When buying insurance these days, there are a few options. You can go to a captive agent, an agent that represents one company, or you can buy from an independent insurance agent. And there is always the option to call an 800# and get it over the phone or over the internet.

Captive agents seem to spend the most on marketing and advertising, so I think that’s why most people seem to gravitate towards them. Captive agents represent one company. Most, if not all, are probably “A Rated (www.ambest.com)”.

Independent insurance agents probably spend the least out of everyone advertising, so that is why some people are unfamiliar with them. These agents represent many companies, usually at least five. Some companies they represent- Travelers, The Hartford, Safeco, and Progressive Drive. Not familiar with these companies? It is said that Travelers actually wrote the first auto insurance policy in 1897. You can think of an independent as an agent/broker. They’re not tied to one company, so if your insurance rate goes up, they can look at other options. When it comes to commercial/business insurance independents can also quote your insurance with various carriers, which is very important because different insurance companies have different appetites for different businesses.

Another option is to call an 800 Number or go online and get insurance. Could this be the future of insurance? esurance seems to be off to a good start. Call an 800# or go online and manage your policy. Their commercials are kind of catchy that’s for sure.

If you are looking around for a business or commercial insurance quote, you have, thanks to the internet and computers, a vast array of choices. Gone are the days when your only chance of getting a quote was to make an appointment either to go and see or to have a broker visit you.

Brokers are still the preferred route to go in most cases because of positive government intervention. On the 15th January 2005, it became illegal for an insurance broker to trade or provide advice without being either directly or indirectly authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Of course, as with most aspects of big government this has gone to far and there are so many rules and the fees are so high that brokers are starting to complain.

However, the original 2005 idea still stands true in 2010. A broker has to provide professional advice to anyone that contacts them for a quote. They can, if they wish, charge a fee for this service. But, in reality, all brokers will be quite happy to speak to you, either in person or over the phone, to decide on your needs and wants and arrange a quote accordingly.

There are, as mentioned earlier, alternatives to speaking to a broker. This is where things can become difficult. Everyone has got used, over the years, to meerkats and red cars telling us to phone them or go on the net to get a quote. For car, travel and house insurance, this is the right place to go. The quote process is simple and you have the option of picking and choosing your levels of excess and extensions.

But, as far as small business insurance is concerned, is this a realistic option to be considered or not? Whilst it is not as complex as commercial liability insurance, it is still a product that you, the business owner, should discuss with a broker. Speaking to more than one broker is an absolute must. The reasons for this are that certain commercial insurance companies do not feel, administratively, that it is cost effective to sell small business insurance. So, they set their minimum premium levels at GBP 500 or GBP 1,000. If you get a quote from one of these companies, it may be put to you as the most competitive, but if you shop around you can probably get this cheaper.

You should also understand the difference between a broker, an appointed representative and a direct insurer. A broker must be able to obtain a range of quotes for you from different insurers or underwriters. An appointed representative, or A.R., is not independent. They only provide quotes from a selected, sometimes just one, group of insurers. A direct insurer is just that, it is one insurance company selling its own products.

The analogy to use is buying a used car. If you are not after a particular model or brand, but you know you want four doors and a boot, then you go to a used dealer that sells different makes and models. You then make your choice based on the variety on offer. Small business insurance is exactly the same. You may come across a website whose strap line is that they will compare business insurance for you. However, they are only comparing their specific range of products, which could have high excesses, onerous terms or small print that will stop a claim being paid, as a worst case scenario. The problem is, who is there to advise you whether to take out the GBP 600, the GBP 625 or the GBP 700 quote?

A broker will do this for you, and in the extremely unlikely event of them being wrong in years to come, you can claim against them for negligent advice, if this is the case. If you buy from a website, without speaking to anyone, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) is never more true.

Do you run a small business? Is your business insured? If not you could be risking your and your business’ future.

Learn about business insurance, and see why its today’s business lifeboat.

Expensive if You Don’t Use It – Cheap if You Do

The cost of doing business today is rising all the time, its true. Salaries and worker’s benefits are taking a bigger chunk of your profits.

Taxes are always a key consideration, and material costs are rising as well. Add to this insurance, and you have a real significant number on your cost of doing business column (on your profit and loss statement).

When looking at insurance you will be amazed as the amount of risks you are obliged to cover.

There are the obvious accidents or acts of nature risks, worker’s compensation, health and retirement plans, but then there are a host of other risks that can, and many should be insured.

It’s a maximum that all insurance is expensive if you don’t use it, but very cheap if you do.

The “Got To Have” Business Insurance Risks

Here is a list of basic insurance risks that every business should cover;

o Fire, Theft, Water Damage, and Malicious Damage to your business location

o All required worker insurance obligations, and for good worker relations, some perk insurance for employees, like some group private health plan, and retirement fund.

o Product liability if you are producing a product

o Transportation insurance for all your vehicles (full Casco advised)

o Fidelity insurance if your employees handle money. This may be a really indispensable pre-paid asset to your business.

The “Nice to Have” Business Insurance Risks

o Business interruption insurance

o 3rd Party Liability if you are producing a product for wide distribution

o Litigation insurance

o Damage due to civil disobedience and terrorist activity

o Business specific items

Buying Insurance

The choice of buying insurance is becoming a tiresome activity with so many options and prices (and insurance terms), that finding and using a good broker may be your best bet

The insurance broker has some advantages over using one company exclusively.

The broker can shop around, negotiate directly with underwriters (which you cannot do), and tailor make some policies for you.

The cost of using a broker may be easily absorbed by the lower cost of the insurance he provides you and your business.

You must make very sure of the broker’s qualifications, and demand a list of companies and underwriters he deals with.

Ask for a client list, and his inclusion in professional insurance societies. A search on the internet is also helpful. When you are satisfied, start using the broker to plan your business insurance risk profile and coverage plan.

If you had been receiving health insurance coverage through COBRA, termination of your benefits is an inevitable eventuality that you must most surely face. Until now, you had been enjoying the benefits of continued health coverage from your former employer. But COBRA, as mandated by government law, is intended only to help ex-employees “bridge the gap” until you find new health insurance coverage on your own.

If you have not been able to obtain insurance coverage through a new employer by the time COBRA termination of coverage s set to occur, then you will need to explore other options. If you are married, perhaps you may need to become a dependent on his or her employer’s insurance plan, if available.

Obtaining your own private, individual insurance plan is your other option.

As you may have no doubt already discovered first-hand, individual health insurance can be significantly more expensive than the group insurance plans offered by employers. You have experienced this already first-hand with COBRA, having to pay the entire cost of insurance coverage on your own. And you will experience this again when your COBRA termination takes effect and you must go out shopping for private insurance.

COBRA termination can be a time of uncertainty if you have always been accustomed to receiving insurance benefits through an employer.

The good news is that COBRA termination may actually end up saving you money. When it comes to shopping around for private health insurance, you have a much greater array of options in terms of health plans to choose from. In some cases, these may end up saving you money over what you were paying under your COBRA insurance plan.

The time to review your insurance coverage is not when your holding the soaking wet documents in your hands while listening to that sucking sound of your boots in the mud and muck. Yet for many small business owners this is the case. Often the worst financial implications occur in this disaster after the initial disaster.

As a small business owner time is difficult taskmaster. In the daily grind many small business owners fail to take the time to adequately review their insurance coverage. Or perhaps you and your agent are old buddies and in your comfort zone the friendship may obfuscate your review of certain changes from year to year.

In the past twenty years of managing disaster recovery work around the nation we can attest to the very sad incidents when the business owner or manager suddenly realizes that he or she is not going to make it. Only days before, the biggest issue may have been making a delivery deadline. Suddenly it is his or her own business survival that is in the spotlight. How did this happen? Often owners think they have all the bases covered, only to be blindsided by disastrous events.

In recent memory we can recall the school that had their canopy ripped off by a bus only to find out that the local building department was going to require $250,000 in accessibility modifications. There was the law firm that needed to freeze dry vital documents for hundreds of clients only to realize their $25,000 in coverage was less than 25% of what they would be invoiced. Then there were several clients whose business interruption coverage didn’t last nearly as long as hurricane debris remained in their street.

Take the time to review your changing business insurance needs annually. Consider all your critical processes that are necessary for your survival. What are your vulnerabilities? Can you eliminate any by changes in your operation or facility? Can you mitigate certain exposures? Finally, will insurance cover your needs and any potential gaps?

Make sure you consider all the perils that your business may be exposed to. The Insurance Information Institute offers this definition of a peril: “A specific risk or cause of loss covered by an insurance policy, such as a fire, windstorm, flood, or theft. A named-peril policy covers the policyholder only for the risks named in the policy in contrast to an all-risk policy, which covers all causes of loss except those specifically excluded.”

Many of the key areas of coverage are listed below:

- Buildings and other structures, leased or owned
- Furniture, equipment, and supplies
- Leased equipment
- Inventory
- Money and securities
- Records of accounts receivable
- Improvements you made to the premises
- Machinery
- Boilers
- Data processing equipment and media, including computers
- Ordinance (building code requirements)
- Valuable papers, books, and documents
- Mobile property, such as automobiles, trucks, and construction equipment
- Signs, fences, and other outdoor property not attached to a building
- Intangible property (goodwill, trademarks, etc.)

In preparation for your annual insurance review we offer a few items for your consideration:

1. Take the time to meet with your agent, your attorney and your accountant for an annual summit to review your current position and your insurance needs.
2. Review valuations and requirements to assure yourself that you will not experience a co-insurance problem.
3. Make certain you understand the specifics of your business interruption coverage. What happens if you experience financial damage as a result o a local or regional power failure? Are you covered if a key supplier or vendor is incapable to perform because of some catastrophic event?
4. We recommend that you make certain that you have a very clear understanding of what perils you are protected against. Ask questions. Discuss for example, the difference in coverage for damage resulting from water sources: a burst pipe, a leaking foundation, sewage backup, hurricane waters or flooding from a river or ground water.
5. Make a good property and equipment inventory. Take the time to take a video or take digital photos to document your holdings. Do some calculation to ascertain the spread between what you paid for them originally and what it might cost you to replace them today.
6. In our information driven age, be certain you have adequate coverage for all your IT components, communication equipment and data loss. Many small businesses maybe ruined financially, in short order, by events that compromise their hardware, software or data storage.
7. Understand your building’s level of compliance with current building and life safety codes. This is one of the most overlooked issues that we see nationally. It doesn’t matter how much you paid for your building. It doesn’t matter what it would cost to rebuild it as is. The critical question is “What would it cost to rebuild this building to be code compliant today. You may have to face this code compliance issue if your property suffered partial damage, short of a total loss.
8. Are there any regulatory requirements that may arise post disaster? How will those costs of compliance be covered?
9. What is the process or filing a claim? How should it be reported? Will you hear from a company adjuster or an independent? What is the usual time line? What are the procedures in the event of a regional disaster
10. Take the time to develop a disaster plan. Even the very basic format will help to contain the potential financial downside of any disaster, while hastening your return to normal business operations.

Have you had problems finding insurance companies in Ireland who offer savings on insurance? Very often residents come across brick walls when looking for competitive quotes on various types of insurance, particularly car insurance. When they apply online with some companies offering cover they often come to a stop upon reaching the part that states “not available to residents of Northern Ireland”. If you want access to savings on car insurance and live in NI then you might want to take advantage of a specialist car insurance website to search for you.

Why do some insurance providers fail to offer those living in Northern Ireland insurance?

One of the factors taken into account by all insurance providers and which go towards setting the cost of the insurance is security. Many years ago, cars were often stolen and used as burning barricades; this was at a time when there was great unrest in NI. Of course, this meant that motorists in Northern Ireland were seen to be a greater risk and so insurance companies were unwilling to take a chance or premiums were very high to compensate for this.

Things have changed thankfully and there are a number of companies who may be able to provide competitively priced cover for your car if you live in Northern Ireland. 

Improve the safety of your car

As mentioned above one of the main factors is security and the safety of your vehicle. You may be able to cut down the cost of your insurance if you install such things as:

·         An alarm system

·         A tracking device

·         An immobiliser

·         Have the windows of your car etched with your registration

·         Park your vehicle in your garage if you have one

·         Park it under a carport on a driveway at the side of your home

Other ways you may be able to save on your premiums

You may also want to consider paying more in the way of excess on the policy. Insurance companies in Ireland ask that you pay the minimum amount but by offering to pay more, you may keep the premiums a little bit lower. In the event of a claim, you do of course need to pay the excess in a lump sum before the insurance company takes over so bear this in mind when choosing how much voluntary excess you wish to pay.

Going into business for yourself is a very big and admirable step. It can also seem daunting. When you make the decision to become self-employed, one of the first things you will want to do is make sure you and your business are as prepared as possible for the path you have ahead of you. One way you can prepare is to make sure you have the right insurance to cover you professional and personal needs. As your insurance options can seem limitless, the following are examples of insurance you will need to keep you covered as you go into business for yourself.

The first type of insurance you will need is some kind of medical or health coverage. Now that you are self-employed and not covered under some employer’s plan, you need to be sure that you will be covered in case of a medical emergency. Even if there is no emergency, health insurance is important just for the regular maintenance of one’s health. With a little bit of research online you will find a number of individual health plans available. Along with health insurance, a good dental plan is also recommend as they are not always automatically included under health insurance plans.

Although your health is important, the health of your business is also important. Along with medical and dental insurance, liability insurance is also another must when going into business for oneself. With liability insurance your business is protected as well as your personal assets, in case you are faced with a law suit. Even as a self-employed individual with no employees, and no clients you interact with face-to-face, you never know when your business will come under attack, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. There are many possibilities available with liability insurance as well, so you would be wise to do your research on plans before committing to a particular plan.

Beginning any new business venture requires time, effort and a lot of preparation. Preparing yourself with the basic insurance to protect yourself and your business is not only good business, but smart decision-making on your part. The Internet is a terrific resource for researching different insurance plans. It is also highly recommended that you contact some insurance agents directly to see what discounts they can offer. You never know, if you are in need of more than one plan, the agent might be able to come up with a package that covers all of your insurance needs at a discounted rate. Be resourceful and patient, and you will be well on your way to protecting your health and financial future.

By: Govy

Thinking of what type of policies your business needs becomes very confusing. To resolve this problem, keep in mind that all business insurance and all policy types should cover one of four things: property, liability, people or income.

Be sure to prepare a list of all properties, potential liabilities, people and income of for your business so you will be able to look into the policy descriptions that best fits your need.

These things are part of your business operation and it is very important to consider even the smallest detail of your operation. Nobody is perfect nor safe at any given time or situation, so it is very crucial to choose what is best for you and your business.

Photo credit here

Quality insurance sales training is one of the most important aspects of keeping an insurance business profitable and creating a good name for yourself within the community you serve. There are several key components of quality insurance sales training, including needs analysis, features and benefits, objection handling, and closing skills. In addition to these common things, however, a good insurance sales training program will teach the prospective insurance salesperson how to reach out to the customer and build trust.

The first four components of insurance sales training is textbook sort of stuff. A prospective insurance salesperson will need to learn how to evaluate the needs of a potential client. Any insurance sales training class or manual should place this skill right out front. This means imparting to the prospective insurance salesperson the knowledge of how to figure out what a potential client needs. In order to do this, the insurance salesperson needs to figure out things like how much, if any property does the potential client own, and does that client own or rent his or her residence. The family situation must be taken into account as well the insurance salesperson will need to know if anyone depends financially upon the potential client. While each case in particular is pretty standard, being able to look at all the needs of a potential client, as a whole, can take some time and training.

Features and benefits is closely related to needs analysis. Insurance sales training should include as part of the curriculum, how to quickly and accurately identify a policy that will fit best with the potential client. It should be a close fit for your potential client, but perhaps most importantly, the insurance salesperson should be able to identify the right policy without looking through a bunch of manuals or giving the client any reason to doubt the insurance salesperson’s knowledge or ability.

This leads into the next key component of insurance sales training, which is objection handling. If the insurance salesperson has quickly and accurately identified a policy that will fit the potential client, a couple of things will result from that. First of all, the fact that the insurance salesperson is quick and accurate will remove some doubts and objections all on its own. Secondly, having identified the right policy will also remove objections, since it should include everything the potential client is looking for. Of course, there may still be objections, but a quality insurance sales training program will prepare the insurance salesperson to deal with all sorts of objections in from many different types of people in many different situations.

Once all the objections are handled, it is time to close the deal. Learning to close the deal is, obviously, a very important thing, as all types of sales and a quality insurance sales training program will recognize this. If you don’t learn how to close the deal, then learning all the other steps is a waste of time. All good insurance sales training programs will spend a good amount of time teaching potential insurance salespeople how to close a deal effectively.

There is one other element that successful insurance salespeople have that should be included in a high quality insurance training program. That is the skill of building a trust and rapport with the potential client. This is a process that supersedes all the other processes, happening while all the other steps are taking place. If an insurance salesperson builds up a trust and positive rapport with a client, it makes all the other steps just that much easier. For example, needs analysis is easier if the potential client will open up and talk about his or her lifestyle and concerns. Connecting personally with clients is one of the most important things an insurance salesperson can learn in an insurance sales training program.

Many people who now have either a 1st or 2nd job working from home, mistakenly think their homeowner insurance will cover this venture. Homeowners insurance was never meant to cover business pursuits and thus, has exclusions built in to not pick up this coverage.

You need to review your own situation to see what the risks are. Do you cut hair in a spare room and have people coming into your home? Do you do taxes, also inviting clients into your home? Or do you have an online business, with little or no physical contact with customers? What risks does what you do present to putting your home at risk?

For example, business property (your computer, your desk, your inventory) are covered for no more than $2,500 on a homeowner policy. And business liability is almost never picked up by a homeowner policy. Some very low risk businesses, like an accountant, could “extend” liability from a homeowner policy to cover their risk. But 98% of the businesses out there cannot do this, they must get a separate business liability policy.

This can be dome with either an “In Home Business” policy or with a Business Owners Policy (BOP in insurance lingo is what we call it). Find an independent insurance professional who can help you determine what risks your home-based business has and whether a separate insurance policy is required. Be a smart business owner and know what risks you face. Don’t assume something, only to find out after a claim, that you are not covered.