May 2018 - InsureYourCompany

Understanding the various insurance requirements that apply to your business is critical, including those related to commercial auto insurance. This is especially true when you don’t own vehicles, but hire them from time to time.

If you work with outside vendors, you need to explore your auto policy to find out if it is sufficient. Many vendors have an “ANY AUTO” requirement in place. This means that you need to have insurance on ANY vehicle that is being used in conjunction with your work with them, whether it is hired, non-owned, or otherwise.

Who Needs This Coverage?

Consider the fact that many small businesses require customers to carry insurance that will cover all of the owned, hired, and even non-owned vehicles. This includes builders, general contractors, trade contractors, landscapers, florists, and other select businesses.

But there’s a problem. If you opt for Hired or Non-Owned auto coverage, you can’t purchase Any Auto coverage. Additionally, you have to understand that Any Auto coverage extends liability coverage only. This means you won’t have the coverage for physical damages, such as comprehensive or collision.

Consider the Timing

Accidents happen all the time. If you are a general contractor and you have a commercial auto insurance policy, you may buy another vehicle prior to your policy being renewed. If you get into an accident and have forgotten to tell your insurance company of this new truck, it can pose a variety of problems—unless you have an Any Auto coverage policy.

Obviously, this could provide you with the protection that you need so you don’t get a claim denied simply because you forgot to think about this one minor detail. This means you have to look at what your options really are.

Explore Liability Deficiencies

What kind of liability deficiencies are currently found in your policies? If you can only get one or the other in terms of policies, then there may be other options available. This is when it can be beneficial to speak with an insurance agent.

You may be able to sign a letter or affidavit on your company’s letterhead. If you don’t own any vehicles and you are submitting only Hired and Non-Owned auto coverage or you want to be exempt from having to maintain automobile liability coverage, this may be an option available to you.

The letter or affidavit would need to identify that you do not own any vehicles. You will also need to indicate that if you acquire a vehicle during the term of your contract, you agree to maintain automobile liability coverage based on the date of the acquisition.

Associate vendors would need to provide a certificate of insurance to show that automobile liability insurance is waived. It also needs to identify that the associate vendor will not hold the contractor or client responsible for damages, losses, or claims that may occur.

There is a significant amount of fine print that is associated with this kind of situation. Unfortunately, not all policies work well together.

When you are looking at Any Auto coverage, you have to explore the various exceptions, restrictions, and deficiencies that exist within the policy. By working closely with an insurance agent, you can ensure that you get the coverage that is needed while overcoming any requirements that are in place from your vendors.

With a little bit of advanced planning and having the foresight to sign an affidavit, you can have the protection that is needed without spending a fortune.

The first steps of a brand new journey can be daunting. Whether you’re starting your own small business, making a significant personal change in your life, or anything in between, starting out often feels like standing on the edge of a precipice—it’s hard to tell what’s on the other side, and that can be scary.

When you start to feel that tickle of doubt, don’t forget your most powerful ally: your mind.

By visualizing your goals and how you are going to achieve them, you can actually light the way to your success and take uncertainty out of the equation. That’s the power of the mind.

In this installment of our Law of Success video series, Alan Levenson explains what it means to visualize success and explores how your mind can be your strongest asset on your journey.

Check back on the blog or subscribe to our YouTube channel for new videos delivered every other week.

As the owner of a small business, you need to make sure that your workforce—no matter how big or small—knows that you appreciate them and are looking out for them. After all, today’s employees are often looking for more than just a steady paycheck. They also want to know that their leadership has their back.

One effective way of doing this is by providing group health insurance benefits.

Now, don’t panic—you have options. Since there is no such thing as a generic health plan, however, you will have to identify a few things ahead of time to be sure you’re picking the right one. The more you know about your needs as a company, the easier it will be to customize a plan to be a true employee benefit.

1. Know What You’re Looking For

You need to know more about the type of insurance you want to be able to offer your employees. Consider such things as adding dental and vision to the plan to give them a more comprehensive benefits package.

You may also want to explore HMO (choose within a plan) versus PPO (choose any provider) versus health spending accounts (a set amount of money in the account to spend from). Some of this may be based on focus groups that you have already held with your employees to discuss the possibility of offering group health insurance. They may have their own opinions as to what you need to be looking for, so it is a good idea to ask for their opinions.

2. Know Who’s Interested

The cost of health insurance for groups will depend significantly on how large the group is. You may have 500 employees and only 10% are interested. This would mean that you are shopping for a group health insurance plan for approximately 50 employees. Then again, you may have 10,000 employees and 40% are interested, resulting in approximately 4,000 people needing health insurance within your group.

Do a little bit of research and give your employees a survey so you can get more information in terms of who might be interested in obtaining health insurance.

3. Know What You’re Willing to Contribute to Employee’s Premiums

Employers will often contribute to the employee premiums. This is considered a premium benefit. In fact, many employees will ask about group health insurance plans prior to accepting employment. You may be able to lure a number of qualified individuals to your payroll by offering a better set of premiums than other companies within your industry.

The more you contribute, the less your employees will have to pay. It also identifies as being a better employee benefit. Of course, you don’t have to contribute anything. However, you need to know how much you are willing to contribute prior to receiving any kind of quote.

4. Understand Timeframes (3-4 Weeks to Implement a Group Plan)

It’s important to consider the kind of timeframe you are looking at for rolling out group health insurance to your employees. You may be looking at implementing something a few weeks away or a few months away. This may impact the total costs involved.

Health plans are constantly changing. What prices are available now may not be available when you’re ready to obtain your plans. You also have to consider the amount of time you want to keep open enrollment open for the initial sign-up period.

5. Trust Your Agent

One of the main reasons to work with a professional insurance agent is to tap into their knowledge. They will be able to guide you through the various group health insurance options available to your company based upon how many people will likely be in the group, as well as how much you are willing to contribute. A variety of questions will be asked by the agent to better understand your unique circumstances.

It will be a lot easier if you trust your agent to make decisions for you. While all final decisions are yours, they will provide you with comparisons as well as recommendations. Be confident that they are doing what is best for you and your company.

Making the decision to obtain group health insurance is a great one as your employees will appreciate the benefit. It is not something that you can jump into immediately without thinking a few things through. Start talking with your employees to find out what they have to say about their health insurance needs and wants.

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is one of those industries that everyone relies on. Every physical structure needs a mechanism for temperature control and ventilation, and experts are always needed to ensure things get done right.

But HVAC is also an industry rife with a lot of risk—that’s why insurance plays such a big role in running a successful company.

Whether you’re just starting an HVAC company or you’re hoping to make sure you have all the coverage you need for your existing business, it’s important to understand the types of insurance that are necessary for protection.

Commercial auto insurance is one of the most important keys to ensuring that your HVAC company is protected in the event of accidents.

What is Commercial Auto Insurance?

Commercial auto insurance, like the insurance you get for your personal vehicle, ensures that you’re protected when you’re out on the road. It provides protection like:

Liability insurance, which will cover the cost to other drivers when you or your employees get into an accident;
Comprehensive insurance, which will replace both your vehicle and the other one involved in the accident;
Medical coverage that will take care of hospital costs, ambulance costs, and any injuries sustained during an accident;
Uninsured motorist coverage, which protects you and your employees if you’re not at fault during an accident, but the person who is at fault doesn’t have insurance coverage or a way to pay for the accident.

The difference between commercial and personal liability insurance is simple: Personal auto insurance covers you when you’re driving to private destinations in your own vehicle. Commercial auto insurance, on the other hand, protects both you and your employees any time you’re driving a company vehicle or using a personal vehicle for transportation related to your daily job duties, whether it be picking up materials at the local home improvement store or driving from one job site to another.

Protecting Your Company

You’ve spent a great deal of time and energy building your company and its assets. Accidents, unfortunately, can destroy more than just a company vehicle in the blink of an eye. If the personal coverage on the vehicle isn’t adequate to the expenses incurred during the accident, the victim can turn to the company to help cover the remaining expenses—and for a small business, the impact can be devastating.

Commercial auto insurance, on the other hand, ensures that you’re protected so that if accidents do occur, you won’t have to worry about watching the company go under.

Physical damage protection on your commercial auto insurance policy adds another level of protection that you should also consider: it covers your vehicles when they are damaged by vandalism or by natural disasters in your area. This helps ensure that no matter what’s going on around vehicles that are an important asset to your company, you can rest assured that they’re protected.

Ensuring Employees are Protected

Do employees ever drive company vehicles? Have you ever tossed your keys to an employee on the clock and sent them to pick something up or take care of a task for you? Do your employees use their personal vehicles to carry out job-related tasks during the work day?

Do you know whether or not your employees carry adequate insurance to provide coverage in the event of an accident?

When you send employees to take care of tasks while they’re on the clock, you’re responsible for them and for any accidents that occur on their time. Commercial auto insurance ensures that employees—and therefore, your company—are protected no matter what happens while they’re out driving. This also ensures that you won’t be blindsided at the wrong moment by an employee who has let their own insurance lapse just before an accident occurs.

Keeping up with all the insurance required for your HVAC company to operate effectively can be a challenge. Whether you need a commercial auto insurance policy that will help protect your company and your employees in the event of an accident, or you’re looking for a better way to handle the other insurance policies that are your responsibility, contact us. We’ll work with you to make sure that your company and your employees are covered.

How do you define success?

For some people, “success” means having a lot of money in the bank or obtaining certain material possessions. For others, it means being a part of something bigger than themselves. No matter how you define it, there is no denying that it’s something you need to work toward.

In 1925, Napoleon Hill published a series of 15 booklets called The Law of Success, based on interviews with some of the most successful individuals of the time, including Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Thomas Edison (to name a few!). It was based on Carnegie’s belief that the formula for success could be broken down into a simple-to-follow set of “laws.” The booklets were published after 20 years of interviews and observations, and reprinted in 2010.

Inspired by these valuable lessons, our very own Alan Levenson has been using The Law of Success as a basis for helping small business owners find their path to success and growth. And now, we’re excited to be offering it as a video series here on this blog!

Check out the intro below, and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see the videos as they go up every other week!

Check back on the blog every other Tuesday for new videos. Enjoy!