4 Signs It’s Time For A New Business Insurance Quote

Having adequate and complete insurance coverage for your business is a vital component in its ultimate success or failure. Insufficient coverage or a lack of coverage can lead to everything from operational headaches to foreclosure.

Every business needs a periodic checkup, just like every person needs to get a regular physical examination. Problems that are detected and treated early are more likely to be resolved compared to ones that are put off or ignored.

Using cost alone when it comes to deciding which business liability insurance policy to buy is not always the best evaluator. It is important for a business to control costs, but not at the expense of the company’s future.

Luckily, full-service broker can help you find the best business insurance quote for your company at a cost that is within your budget.

Reasons To Get An Insurance Checkup

The first and most obvious sign that your business needs an insurance checkup is simply the fact that it is overdue—sometimes long overdue.

We understand. You are very busy running the business and oftentimes insurance is the last thing on your mind. And the “average” insurance broker is not very proactive in keeping up with each of their clients’ needs.

That’s why you always need to keep in mind what makes your coverage effective—or not—and what changes may affect that over time.

1. Have You Hired More Employees?

If you are a business with employees, at some point, you will run into an employment practices dispute. These disputes can be over wrongful termination, negligent evaluation, wrongful discipline, or wrongful infliction of emotional distress—just to name a few.

Your general liability policy may or may not include employment practices liability. If it doesn’t, then you need to set up a stand-alone policy.

Another side of hiring more employees is maintaining compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Understanding the maze of rules and regulations of this law requires a full-time effort. Your insurance broker needs to have a full understanding of all of the thresholds in the law and ways to avoid the expensive penalties that are in place for non-compliance.

2. Have You Acquired Company Vehicles?

Perhaps your business has grown enough over time that you have the need to deliver products or drive somewhere to provide services. There may come a time when your personal vehicle won’t do, and you may opt to purchase a company car or van.

While the need for commercial vehicular coverage is obvious when you start using company-owned vehicles, the coverage limits need to be aligned with your business’s financial structure.

If, over time, you find yourself needing to rent additional vehicles or send your employees on jobs that require them to drive, there will be additional coverages that you need to obtain in order to avoid any headaches should an accident occur.

3. Have You Expanded Your Office Space?

If you have added square footage or even added another location to your business, then you need an insurance liability coverage adjustment or perhaps an entirely new business insurance quote.

While most see changes on the upside as a need for a checkup, it also works the other way. If your company has downsized or restructured, it will also need a re-evaluation of its insurance needs.

4. Have You Started Offering New Services?

If the company has shifted its focus, say, from simply providing software support to writing software applications, then there is a need for a liability insurance checkup. If your business insurance doesn’t fully cover against cyberattacks, then you are opening up yourself to a whole world of potential problems.

If your client database was hacked and personal information was leaked, would your business be able to survive the certain litigation that will follow? Consider what happened to Target after it announced a data breach back in December 2013. The company’s profit dropped more than 40% in the fourth quarter. Even years later, Target still faces litigation from the incident.

While some general liability policies include coverage in case of cyberattacks and data breaches, many do not. If you are running a small business, you probably do not have the time to become an insurance expert. Depending on a knowledgeable, full-service insurance broker is the best way to ensure you have proper coverage.

In today’s litigious environment, people are ready to sue for perceived wrongdoing at the drop of a hat. Avoiding potentially business-killing litigation and penalties is a major part of insurance coverage. Making sure your company has sufficient coverage in place is more important than ever.

Dan Levenson

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