.

Published 18 May 2026. Category: Distribution.
Source: https://www.swallow.app/post/launching-an-mga-pricing

The to-do list for a new managing general agent is long. You need capacity, a binding authority, distribution, compliance, systems and people. Pricing runs through all of it, because until the product can return a correct price wherever you plan to sell it, there is nothing for anyone to buy.

This post follows the path from an agreed rating approach to the first real quote, and picks out the choices that matter most when you're starting from nothing.

## Agree the rules with your capacity partner first

Whoever backs you, whether an insurer, a Lloyd's syndicate or a reinsurer, will have a view on how the product is priced. Settle these before you build anything:

- **Whose rates they are.** Some partners hand you the rating guide. Others expect you to propose the rates and get them signed off.
- **How much you can move on your own.** Binding authorities often allow small adjustments within set limits, with anything bigger going back to the partner.
- **What proof they want.** Usually test results, a history of changes and regular reports on what you've quoted and written.
- **Where appetite ends.** Which risks decline outright, which go to an underwriter, and how those rules are written down.

Each of these is far cheaper to agree now than to retrofit once the model is built.

## Treat the rating guide as a specification

The rating guide is what the model will be built from, so it needs to be complete. That means every input and its allowed values, every rate table, the order factors apply in, rounding, minimum premiums, fees, tax and the underwriting rules.

Most importantly, it needs worked examples with exact premiums. They do two jobs. They settle the questions the written rules leave open, such as whether a discount applies before or after the minimum premium. And they become the tests that prove the model is right. A set covering your main risk types, both sides of each band boundary and every decline and refer rule is a solid place to start.

## Decide how the model will be built

There are three broad routes:

1. **A spreadsheet.** Fast to start, but hard to serve live, hard to audit and easy to break. See [replacing a spreadsheet rater](https://www.swallow.app/post/replacing-a-spreadsheet-rater) for why that catches up with you.
2. **Your own code.** As flexible as you like, but it needs developers who understand pricing, and every rate change becomes a release.
3. **A rating engine.** The model is configured, not coded, tested on every change and available over an API from the first version.

For a new MGA, the third route is usually the quickest to market. In Swallow you can describe the product in a prompt and upload supporting data from Excel to get a first draft, build on a drag-and-drop canvas, or have an AI client such as Claude write the model through the [MCP server](https://www.swallow.app/developer/mcp). However it's made, the result is a readable model with labelled inputs, plain rate tables and written-out formulas that your underwriters and your partner can review. Our [developer guide](https://www.swallow.app/developer) shows a complete one. If you're writing in the US, you can also start from public rate filings, as we cover in [building pricing models from US rate filings](https://www.swallow.app/post/building-pricing-models-from-us-rate-filings).

## Prove it before you sell it

Every worked example should match to the penny before launch. Then add tests for:

- values either side of each age, sum insured or other band;
- each decline and refer rule, plus cases that sit just inside it;
- combinations that are unusual but perfectly valid.

In Swallow, tests are saved on each version, so the whole suite can run again every time the model changes. Swallow's AI can also suggest a batch of tests from a prompt for you to trim. When a test fails, the [quote trace](https://www.swallow.app/developer/quoting) shows the value of every input, lookup and formula, so you can find the step that went wrong. The [Test](https://www.swallow.app/products/test) page has more.

## Start with one or two channels

Most MGAs launch through a small number of channels and add more once the product has settled. Typical first choices:

- **Brokers**, who will usually want an API.
- **Embedded partners**, with your quote sitting inside their journey.
- **Your own site**, with an embedded quote form.
- **Comparison sites**, which need fast answers at volume.

When one model serves every channel, adding a new one later is a setup task rather than a project. Swallow's [API](https://www.swallow.app/developer/api), embedded forms and chat and voice agents all price from the same model. See [sales channels](https://www.swallow.app/sales-channels).

## Watch the numbers once you're trading

The first few months show how your rates meet real demand. Keep an eye on:

- quote volume and conversion, split by channel;
- how many quotes decline or refer, and which rules are behind them;
- average premium against what the rating guide expected;
- response times, especially on busy channels.

Swallow's [Data](https://www.swallow.app/products/data) area shows live quote data, and it can produce bordereau reports for your capacity partners.

You will almost certainly change rates early. In Swallow, a change goes into a new draft copied from the live version. You run the tests, review the change and approve it, with your team's roles deciding who can approve. Then you publish it. Every step is logged with who did it and when, which is the kind of record a capacity partner asks to see. Our post on [the insurance rate change process](https://www.swallow.app/post/insurance-rate-change-process) goes through it in detail.

## Getting started

If you have a rating guide, a spreadsheet or a filing, even an early draft you're still working through with your partner, send it over and we'll talk you through getting it live on Swallow. [Get in touch](https://www.swallow.app/contact).