Insurance Freak!

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Insurance freak!

I will take that! This was once levelled at me in a high-level board meeting. I took it as a badge of honour when the individual concerned said:

“This is just our job, but everyone knows you love it!”

I’ve always said, if you don’t love what you do, go and do something else. Life is way too short to spend 8+ hours every day doing something you don’t enjoy.

Today is about putting some new business on cover and making sure that our clients get all the relevant documentation in real time, very quickly, so that we can start looking after them and delivering on our promises, #becauseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time.

When you work with the diversity of businesses and situations we look at, no day is ever boring.

Today I’m sorting out:

  • A virtual business assistant
  • A business management consultant
  • An importer of adventurous training equipment
  • The largest plant and seed business in the UK
  • A multi-site shoe repair business

All of these clients will get my personal attention and all of our clients get a personal relationship with a single member of staff as their point of contact, on all matters relating to the solutions we provide.

  1. Continuity
  2. Insurance
  3. Risk Management
  4. Business Consultancy

All of this provided in an #openhonesttransparent manner, so when the worst happens our clients can #justkeepgoing without breaking stride.

Have a great day

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Have a great day

Storm in a teacup?

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If like me, you spent most of the weekend indoors and didn’t go far other than essential shopping or visiting elderly relatives, you may have sat wondering whether all the wind and rain we had, was going to lift your roof tiles or do other serious damage. Let’s face it #becausseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time.

Then this morning, a client messaged me to enquire whether or not she had STORM damage cover on her business. The Answer YES!

STORM damage cover is a standard peril on almost all policies covering buildings and is defined generally as being “Unusually high winds, accompanied by rain, hail, sleet or snow!”

There are some standard exclusions which relate to flimsy or insubstantial items in the open, for obvious reasons. They normally include:

  • Gates
  • Hedges
  • Fences
  • Polytunnels
  • Glasshouses
  • Plants in the open

There may be other more specific exclusions on some commercial policies, to take care of specific situations, but these are the normal ones.

The most important thing to know is that if there is serious damage to your property, as long as its in good condition and has been maintained in good order, cover for storm, should not be an issue.

Let’s hope the weather improves this week and we can all look forward to a summer to remember

If you have a question and want to know more, just message her or email info@severnbay.com

Best wishes, stay safe and warm

 

 

What do I look at first?

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When clients are looking for insurance cover they believe they know what they need, so they automatically ask for what they think they need, whether that is online or talking to an insurer or a broker. Makes sense, right?

In most cases they will get what they need and if the person they engage with is professional, they may even get some things they didn’t know they needed, after all you don’t know, what you don’t know.

Unfortunately, if you are tapping buttons online it will give you one of three things, none of which may be exactly what you want:

  1. The cheapest product from a range
  2. The nearest equivalent to what you asked for
  3. The only product available, suitable or not

When you engage with a professional broker, your requirement will be met with a detailed fact-finding process, which will uncover your actual needs. It will discount things which are not appropriate, even if you think you need them and suggest covers you do need or may me be legal requirements, even if you didn’t know about them.

In this way you will end up with a suitable arrangement which meets your needs and protects you, your business and your employees, correctly in the particular circumstances.

We will also do a thing you won’t do, and that is look in detail at the exclusions, clauses, endorsements and warranties. We will make sure that none of them impose conditions that you can’t live with. If we find any of these, we discount that quote and move on to another insurer.

You will never read the policy wording in full, and you are even less likely to understand the implications of certain phrases or the interaction between different sections of the policy, but we know them inside out and we know what to look for and where we will find it.

If you want peace of mind, no nasty surprises when you need to make a claim and cover that meets your needs, #becauseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time, get in touch and guess what? It’s probably less expensive than you think!

 

What’s your biggest fear?

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When you arrange insurance for your business, you may be concerned about catastrophic losses, such as Fire, Flood or Explosion or even a Theft of equipment or stock from your premises. Your possessions damaged, destroyed or stolen, but to be honest these losses whilst inconvenient are easily remedied, even if there is some disruption in the short term.

Even if your main premises suffers significant damage, we can instruct contractors to prepare schedules of work, negotiate with loss adjustors, find alternative short-term premises for you to work from, source equipment and even employ chartered practitioners to act for you, #becauseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time.

You can get on and recover and run your business, whilst the claim is dealt with quickly and professionally.

This means you are unlikely to lose customers who you can’t satisfy and makes the impact of the loss far less likely to damage your business beyond repair.

The service we provide goes way beyond arranging the cover and handing you over to an insurer’s claims department, we will promise to:

  1. Deal with you personally at the point of notification
  2. Report the loss to the insurers, so you don’t have to actually deal directly with them
  3. Make sure its positioned correctly within the cover you have
  4. Appoint contractors and adjustors to act for you
  5. Manage the claim actively to get the best settlement possible
  6. Stay engaged until final settlement
  7. Make sure you get maximum support throughout

Want to know more, then just get in touch for a chat

Have a great day

It all gets a bit emotional when the writ arrives!

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Its serious, when it goes legal!

If a writ arrives on your doorstep, you can’t just bury your head in the sand.

When you own property, the major concerns are dealt with by the cover for physical damage, loss of rental income and liability for injury or damage. We’ve ticked those boxes, so what next?

There are of course other events which can cause concern as a landlord.  They can result in substantial cost, because taking legal action or defending it, is never cheap. It could run into tens of thousands of pounds.

These also need consideration and insurance cover.

A landlords legal expenses policy can cover the cost associated with most of them, whilst also removing the anxiety about unknown events, #becaueaccidentshappen to nice people all the time.

Here are a few of them:

  • Breach of tenancy agreements
  • Pursuit of rent arrears
  • Eviction of tenants
  • Legal defences
  • Rent guarantees
  • Boundary issues
  • Legal advice

You can call the helpline 24 hours a day and discuss any matter that might be affecting you or your tenants. You will have peace of mind that a specialist team of lawyers will deal with these matters Immediately on your behalf.

You are never on your own, we are always here to help you,#becauseacidentshappen to nice property owners all the time.

Just get in touch for a chat about how we can help you have peace of mind

Don’t break your business, the courts won’t care, and ignorance is never a defence!

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Last week we talked about the one of only two legally mandatory insurances in the UK, cover for third party injury or damage whilst driving a road registered motor vehicle. Today we talk about the most important legally binding insurance, Employer Liability (EL) cover.

As a business owner it is the one piece of insurance cover you must get right, but not for yourself, more importantly for your employees, who if seriously injured may require an amount of money to look after them for the rest of their lives or if killed, families who may need long term support.

Currently our largest outstanding claim is over £650,000 and that was a guy in his late 50’s so loss of earnings wasn’t even the largest part of it. These claims can easily run into millions.

Under the 1969 Compulsory Insurance (Employers Liability) Insurance Act, cover must be in place for no less than £2,000,000, but in practice all insurers give cover up to £10,000,000 as standard, so the extent of cover is not an issue.

Now the important point, when must you have Employers Liability cover!

If you have a business where there any employees, even for one minute, of one day, of a year, or if you have volunteers or even self-employed sub-contractors, who do not have their own businesses and EL cover, you are responsible for them when they are working for you, especially in manual activities, construction and the like. You must have the cover.

The only exceptions are unincorporated businesses where there are partners and no other employees, volunteers or sub-contractors or in a limited company, where there is only one director and no other directors, officers or other employees. As soon as a limited company has two directors, who are employees of the limited company, cover must be in place as soon as the business is registered at Companies’ house.

Let’s be serious here. The penalties for failing to have the correct Employers Liability cover in place are fines of up to £2,500 per day or up to 6 Months in jail.

If you are starting a business, or registering a limited company, then get advice from a professional, #becauseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time.

We are always here to help and support our clients, just message me here or call and talk to a professional on 029 20 470 375.