Commercial insurance underwriters spend hours manually verifying business details for every policy application. Is the business actually registered? Is the contractor license current? Are there federal violations on record?
Most of this data is publicly available -- but scattered across dozens of government portals with no unified API.
Here's how to automate the verification pipeline using free public data sources.
The underwriting verification problem
A typical commercial policy application requires verifying:
- Business entity status -- Is it active, dissolved, or suspended?
- Officer/agent information -- Who actually controls this entity?
- Contractor licenses -- For construction risks, is the license current?
- Federal registrations -- SAM.gov status for government contractors
- OSHA violations -- Workplace safety history
- SEC filings -- For larger accounts, financial health indicators
Underwriters currently check these manually, one portal at a time. A single commercial application can take 30-60 minutes of pure data gathering before any actual risk analysis begins.
Automating with public data APIs
1. Secretary of State business verification
Every state maintains a business entity database. These tell you whether a business is active, when it was formed, who the registered agent is, and whether it's in good standing.
Key states for commercial insurance volume:
- California -- CA SOS Business Search ($4.00/1K results)
- Texas -- TX SOS Business Search ($3.50/1K results)
- Florida -- FL SOS Business Filings ($3.50/1K results)
- New York -- NY SOS Business Search ($3.50/1K results)
- Illinois -- IL SOS Business Search ($3.50/1K results)
These APIs return entity status, formation date, registered agent, and officer names -- exactly the fields underwriters need to verify an applicant's legitimacy.
2. Contractor license verification
For construction and trades insurance, verifying active licensure is critical. An expired or suspended license changes the risk profile entirely.
- California CSLB -- CSLB License Lookup ($4.00/1K results)
- Texas TDLR -- TDLR License Search ($3.50/1K results)
Returns license status, classification, bond information, and disciplinary history.
3. Federal registration and compliance
- SAM.gov -- SAM.gov Entity Search ($3.50/1K results) -- Federal contractor registration status, exclusion records, CAGE codes
- SEC EDGAR -- SEC EDGAR Filings Search ($3.50/1K results) -- Financial filings for publicly traded applicants
- FDA Recalls -- FDA Recalls Search ($3.00/1K results) -- Product recall history for product liability risks
4. Business contact and location verification
- YellowPages -- YellowPages Scraper ($3.50/1K results) -- Verify business address, phone, hours, and whether the business has a real presence
Building an automated verification pipeline
With n8n or Make.com, you can chain these lookups into a single workflow:
- Trigger: New policy application arrives
- Step 1: Extract company name and state from application
- Step 2: Run SOS business entity search for that state
- Step 3: If contractor class, run license verification
- Step 4: Run SAM.gov check for federal exclusions
- Step 5: Compile verification report
The entire pipeline runs in under 60 seconds and costs pennies per application.
What this replaces
| Manual process | Automated |
|---|---|
| 30-60 min per application | < 1 minute |
| $15-25 labor cost per check | $0.02-0.05 per check |
| Inconsistent coverage | Same checks every time |
| No audit trail | Full API response logs |
Getting started
All of these data sources are available as Apify actors with pay-per-result pricing. No monthly minimums, no contracts. Run them on-demand or schedule recurring checks.
Each actor works standalone via API call, or can be integrated into n8n/Make.com workflows for full automation.
Browse all available data actors: pink_comic on Apify
Building automation tools for lead gen and business verification. More guides at dev.to/avabuildsdata.
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