Business Insurance–8 Things To Know

1.  Underwriters love Google.
Make sure your website reflects whatever you put on your insurance application.  Underwriters use Google all the time to research and underwrite you.  I had a restaurant put “no Happy Hour” on their application, only to splash a big “2 for 1” Happy Hour on their web page.

2.  Avoid Insurance On Autopilot
It’s okay to let your policies automatically renew, but that doesn’t mean ignore them.  Check them for accuracy. Are your property limits right? What are your major exclusions?  You need to know.

3. Late payments
Are you late paying an insurance bill?  Call the insurance company or your agent and tell them. Insurance companies love it when you communicate with them.

4.  Audits
Being audited? Don’t ignore it!  A lot of business owners don’t see the point of an insurance audit.  Hey, the policy’s over with and nothing happened, so why the audit?  Call me if you need more explanation on this one.

5.  Tell Your Agent
If you change your business, tell your agent!  I know of a wholesale bakery that opened a “small retail outlet” to sell product.  Then I visited the site…it’s a full-blown coffee shop!  I immediately changed the liability coverage to correctly reflect the operations.

6.  Understand The Cost of Insurance
Premium isn’t the only cost of your insurance.  By focusing only on the premium, you might unwittingly forego coverage only to have a loss, and have to pay out of your own pocket.  That’s called “self-insurance.”  It’s also called “expensive.”

7.  Getting Quotes
Insurance companies take a long time to provide a quote. That’s because every underwriter has a pile of renewals (aka existing customers) that they have to process before they can do a new customer quote. One of my clients once said, “but I can get a car insurance quote in 30 minutes.”  NOT the same thing.  Most of the information an insurance company needs to quote an auto policy is online already.  Therefore, personal auto insurance has practically become a commodity.  Commercial insurance products are not. They are uniquely customized to each business owner/applicant.

8. Late Payments, Part 2
When an insurance policy has been cancelled because of late premium payments, the amount of paperwork that has to be generated to get the policy reinstated is astonishing.  It takes up a huge amount of time for the agent.  One of the worst things you can do as an insurance buyer is to be late in paying your premiums.  It’s like a credit record. It follows you around and you end up paying more for your insurance than if you had just paid on time.