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robintek

Sep 05
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Injured Employees: what are your duties under workers’ compensation?

By Workplace Safety

An employee is injured on the job while carelessly texting their buddy. What are your duties under the workers’ compensation law?

First, you must provide for immediate medical care, including first aid, and/or emergency services. Stop the bleeding, get them breathing. If necessary, call 911 or transport the employee to your pre-arranged medical facility, or directly to the hospital emergency room, whichever is appropriate.

Second, begin an initial investigation by gathering the injured party contact information along with witness contact information, and a brief description of the accident. Forward this information to your insurance carrier.

Upon any receipt of legal papers, lawsuits, or information regarding the loss, forward originals immediately to the insurance company. Keep copies for your records.

Cooperate with your insurance company investigation, settlement, court proceedings, or payments. This coverage is no-fault, don’t create procedural issues which can remove that status.

Do not interfere with the insurance company right to recover from third parties. The insurance company will seek subrogation from at-fault drivers, products manufacturers, or others. Allow them to do their jobs. They deal with these situations everyday.

Do not make payments or assume liability unless doing so at your own cost. Remember: this coverage is no fault. Demonstrating obligation creates confusion over statutory benefits.

Okay, so essentially your obligation is:

  1. Get medical help quickly and to triage the level of medical services needed for the injury.
  2. Report to the company information necessary to initiate a claim and forward legal correspondence.
  3. Get out of the way.

Getting back to the texting issue. Not relevant to the claims procedure for this injury, but think about your rules involving employee cell phone use and texting. Employees need to focus on their tasks to stay safe.

Sep 03
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Excess Versus Umbrella Liability: layering risk transfers

By Business Protection Bulletin

Excess liability policies layer over underlying coverage like commercial automobile or general liability. These policies can be written as follow form, self-contained, or specific and aggregate.

Follow form excess policies do not broaden underlying coverage; they simply follow the form used by the primary carrier. These policies create a higher limit of liability than the primary carrier is willing to risk.

Self-contained excess liability forms independently define limits and conditions of coverage. The primary coverage dictates no terms of coverage to this form of excess, so the excess liability policy may be broader or more narrow than the primary.

Specific and aggregate excess policies resemble reinsurance more than excess coverage. These policies usually cover above self-insured retention, very common in workers’ compensation self-insured or captive programs.

The specific excess policy addresses individual claim retention amounts. The excess pays over a prescribed individual loss.

The aggregate excess policy covers over a total claims retention amount, whether it occurs in one claim or one hundred.

The umbrella liability policy broadens underlying coverage to provide first dollar, less retention, coverage above underlying primary policies. For example, umbrella policies broaden general liability and automobile liability to worldwide coverage rather than the territorial restrictions of business automobile policies.

How do these distinctions help protect your business?

Choose the correct form of excess to fit your budget. If standard primary automobile and general liability represent the biggest exposures to loss for your company, a few million in excess liability might be cost effective.

If the sources of loss just cannot be predicted in your business, or if your business is international in scope, umbrella liability will be a better buy.

It’s possible to combine two or more of these policies. Perhaps you want four million of excess and one million of umbrella.

Adequately high liability limits require some planning. Talk to your insurance professional and iron out the details.

Sep 03
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Budgeting: right size your insurance expenses

By Business Protection Bulletin

Have you ever compared premium quotes only to discover the policies had different deductibles, limits, or even a different audit basis? Confusing, isn’t it?

Premiums do not compare easily, nor do they necessarily reflect costs of your risk profile. Lower premium is not always your best bet. If it were, going without any insurance would be every company’s default position. But, uncovered risk puts companies out of business every day. So, how do you know the right amount to budget for insurance? You don’t, so budget for risk, and from that, buy insurance.

As a business owner and entrepreneur, identify and assess your risks. Uncovered liability risks, like driving vehicles or manufacturing a product, can destroy your company. Running out of postage will probably not slow things down. You prioritize and decide what liabilities you want to assume and what liabilities you want to transfer.

For example: automobile physical damage. How large is your fleet, how predictable is this loss? If you have one executive new vehicle with financing, you’re going to buy insurance to cover it; just think deductible versus premium. If you have twenty similar vehicles, say panel trucks, and the fleet is paid for, you may consider not insuring the physical damage for collision or other perils. Why? Because you’re just paying a fee to bank the money while you do the claims legwork anyway. Your drivers can reduce your risk through defensive driving techniques and not drinking, texting or using cell phones. Keep the premium, accept the risk.

How about your products in transit? Is the value in one load big enough to ruin your company financially? Or do you ship relatively small amounts by common carriers. The former requires insurance, the latter, self-retain the loss.

Okay, you’ve thought through your process. Now, in plain English, tell the agents what you want covered. Employee safety and health, if my products cause harm, if my car hits someone, this type of list. Then, how much per incident are you willing to pay? First $1000 of any loss, that type of decision. Now, choose a number or some percentage of your annual gross and limit all claims to that amount; the most you’re willing to pay for all claims, including insurance premiums. Let the agents design around these parameters and compare these programs.

Sep 03
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Hindcasting Losses: using history to measure risk today

By Business Protection Bulletin

The best predictor of future behavior is the past. Maybe, but it’s at least helpful to review the past with an eye towards improvement.

Reviewing losses can be tricky. Insurance company analysis utilizes an “exposure unit”. Sometimes an exposure unit is one thousand dollars in sales, one hundred dollars in payroll, square feet of a building, one hundred dollars of value, or per person. The important idea is to compare relative risk and loss rather than absolute quantities.

Chart your losses, particularly insurable losses or claims made or paid. Now chart payroll, number of employees, sales, goods manufactured, units manufactured, or any other reasonable business data points.

Compare the trajectory of the charts. Does the pattern of losses mirror one of the other statistics? For example, does your workers compensation losses trend with payroll, sales, number of employees, or even square footage of your business?

Some claims history is explained by firing one employee, maybe a bad driver. Don’t ignore the fact that a bad driver got through your screening system. Make sure that leak has been plugged before thinking the problem is resolved.

Other claims may be reduced by a larger work area. Perhaps employees were just too crowded to work safely. That would indicate resolution, but think in terms of square foot per worker as a crowding issue in the future.

When you find your unexplained losses and the closest statistical trend, let’s assume claim dollars and gross sales, than forecast the business statistical trend and the claims amount.

This chart will also predict your insurance costs.

Use the same format to hindcast claims. Start now and project into the past. How much error is in this prediction? If it’s close year-to-year, it should be a good indicator of the future.

Start thinking about why these two data sets mirror. Do claims rise as you push to meet demand? Do you over-staff to meet demand and some employees lose focus? Are your claims about products not being quality checked at a certain volume? Once diagnosed, any loss control issue can be resolved, and pay you dividends. Ask your loss control service for help on these issues.

Sep 03
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Net Income Loss Exposures

By Business Protection Bulletin

Your property has adequate and appropriate coverage against fires, windstorms, collapses, even airplane strikes. What happens to the income loss during renovation?

Some companies spread this risk by maintaining two or more manufacturing plants, or the business can be handled through remote offices temporarily. How about your business?

Let’s assume you lose your main building for six months. Will the income loss be devastating? Will additional costs and expenses continue and drive you to the brink of bankruptcy?

Indirect losses can include production costs, extra expenses to operate, even extra expenses to deal with an unfamiliar supplier because your main source just burned down.

Review your sources, suppliers, infrastructure and determine the value of these items to your income stream. Do you absolutely need your physical plant, or would it be relatively easy to rebuild elsewhere? What net income would you lose while rebuilding? What expenses would continue regardless?

What are the critically important resources? Do you have a supplier who would be impossible, difficult, or costly to replace? How about your power supply. Do you have alternatives, or is this a one-source problem?

Each of these issues are a source of extra expense, loss of income or loss of net income exposures. Normally, this coverage is added to a fire coverage or even included in a business owner’s policy. Check with your agent and find out what options you have.

Take some time to prepare an emergency plan for your business. Your loss control service provided by your insurance company can help.

In the plan, begin with onsite issues like critical need machinery, buildings, equipment, or personnel. Move off campus and consider suppliers, power sources, customers, transporters, raw materials dealers, or retail outlets.

Anyone indirectly serving your company or buying from your company is a potential indirect loss. Suppose you’re the supplier and your biggest client burns to the ground, cutting off six months worth of sales. Do you have a contingency plan?

Emergency planning followed by insuring these potential losses can save your business.

Sep 03
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How to Choose a Safe Roommate

By Personal Perspective

Maybe you’re a college student who needs a roommate. Or, you might have an empty room or two in your home that you want to fill. You certainly don’t want a roommate who trashes your home, steals your stuff or threatens your safety. How do you know if potential roommate candidates are safe?

Decide What Type of Roommate You Want

Whether you’re a party animal or love peace and quiet, your roommate should share your core values. You don’t have to agree on everything, but your life will be much easier, more peaceful and safer if you room with someone who’s similar to you.

Research Potential Roommates

You increase your chances of staying safe when you thoroughly research all your potential roommates. To do that:

*Do a Google search and check out their social media pages. This research gives you great insight into a potential roommate’s character.

*Run a credit check. It will show you whether the person is reliable or unreliable with bill payment.

*Ask about current employment. A stable roommate who holds a steady job and brings home an honest income is more likely to be responsible than someone who can’t keep a job.

*Talk to references: The people your potential roommate lived with in the past can be an excellent source of information about his or her character. Talk to a few of these references before you make a final decision on who will share your home.

Spend Time Together

Once you’ve created a short list of potential roommates, chat online and meet them individually at a neutral location like a coffee shop or mall. This time together helps you decide if you’re compatible.

Once you select a roommate, update your homeowners or renters insurance. It won’t ensure your roommate is safe, but it will give you peace of mind and financial compensation if your home is damaged or your belongings are stolen.

Sep 03
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Do You Need Flood Insurance?

By Personal Perspective

Whether you live near a body of water or not, flood insurance might be a good investment. It’s usually not included in your regular homeowners or renters insurance policy, though. Consider five factors as you decide if you need this type of insurance coverage.

  1. Do you live in an area with a high flood risk? If so, you definitely want flood insurance coverage. That’s because your home, located near a river, stream, lake or flash-flood zone, faces a high threat of flooding. Protect your home and its contents when you buy a flood insurance policy.
  2. Do you live in a low flood risk zone? Consider that the local sewer system or nearby storm drain could overflow and cause extensive damage. Because a flood insurance policy typically costs less for customers who live in low-risk areas, purchasing a policy makes sense even if you don’t live near a major body of water or in a flood zone.
  3. Do you rent your home? Most landlord insurance policies cover the buildings only. They do not insure your home’s contents. Consider flood insurance that replaces any possessions that are damaged by flooding.
  4. Do you have a mortgage? Check with your lender about flood insurance requirements. If you live in a flood zone, you will probably need to carry this coverage and prove that you’ve purchased a policy before you can sign the loan documents.
  5. Do you own any possessions? In just a few inches of water, your appliances, furniture and other belongings can be damaged beyond repair. So, if you own any possessions, consider flood insurance that provides financial reimbursement and allows you to replace items that are damaged by excessive water.

Before discounting flood insurance, talk to your insurance agent. He or she will answer your questions and help you decide if coverage is a wise investment for you. In many cases, the coverage is invaluable.

Sep 03
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Six Tips Help You Choose Passwords That Protect You Online

By Personal Perspective

As you navigate the Internet, you find yourself juggling numerous passwords. You could choose one password for all your accounts, but that’s easy for someone to steal. Try six tips that assist you in choosing passwords that can’t be hacked.

  1. Review all your passwords. This protective action will take some time, but it serves as a password audit. You’ll see what types of passwords you use, find out if any are repeated between sites and determine which ones need to be changed.
  2. Don’t use duplicates. All your online sites need unique passwords. If your audit reveals duplicates, change them.
  3. Stop using common passwords. You probably don’t use the word “password” to access any of your accounts, but using the name of your child, street or pet is just as insecure. Anyone who knows you can now access your bank statement, email or other personal accounts.
  4. Delete password notification emails. When you change a password or request a new one, the site will typically send you an automated email with your new password. Delete those emails immediately. Hackers can access them and use your passwords to get into your accounts.
  5. Use long strings of characters. Simple passwords like “fancynancy” or “bigbob5” are easy to remember, but they are also easy to steal. Give an online thief a run for his or her money and use a combination of lower and upper case letters, numbers and symbols. Remember, too, that longer passwords are also stronger.
  6. Use a password manager. It stores all your passwords and assists you creating strong passwords in the future. Plus, it encrypts all your passwords so that hackers can’t decipher them.

These six tips assist you in keeping your passwords safe and your online presence secure. Talk to your insurance agent about identity protection coverage, too. It’s a second layer of security that keeps you safe online.

Sep 03
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Eight Tips to Protect Your Car at College

By Personal Perspective

Driving your car to college increases your independence. You need to keep it safe from thieves and vandals, though. Use eight tips as you protect your car at college.

  1. Drive a beater car. Even though it doesn’t look cool, few thieves will try to steal an older model car or one with dents and dings.
  2. Remove electronics. If your GPS or camera sit in the open, a thief is more likely to target your car. Don’t just stuff your GPS or camera under the seat or toss it into the glove box, though. Completely remove all electronics and cords from your car before you leave it unattended. Erase any white marks caused by suction cups attached to the dash or window, too.
  3. Close the windows, lock the car and take the keys. Yes, you’re distracted by a cute co-ed or busy chatting with friends, but these three precautions go a long way toward keeping your car safe.
  4. Invest in OnStar or Lojack. They assist police in finding your vehicle if it is stolen.
  5. Etch your driver’s license into stereo equipment and speakers. This way, the police have an easier time tracking down stolen electronics.
  6. Replace the fancy wheels. They attract thieves, and wheel locks won’t deter a determined thief.
  7. Layer your vehicle’s security. The more safety measures you take, the better protected your car will be because no thief will steal a car that’s difficult to move. So, park in a well-lit lot, preferably one that’s monitored 24/7. Then, utilize an anti-theft device, such as a steering wheel lock, and disconnect the car’s battery.
  8. Purchase adequate auto insurance. Despite your best efforts, your car might be stolen or vandalized. Full coverage auto insurance reduces your liability. The coverage could also pay to replace any stolen contents.

Before you drive your car to college, follow these eight tips. They protect your car and ensure you retain your independence.

Aug 06
Love0

When Should You Consider Pet Insurance?

By Personal Perspective

Anyone with a pet understands how expensive medical treatment can be. However, you would do anything to help your pet remain healthy and enjoy a high quality of life. Pet insurance can assist you with paying for your pet’s medical care, but learn more about it so you can decide when to purchase this type of insurance coverage.

1. Do you have money to pay for your pet’s medical care?

Because pet insurance reimburses you for the medical treatment your pet needs, you must be able to pay your bill and the deductible upfront. Being able to choose the veterinarian of your choice is an upside of this condition to pet insurance.

2. How old is your pet?

Remember that your pet’s needs today will differ from what it needs in five or ten years, so consider a policy that covers care into the future.

3. Do you have time to research plans?

Pet insurance plans offer varied coverage and don’t all cost the same amount. You’ll want to research plans before deciding if you should buy a policy and which one is best for your needs.

4. Is your pet covered?

Some pet insurance policies cover only certain dog breeds. Others might not cover your pet bird, hamster or snake. Read the fine print to ensure your specific pet is covered under your insurance policy.

Likewise, check to see if your policy covers pre-existing conditions. Some plans don’t, and that means you’ll need to purchase coverage while your pet is healthy. If you wait until it’s showing signs of aging or has a medical issue, you won’t qualify for a policy until your pet is symptom-free for a period of time.

Your pet deserves exceptional medical care. Decide if a pet insurance policy is right for you, and then discuss your needs with your insurance agent as you care for your pet’s health and well-being.

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