Insurance Insights: The Cleary Insurance Blog
The Cleary Insurance blog covers insurance, risk management, and financial planning for New England businesses and individuals. Our team of licensed advisors and specialists publishes regular articles on commercial and personal coverage, employee benefits, life and financial planning, and insurance compliance. Browse recent articles below, or use the category filters to find topics relevant to your business or personal situation.
Myth Busted: Entrepreneurs are NOT actually risk takers
Entrepreneurs are often mislabeled as “risk takers,” while in reality the most successful ones make calculated and mindful decisions. This sense of purpose and deliberation comprise a few of the qualities that differentiate successful entrepreneurs from the average risk taker.
A risk takers’ biggest mistake is depending too much on chance. Too often, they lay everything on the line, and thus significantly fail, sometimes without the means to pick themselves back up.
In our experience, the difference between a risk taker and an entrepreneur is that the latter create innovative ways to reduce risk. In fact, they actively avoid risk and are dedicated to planning every small step to achieve their goals.
Tell-Tale Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur
Here’s a cohesive list of characteristics that make an entrepreneur successful:
- Ambition. They are always on the lookout for the next inspiration
- Effective manager of time. Many entrepreneurs are juggling multiple projects at once
- Delegation is key. They know that success doesn’t come alone
- Confident and self-assured. You’re taking a chance on yourself, so you better believe you can accomplish your goals.
- Socialable and well-liked. It’s a truth of the trade. You have to be the person other people want to work with.
- Thick-skinned. You will fail many times before you hit the jackpot.
- Creative thinker. Not every idea is original. Many entrepreneurs leverage an existing service or product, and make it better.
- Solid communicator. Wasting time because of poor communication is not a luxury an entrepreneur can afford.
- Knows when to step away. From the computer, from a project … a smart entrepreneur knows when to take a break and recharge.
- Proactive. No one will seek your service or product out in the beginning and it’s up to you to make your voice heard.
It’s important for any business owner to take these aspects into consideration—no matter what type of business you run. Keeping these tidbits in mind may help you become a better owner, leader and entrepreneur along the way.
3 Important Tips for Filing your Commercial Insurance Claim
Whether the damage is small or large, tangible or not, any business owner in the process of filing a commercial insurance claim faces a good deal of stress. More time and effort is needed to maintain the business while repairs are negotiated with the insurance policy provider.
We encourage small businesses to take a look at policies every 2-3 years to ensure they’re properly covered. Prevention is also key: owners should evaluate possible threats to the business, develop recovery plans, and test those plans all in advance.
Scott Lacourse, a contributing writer for the Boston Business Journal, makes a crucial note in relation to small businesses:
“Many small businesses skip insurance altogether, or fail to get the coverage they need to cope with incidents like major flooding. Almost 40 percent of small businesses never reopen following a disaster, according to FEMA.”
The strength of this data demonstrates the importance of analyzing acquired insurance policies and minimizing the effects of destructive events. However, should an occurrence arise, we’ve put together three tips to help with your next (or current) commercial insurance claim:
Be attentive to coverage policy time periods
If a claim must be made, owners should take considerable care in filing the claim within the temporal parameters set by the insurance provider. Otherwise, extra costs and impediments may extend the amount of time for recuperation.
Below is a chart that outlines the time-based functions of certain insurance policies as they handle declared claims and actual occurrences.
If you have questions specific to your policy, contact your agent. However, rest assured that, as shown above, real occurrences (during the policy period) will most always be covered, “no matter how much later they are reported.”
Take inventory, record documents, and stay organized
The evidence for a claim to be submitted needs to be kept together and controlled. Keeping track of all damage is crucial if these problems are to be resolved efficiently.
Some ways to organize include taking inventory of all materials affected, protecting all documents and copies that may be related to the incident, and even taking pictures or procuring a claim from the police (if the situation is applicable).
It also wouldn’t hurt to stay in touch and follow up with the people involved, especially your insurance adjuster.
Hire a loss management team
In the case of large claims, owners might consider hiring a loss management team.
A loss management team could consist of a professional loss specialist, legal expert, or forensic accountant who would help file the claim. Commercial insurance claims are of a legal nature, after all, and if business owners are not experts in this field, it could help to have someone who is on their side.
This decision, again, would depend upon the severity of the incident that caused the claim and if the owner would find such a support group financially feasible—as it would involve added costs.
Liability Insurance: What is NOT Covered
Most corporations opt for some form of liability insurance, and small businesses are no exception. But if you’re new to the world of risk management, the first question to ask yourself is: what exactly is liability insurance?
General liability insurance – often referred to as commercial insurance – is best described as coverage for damages that the insured becomes legally obligated to pay due to bodily injury, property damage or personal and advertising injury arising from the insured’s premises, operations, completed operations and products. Essentially, for both personal injury and property damage claims, you are covered for related legal fees, costs and expenses.
Important aspects of running a business that is covered by this type of insurance include:
- The cost of legal defense and any settlement or award should an owner be successfully sued;
- Protection against any liability an owner would face as a tenant of damaged rented property.
Some policies can also cover misleading advertising claims, including libel, slander, and copyright infringement.
So what is not covered in your liability insurance plan? Below is a general list of items that are not included in this type of insurance, but will vary by policy.
Employee medical expenses
- Damage to property owned by the business
- Vehicles or employees injured in a company vehicle
- Any damage or injury that involves a person in the company
To summarize, damages to anything owned by the business are not covered; that’s why liability insurance is called a “third party” insurance.
Tips for Selecting the Best General Liability Insurance for Your Business
Understanding the potential risks to your business is a fundamental way to begin this process, because the plan you might need really depends on the type of business you own.
For example, a building contractor faces much higher risks of injury and actual damage to his or her business than, say, a web designer’s business—simply due to the kind of work involved.
Once you have recognized your own business needs, the next step is to fully read the coverage policies. It may seem obvious, but it’s crucial to understand what certain agencies are offering in order to choose the best policy for you.
Something else to consider is the Business Owner’s Policy (BOP), a package deal that most often includes property, general liability, vehicular, and business interruption protection. This option streamlines the process and may cost less than purchasing multiple coverages from different insurers. Again, however, if your business has unique demands that are not covered by an umbrella policy such as the BOP, you may need to invest in additional plans.
If you have any questions regarding liability insurance policies, don’t hesitate to contact a Cleary representative. We’re here to help you protect your business and narrow down the coverages that your company truly needs.