Small Business Insurance Claims: The Danger Of Untimely Filings (VIDEO)

When an issue arises at your place of business, what are the first steps you take after it’s resolved?

As a business owner, there is limited time for you to deal with a problem and keep everything else running smoothly. As a result, it may not occur to you to reach out to your insurance agent to let them know what transpired. While this is understandable, given all of the responsibilities that demand your time and attention, it can lead to problems down the road.

In the video below, Alan explains the pitfalls of not keeping your insurance agent in the loop when something occurs at your small business.

Video Transcript:

Hey, it’s Alan from InsureYourCompany.com. Today, what I’d like to talk about is untimely filing.

What do I mean by untimely filing?

Well, all of you have various forms of insurance and insurance policies. You have your general liability, your workers’ compensation; you might have professional liability or employment practices liability, whatever that is. While you’re running your business, while your business is operating, things happen.

You know what? If something happens, notify your insurance guy. Let them know something has happened. If you don’t and something is not notified on a timely basis, the insurance company can say, “Oops, it’s not covered. It’s an untimely filing.”

I’m not talking about one day or two days. We have various instances where clients learn of issues, and then months go by and they forget to call us up. They forget to notify us, and then 6-8 months later, they get an attorney letter. Why weren’t we notified when you found out?

What’s the worse that’s going to happen? We file a claim and nothing goes from there. But if that problem persists and comes back to haunt you, we already notified the carrier. Now, this can be for anything because once you notify the insurance company, then you have it on record that something was done.

If you have any sort of attorneys or deal with attorneys on a regular basis, you should notify them that you have coverages, that you have all of the insurances you have. Because then, if an issues comes up and you notify your attorney, he’s aware of the insurance you have.

We have had multiple incidents where you’ve contacted your attorneys and they fail to ask you if you have insurance for that particular issue—say, an employment practices issue. So the attorney is busy defending you when the insurance company would be responsible to pay the bills.

So here is what I have to say: If something happens, be it workers’ comp, be it general liability, even if you don’t know where it falls—call up your insurance guy. Let them know that there was an issue; let them file it. Don’t worry. Just filing is not going to raise your premium dollars.

Why do you have insurance if you’re not going to let the insurance company do their job?

This is Alan form InsureYourCompany.com. I’ll be talking to you.

Since 2001, InsureYourCompany.com has been working with New Jersey small businesses to protect their assets and provide great employee benefits. For a free insurance quote for your business, click the banner below to contact our team of experts.