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A lost profit, or a loss of profits?

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One of the most complex parts of insurance cover is business interruption, so maybe a short explanation is in order?

For most business the cover will be based on “Gross Profit” and that is turnover, less the cost of raw materials with nothing else deducted, especially wages, as you will need to pay your staff.

For service businesses its “Gross Revenue”, which equals turnover and for landlords it can be loss of gross rental income.

The next thing to understand is that in 99.9999% of cases you cannot have a claim for business interruption, unless physical damage has occurred.

This has to be for one of the identified perils, such as Fire, Lightning, Explosion, Flood, or Storm!

There are a number of extensions, but these vary greatly between policies. In some cases the cover is as little as £25,000.

These extensions normally include the following:

  • Failure of public utilities.
  • Denial of Access – Physical Damage.
  • Damage at supplier’s premises – Can’t supply you with what you need.
  • Damage at customer’s premises – Stops buying from you.
  • Murder, death or suicide – Premises closed whilst police investigate.

In some cases, there are other extensions, but these vary greatly with very low sums insured.

If you really want to know, you have, talk to a professional and take the time to understand what cover you need, #becauseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time.

Feel free to message me or call the office on 029 20 470 375 for a free, no obligation consultation.

It could be the most valuable phone call you ever make 😎

 

Solicitors

It’s that time of year again!

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Solicitors and their friends and associates.

When the majority of Solicitors get all hot and sweaty about their PI (Professional Indemnity) renewals on the 1st October.

I hear this a lot from contacts and associates in the city of London, where premiums for the legal sector are the highest. The one thing they always rant about (apparently) is the cost of their PI Insurance.

I get this I really do.

Premiums in the legal sector have in some cases gone up by over 400% in the last 5 years.

What is also true is solicitors NEVER do what they need to do to get those premiums down!

Because of revulsion or apathy, they engage late with the existing provider, fill in a proposal form, then wait almost until the last minute, when they are told GUESS WHAT?

The premiums gone up again.

But there is an effective way to reduce premiums.

Engage early (and that means NOW) with a whole of market broker, who works on fixed fees, and has no other focus than to get you the cheapest premium available in the market.

It also means we get commitment to quote from a range of providers, before the existing insurer/broker can close them off with fake requests for quotes. It does happen!

So, if you want lower premiums just message me here to start the process, because:

If you always do what you always did, you are always going to get, what you always got!

And that means ever increasing premiums!

Act quickly

Act Now!

And let’s look forward to lower premium – Year on Year!

Have a great week 😎

 

Important numbers

Top Tips

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Here are 2 top tips to keep the cost down, when arranging your business insurances.

There are 3 numbers which are used to calculate the premium, they are:

  1. Physical sums insured
  2. Gross Profit
  3. Turnover
  4. Wages

Top Tip 1

Both (1) & (2) need to be accurate as these are values on which your claims will be based. If they are too low, your claims will be reduced by the amount of under insurance as a percentage %

They should be the replacement cost ITEMS or the cost to reinstate BUILDINGS.

Top Tip 2

Both (3) & (4) are simply used to calculate the premium once a year. They are not sums insured, so whilst they need to be reasonable, they should not be overstated. If they are, you are simply going to pay an increased premium based on something which hasn’t yet happened. Last years actual is a perfectly good number.

Brokers working on commission will want the higher figures, because they will earn more money.

Because we work on fixed fees, not commission, we will never ask you to overstate these numbers.

We want to keep your premium as low as possible, because we know that will make you happy.

Have a great day 😊

Design

Corporate Continuity – Part 4

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A solution designed for the specific business.

Once we have management buy in to business continuity objectives, have embedded the concept with staff and managers and have identified the key vulnerabilities, we go on to design the solution specific to the business.

The solution will of course depend on the nature of the organisation and the products and or services that it seeks to deliver. The solution designed for a manufacturing company, will differ dramatically from that of a home nation-based charity.

We will look at risk and threat assessments before we decide on the appropriate business continuity solutions. We will consider interdependencies within the business, especially where solutions may rely on suppliers and their supply chains.

We may look at existing arrangements and adjust them according to the “Minimum Business Continuity Objective”. Cost effectiveness will always be a consideration. Top management will of course need to sign off the appropriate solutions.

Solutions should be consolidated by resource type to ensure they are consistent across the organisation and do not conflict with other objectives.

Finally, we will establish the projects required to implement the solutions, so the organisation can #justkeepgoing.

When all is said and done designing the correct solutions is essential if the final plan is to be fir for purpose.

Have a great day

 

 

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A women scorned!

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There are many risks in life and according to some, a women scorned is near the top, but then my wife would say, if I put myself in that position, I probably deserved it and whilst I might reflect thoughtfully, deep down I know she is right.

I once had a boss who everyone outside our organisation, thought was difficult to deal with, but they just didn’t know him. If you were on his team, he was unfailingly loyal. He was frank and honest and that was sometimes difficult to deal with, but he was never unreasonable. You were never going to get stabbed in the back and you would only be likely to get a punch in the face (figuratively speaking) if you were too stupid or too slow to get out of the way.

In business as in life there is a common thread.

If you are aware of the risks you can plan to avoid them, develop strategies to mitigate the worst consequences, or create policies and procedures that will deal with them as they arise and flatten out the costs involved, so that your business is not unduly interrupted.

When asked about the most difficult thing about being prime minister, Harold McMillan said, “Events dear boy, events!” Those things you never expect, but that happen anyway. For him it was the Suez crisis. You only have to look around the world in the last 5 years to see events that changed the world as we knew it.

So don’t wait for a stab in the back, face up to to the challenges, plan for them and when they do happen, as they most assuredly will, your business can continue confidently.

Want to know how a small investment in time and money can give you almost total peace of mind in your business, so you can #justkeepgoing and how often savings in one area can even pay for the work that needs to be done, so the net cost is neutral.

Message me here or call me on 029 20470 375.

(And yes, my wife is always right 😊)