Business Protection Bulletin

Maintenance is just about your most important expense in the adult day care business. Making sure that you can hire the best possible staff comes first, of course, but maintenance is a close second. Put simply: Nobody wants to put their parents, grandparents, aunt or uncle in a care center that looks a little shabby. Putting a few extra dollars into your maintenance budget can make a tremendous difference.

Providing the best possible care and ensuring that your guests are happy starts with your maintenance budget. Keeping your facility in good shape and well supplied has to be taken care of before your staff can do their job. Adult Day Care Property Insurance is a requisite for covering big repairs, keeping you safe in the event of liability and so on, but the best way to protect your business, to make sure that you keep your rates low, is with a clean, safe, well-kept environment.

This is the foundation for everything else. If someone presses charges against you for any reason at all, a poorly maintained facility is not going to do you any favors. Your guests are less likely to suffer any sort of injuries or illnesses in the first place if you make sure that your facility is in great condition. It is of the utmost importance to keep your facility well-maintained, and to make sure that it looks that way.

Of course, working pipes take precedence over new wallpaper, but peeling, faded wallpaper is going to cost you some customers. Think of cosmetic maintenance as part of your marketing budget. If word gets around that your place looks lousy, well, that’s a little depressing. Families looking for an adult day care center are going through a difficult time. You can score five stars out of five on everything else, but if your facility has a depressing atmosphere, word is going to get around, and people aren’t even going to bother coming by for a tour.

In the long term, proper maintenance means fewer serious damages. Replace a leaky pipe now and you don’t have to replace a moldy ceiling a few months from now. So taking good care of your place means lower insurance premiums and a slimmer chance of your insurer having to cover a liability claim for you. In the immediate term, better care for your facility just means happier customers, healthier guests, and just plain better business overall.

How can you oversee your employees’ use of company e-mails without violating their privacy?

According to a recent nationwide survey, more than 40% of businesses monitor their workers’ e-mails. If you’re one of these companies, a disgruntled employee might well sue you for invasion of privacy (the number of privacy lawsuits has skyrocketed by 3,000% during the past decade).

The best way to protect yourself against this risk is to create a written policy warning employees that you might be monitoring their use of e-mail. Bear in mind that because your business owns the e-mail system – software, network access, and computers – you have the legal right to oversee workers for misusing it to violate company policy or break the law.

The first step in implementing this policy is to have all employees sign a disclaimer that acknowledges the company’s right to monitor their e-mail. You can do this when an employee is hired, at contract renewal, or at a company meeting – and don’t forget to circulate any updates to the policy throughout the company. Apply e-mail monitoring as uniformly as possible, because singling out an individual without a clear reason to do so could leave you vulnerable to a discrimination lawsuit. Finally, be sure to have your attorney review the policy.

A comprehensive e-mail policy can:

1. Provide an effective defense against invasion of privacy litigation
2. Educate your employees on the proper use of e-mail – which should go far to reduce potential problems from misusing the system

If you’d like to learn more about how to balance protecting the integrity of your company’s e-mail system with your employees’ right to privacy, please get in touch with us. As always, we’re here to help.

Peace of mind is never more important than it is when you’re responsible for the safety of other people. Carrying expensive cargo by truck can be tense, transporting priceless art or delivering luxury cars can be scary, but when your job is to ensure the well-being of your fellow human beings, it can be downright nerve wracking. It’s not just that you really need to be on your game when driving, feeding or providing care for your customers, it’s the fact that you need to keep on your toes for every single thing that might go wrong, whether it’s your fault or not, while these people are under your supervision.

Adult day care is one such field where you have to contend not only with the risks that come with the service you provide, but the risks relating to the people you are caring for. Adult day care insurance has to be able to protect you not just from issues relating to your service, but issues relating to poor health, old age and so on. Adults who need day care tend to be dealing with various issues relating to their mental and physical health, and you’re going to need to take that into account when settling on a liability insurance policy for your company.

One way to pay a little less on your adult day care professional liability insurance is to make sure that you have more than enough staff on hand to handle any emergency that may come up. Keeping registered nurses on the payroll, even if they cost a little more than hiring just anybody and giving them on-the-job training, will bring risk down, which means a lower cost to insure your day care company, and more importantly, it means happier, healthier customers.

Keeping your facilities up-to-date can have a tremendous impact, as well. By making sure you have handrails in the bathrooms, for instance, as well as medical equipment on hand, you’re creating a safer environment for the people in your care.

Insurance is about managing risk, but it’s also about managing headaches. Anything that you can do that brings you peace of mind, a sense of security in your day to day affairs, is something that is likely to bring your insurance costs down. The better you treat your customers, the more up-to-date your facilities, the better off you and your customers both will be.

If your business rents an office, store, warehouse, or other commercial premises, you’re responsible for any property you use or store there, as well any damage you cause to the rented property. Commercial Renters insurance (also known as Business or Commercial Property coverage) will repay you if your equipment or stock is stolen or damaged, or if you damage the premises inadvertently.

Some Commercial Renters policies also provide limited protection for possessions of your employees on premises. You might also want to buy additional coverage for flood damage, and/or glass windows and displays, as well as Business Interruption insurance (which will reimburse you if fire or theft keeps you from operating).

The premium depends on the risk factors facing your business. For example, the risk of fire depends upon how the premises you’re renting is constructed, whether it has a sprinkler system, and its distance from the nearest fire station. If you rent in a high-crime area or have particularly valuable or desirable inventory or equipment, you’ll pay a higher premium. You can reduce the premium by increasing your deductible and/or installing fire and theft alarms and other safety devices.

When insuring equipment and inventory, you can choose either replacement cost or present value coverage. Replacement cost, which is more expensive, will reimburse you for the full cost of buying new items. Present value reduces your reimbursement by calculating depreciation based on the age of the property.

If you run a home business from a rented dwelling, see if your Renters insurance covers property and liability for business activities. Although most policies don’t include this, you can obtain coverage through a policy rider.

To learn more, just give us a call at any time.

When we think of trucking, we think of people making long hauls across state lines, delivering trailers filled with various goods loaded onto big eighteen wheelers. In reality, a lot of the miles truckers put on the road are done locally, making deliveries across town or at least within the same county. We like to think of truckers making cross-country trips from coast to coast, taking in Southwestern sunsets and driving through the mountains of Colorado. But long-haul is only one part of the trucking game. A lot of people who carry cargo for a living are making 10-mile, 15-mile trips in vans and box trucks.

If this is your company, the question is: Do you need trucking cargo insurance?

The answer: Not really. You do need cargo van insurance and liability coverage, but you’re going to be looking at a very different policy than a company that deals in eighteen wheel delivery is going to sign.

A long-haul trucker is specifically looking at policies designed to cover long-haul truckers. They’re dealing in a greater volume of cargo and a lot more miles between between stops. These policies are just plain bigger overall. They cover a greater cost and a greater risk. This is not to say that local truck drivers don’t have their share of risks, you’re likely to get into your share of fender benders in the city, but it’s the highway that carries the greater risk of serious accidents taking place, and every mile multiplies that risk.

Making smaller deliveries, there’s usually no point in insuring $500 of fresh baked bread for a 10 mile trip from the bakery to the grocery store. If you’re delivering your own goods, more likely than not you’re going to be eating any costs involved in damaged cargo, or else your business policy is going to cover it.

If you’re delivering on behalf of others, liability insurance will cover you more often than not. If you’re not using your van to make unreasonable deliveries, if you’re not trying to carry thousands of dollars worth of electronics across three states, then there’s no reason not to expect your basic liability coverage to protect you.

Trucking cargo insurance frequently covers the specific load being hauled from point A to point B for the duration of that trip. If you don’t need an eighteen wheeler and you’re not crossing state lines, liability insurance should cover your smaller deliveries.

Many companies buy Business Income insurance to help reduce the devastating effect of a loss on their ongoing operations. Although this coverage is extremely valuable and can help keep your business afloat after a loss, bear in mind that it has a number of exclusions.

For example, coverage usually excludes lost income associated with a contract. If the covered loss affects your ability to meet a contract with a third party, the resulting lost income won’t be covered beyond the “period of restoration.” This period usually begins 72 hours after the loss and ends as soon as your property is restored and/or operational.

Let’s say that you sign a contract with customer ABC to supply materials for a year. A month later, your business suffers a major loss to property, including the materials that ABC agreed to buy from you. Because you’ll now be unable to offer these materials for an indefinite term, ABC has no choice but to find the materials elsewhere. Your property is repaired and operational five months later, ending the “period of restoration.” However, because of the exclusion, your policy won’t cover the remaining six months of lost income from losing the contract.

Review your Business Income policy today to learn its period of restoration. There might be an endorsement available to extend the amount of time that your policy will provide coverage. We can help you determine the period that’s right for you. Just give us a call.

Pier Along Islamorada Islamorada, Florida, USA

Although you have insured the business property on your premises, this protection does not extend off site – unless you carry Inland Marine insurance.

This type of policy goes back as far as the 17th century when Lloyd’s of London extended coverage on ship cargos beyond ocean voyages to their final destination “inland.” Today, Inland Marine covers the property of a business when it’s in transit – or stored at a location away from the premises – as well as the property of third parties that’s held on the premises. Because this property is essentially “floating,” these policies are also known as Floaters.

Inland Marine coverage would apply in such scenarios as:

• A truck carrying designer handbags for an upscale department store is hijacked at a rest stop.
• A hailstorm damages bulldozers on a machinery dealer’s lot.
• A fire at a dry cleaners scorches customers’ clothing.
• A defective sprinkler system in a “big box” store warehouse soaks dozens of TVs.

You can buy Inland Marine insurance on either a “named peril” basis (which lists the specific risks covered) or as an “all risk” policy (which covers losses from all causes not specifically listed).

This coverage can provide valuable protection for the mobile or moveable property of almost any business, large or small: everything from camera shops and computer manufacturers through building contractors and jewelry stores to museums/art galleries and trucking companies.

As Business Insurance professionals, we can tailor a comprehensive Inland Marine policy to the needs of your company. Feel free to get in touch with us at any time.

The more your employees use mobile devices on company business, the more likely they are to suffer injuries – and the greater your exposure to Workers Compensation losses – even if the incident occurs off the clock or away from the workplace!

We’re no longer living in a Monday-Friday, 9-to-5 business world. Millions of workers rely on smart phones, laptops, and tablets for company business outside the office, posing a challenge to traditional definitions of work-related claims. Some 35 million Americans are working from homes, cars, airports, subways, the local wireless cafe — even at the beach during vacations! One survey found that nearly three in five respondents (59%) check their office e-mail when on vacation, while 79% pack their laptop along with their swimsuit or skis.

A combination of factors are contributing to the explosive growth of this “cyberworkalohic” behavior: Job insecurity in today’s uncertain economy, pressure (real or perceived) from peers or managers, the demands of working in today’s global, 24-7 business environment — and the blurring of distinctions between office and home environments among younger, tech-savvy workers.

Consider these scenarios:

• An employee on her evening jog is using her cell phone to check on office e-mails when she stumbles on the curb, falls, and breaks her arm.
• While stuck in traffic on his way home from work, a man receives a work-related text message that’s so upsetting he rear-ends another car, injuring his back.

What happens if these workers file Workers Comp claims for job-related injuries? That depends. The growth in employees’ work-related use of mobile devices away from the job is so recent that courts haven’t yet ruled on whether such claims are compensable.

To reduce exposing your business to this increasingly widespread risk — which could drive up your Comp premiums — it makes sense to set and enforce clear and comprehensive rules for using mobile devices on company business outside the work environment. The goal of this “best practice” approach is to create a corporate culture that maintains a balance between increasing productivity and keeping your workers as safe, and injury free, as possible — on and off the job.

For advice on designing guidelines for employee use of mobile devices, just get in touch with us.

Although you’re aware of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), you might not understand how to implement it in your small business. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) can help. The Americans with Disabilities Act: A Primer for Small Business outlines the provisions of the ADA and provides valuable examples, tips, and caveats:

This EEOC publication covers:

• Who’s protected by Title I of the ADA.
• How to make ADA services accessible.
• The use of tax credits and deductions to offset specific costs.
• How to avoid mistakes when interviewing applicants with disabilities.
• What questions you’re permitted to ask employees about a medical condition.
• What to do if safety issues arise.
• Various aspects of reasonable accommodations requirements.
• Tax incentives for businesses that hire and retain people with disabilities.

If you provide goods and services to the public, check out the ADA Guide for Small Businesses, a 15-page illustrated guide that presents an overview of some basic requirements for small businesses. It provides guidance on how to make these services accessible and use tax credits and deductions to offset specific costs. You can access the guide at ADA Guide for Small Businesses (HTML) or ADA Guide for Small Businesses (PDF). Spanish, Cambodian, Chinese, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Tagalog and Vietnamese editions are available from the ADA Information Line: (800) 514 -0301 (voice) or (800) 514-0383 (TTY).

Reading up on the ADA can help you avoid costly lawsuits. Get smart on the law — and call us to make sure you have the coverage you need to protect your business against this risk.

In today’s high-tech world, every business depends on increasingly complex electronic and electric equipment to stay in business. But what happens when these systems break down?

Consider this nightmare scenario: You’re facing a deadline under a major contract when a voltage spike surges through your electrical lines, burning out its computers and telephone networks, and shutting down your operations. In addition to lost productivity, you’ll need to spend time and money repairing or replacing the damaged systems – not to mention the revenue you’ll lose until you can get back up to speed. The total cost could easily run into six figures.

Equipment Breakdown insurance to the rescue! “Think of this policy as Accident, Health, and Disability insurance for your equipment,” says Mark MacGougan, Assistant Vice President of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company. The coverage, also known as Boiler & Equipment Insurance, can pick up the tab for:

• Repairs and replacement of equipment damaged due (some policies will cover green construction and disposal and recycling expenses)
• Expenses of limiting the loss or expediting the restoration process
• Income lost when a covered breakdown causes a partial or total business interruption

Many businesses carry Equipment Breakdown coverage under their Commercial Property insurance. More sophisticated operations might prefer a stand-alone policy. Some insurance companies offer such preventive services as infrared scanning technology or onsite inspections to identify maintenance needs.

The coverage you need depends on the nature and size of your operation, the exposures you face, and the type of equipment you use. As insurance professionals, we’d be happy to tailor an Equipment Breakdown policy to fit your needs, at a price you can afford.