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.
Employee in the News-Steve King
If you are a Patriot’s fan, you must remember Steve King, a former linebacker with the Patriots from 1973-1981. Steve is best remembered as the first player to sack 4 future Hall of Fame quarterbacks in the same year: Joe Namath, Terry Bradshaw, Fran Tarkenton, and Bob Griese.
Steve continues to remain active with the New England Patriots Alumni Club, participating in volunteer events to support and promote youth football.
He is also very involved in community service. Steve currently serves as President and Board Member of Friends of Wrentham, Inc. (F.O.W.), a non-profit organization formed in 1979 to benefit the intellectually challenged residents of the Wrentham Developmental Center. They have provided ancillary needs the state does not fund, such as a walking/jogging track, an outdoor pavilion, an equestrian program, field trips, and a fitness gym, etc.. Since it’s inception, F.O.W. has raised approximately $2.2 million to benefit the residents of WDC.
Click here to meet Steve
Client Spotlight Biscom
We are pleased to spotlight Biscom in our summer newsletter. Every day millions of users and thousands of enterprises rely on Biscom for secure and reliable document delivery solutions. Founded in 1986 Biscom developed the world’s first enterprise fax server. Since then, Biscom has developed additional solutions around secure file transfer, enterprise file synchronization and sharing, file translation, and secure mobile communication apps. Biscom also offers cybersecurity risk assessments and training.
They recently launched Biscom 123, a cloud based fax solution that gives small businesses and professionals the ability to send and receive faxes through email and mobile devices.
You can rely on Biscom’s Experience, Expertise, Reliability, Performance, and Support. We wish them continued success.
Click here to learn more about them!
Making Sense of Certificates of Insurance
Understanding The Purpose Of Certificates Of Insurance
When stores lease real estate spaces or construction firms win jobs, the party on the other end usually has a very specific set of requirements. One of the main requirements is that the tenant, contractor or borrower must show proof that he or she has adequate insurance. Copies of insurance documents may be sufficient. However, not all companies want copies of documents sitting around. Space is valuable, and most banks do not have enough room to keep such copies of originals for every customer. A very helpful substitute for document copies is a Certificate of Insurance (COI). This item is simple to create and store. Unfortunately, not all firms and insurance buyers fully understand them.
ACORD constructed the forms that are most commonly used. Their instructions show that these certificates are intended for informational purposes. When some businesses receive these certificates, they think the items are contracts. However, the certificate is simply a snapshot of insurance provisions. It does indicate that a policy exists, but it is not the document that actually provides coverage. The only document that actually provides coverage when shown is the policy itself.
Standard certificates by ACORD state that insurers must provide advance notice to holders if policies are cancelled. Although policyholders rely on these words, they do not create a legal bond between the two parties. The only thing that can obligate the companies to give advance notice is the policy’s specific provisions. Many businesses want these certificates to have specific terms, phrases or words. However, agents have legal boundaries for such requests. The only way agents can add wording to a certificate is if the listed policies contain that wording. Changes are not always allowed.
Many states prohibit agents from handing out certificates implying provisions that are not included in the policies. For example, a certificate holder may want the item to state that coverage is primary and noncontributory. However, policies that do not reflect such information cannot have certificates indicate otherwise. Agents who add language implying otherwise could be in a great deal of trouble. Only the endorsements insurers issue can change policies. If an agent issues a certificate implying a change, this is a violation of the individual’s contract with the insurer and a violation of state insurance law.
Before you sign contracts including insurance provisions, we recommend verifying you comply with the coverage requirements. While we cannot provide any legal interpretations for the contract, we can certainly review the insurance provision and provide in-depth advice about the cost and availability of any missing elements. In some cases we may need to provide you with estimates for adding additional insurance coverages or increasing current limits. We can only issue certificates after coverage is in place. If certificates are used appropriately, they are valuable business tools. However, they can cause problems when they are used incorrectly.