Q: As an agent where do you commonly see a hole in a business’s insurance coverage?
A: The businesse's limit of liability. Companies and individuals don’t carry adequate limits of liability whether it’s on their auto insurance or general liability insurance. Many companies don't even carry an umbrella, which is the additional layer of liability protection above the underlying coverage.
Q: Can you explain how an umbrella policy works?
A: Once you’ve exhausted your underlying liability coverage, whether it's your auto limited liability or general liability limits, then your umbrella is over the top of that. It only covers the liability. Most people think an umbrella policy is sitting over everything they have but the umbrella simply sits over what you were liable for.
Q: Can you give us an example of how an umbrella policy would work in a business scenario?
A: If you're involved in an auto accident once you have exhausted your limit of liability on the auto policy, then the umbrella would provide extra liability protection.
Q: So it’s just providing some additional peace of mind if something really bad happens?
A: Absolutely, it’s just providing peace of mind. I tell everybody you need to buy however much liability insurance allows you to sleep well at night. I can’t tell you how much to buy, but we work with our customers to help them figure out what their liability might be in the worst case scenario.
Q: As a business owner or leader, what's the most important insurance coverage we should consider adding to our insurance policy today that we may not have?
A: Some of the most common coverages that most businesses do not have today outside the umbrella policy is cyber, EPLI, and crime. Businesses especially need to consider adding a cyber policy, it is a relatively new insurance product that's only about twenty years old. Cyber thieves are getting more aggressive and more advanced as our world trends towards the virtual. This is, in my opinion, the new insurance of the future that all businesses will need to have.
Q: Give us an example of how a Cyber policy protects a business.
A: Cyber policies are designed to cover you, if for example an employee goes to a website and exposes their employees or customer’s social security numbers or credit card information, the cyber policy will then come in and pay for the damages to those employees or customers. The policy will pay for notifications, or any other covered liability or exposure. This is a coverage that a very small percentage of businesses have today.
Q: Tell us, what does EPLI stand for and why is it important?
A: EPLI stands for Employment Practice Liability Insurance, this is going to protect you from the liability associated with a harassment, wrongful termination, or discrimination claim coming from an employee. It helps cover the legal fees associated with your company's defense or a company settlement. It would also depend on the policy, some policies the defense is within that limit, sometimes the defense is outside of the limit. It pays to look at the fine print and work with an agent that can walk you through all of the coverage in plain language.
Q: If you could give a business one piece of advice when they’re reviewing or auditing their insurance coverages, what piece of advice would you offer them?
A: My advice would be to have an agent that truly understands the insurance helping them evaluate their exposures and coverages. Many people go the internet and buy their insurance because they’re shopping for price, not coverage. You get what you pay for when purchasing insurance online, I would recommend having a trusted insurance advisor reviewing your policy every year for the best protection and coverage.
