“When Was the Last Time You Reviewed Your Insurance?”
For any Arizona company, reviewing your entire operation is an on-going process and should play a major part in your overall insurance plan. From such activities as scheduling, staffing, venders, subs, products and services, if you are like most business owners you are constantly looking at ways to improve these areas and ensure all parts of your company are running efficiently. In keeping with that train of thought, when was the last time you performed a thorough review of your company’s insurance program? If the answer is you don’t remember, our suggestion is that you start a review of your current insurance coverages today. The first policy your company will want to review is your General Liability Insurance Policy. Take a long look at the policy limits regarding your General Liability Policy, then look at your company’s sales, what risks does your company have with its products and/or services and are these limits high enough should a claim or lawsuit be filed against your company?
When Was the Last Time You Reviewed Your Insurance?
If you are concerned the limits aren’t high enough, your company should consider adding an umbrella policy. Also, review all the exclusions your current Phoenix commercial General Liability Policy contains, this way you will know exactly what areas of exposure you should be concerned about and take appropriate steps to protect your company. When reviewing your current limits and policies, you will want to make sure the policy contains completed operations and product liability coverage for the products your company is currently marketing or manufacturing.
On a recent review of a potential client’s General Liability policy, who was manufacturing and marketing a product that was in a high risk category, we discovered that the product/completed opps was excluded on his policy, leaving his company exposed should they be sued for product liability.
If your business is one that provides professional services such as Architecture, Engineering, Consulting, Web Design/Hosting, Medical Provider, Accounting or a similar business where you are providing a professional service and/or advice and if the only coverage your company has is General Liability Insurance, then in all likelihood you have no coverage at all against a claim or lawsuit.
If your company’s main business is professional services than having a Professional Liability Insurance Policy is an absolute must to protect your company should a claim arise from one of your clients claiming that they were harmed either by an alleged or actual negligent act performed by your company or an error or omission happened when your company were providing your client with a professional service. Even with the best of safeguards in place, incidents do occur, so acquiring this type of liability policy will protect your company, as claims in this area can become quite costly. Another area that clients tend to neglect is their property insurance coverage. In the past year has your company added or deleted any kind of property including machinery, parts, tools, and/or inventory? It’s very important that you research your policy to not only have the proper amount of coverage, but also make sure you have theft coverage.
A new client of ours, a motorcycle repair shop learned the hard way. Under a previous policy of theirs, they suffered a break-in and had thought they were covered, but they discovered the policy did not include theft, needless to say the policy they now have includes property coverage. This is not how you want your company to find out you have no coverage after a major break-in.
It would also be very prudent of your company to review its auto policies. The most important step to take is to make sure your auto policy is a commercial policy and not a personal policy. Most of the time personal auto polices offer no coverage when the vehicles are used for commercial use.
The second step to take is making sure your commercial auto policy has non-owned and hired auto insurance coverage. This type of insurance coverage will protect your company if an employee of the company is driving their vehicle on company business and there is an accident, non-owned auto coverage will protect your company should there be a lawsuit or claim files against your company. We suggest that your auto coverage should always be at least a one million dollar policy.
At PJO Insurance Brokerage, our brokers understand that no two businesses operate the same, that’s why our brokers will take the time necessary to better understand your Phoenix business and put together an insurance plan that is designed for your company’s needs. If our agency can be of service to your company, we would the opportunity to work with you in the coming year. Contact us to learn more.
Written By:
PJO Insurance Brokerage
By Patrick O’ Neill
4103 E. Prickly Pear Trail
Phoenix, Arizona 85050
Office: 480-248-7495
Fax: 480-248-7493
Website: https://pjobrokerage.com
