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Archive for June, 2010

Getting a small business insurance quote

Friday, June 11th, 2010

If you are starting out in the world of business on your own, the list of things you must/should/could do are endless.

Somewhere on the list, hopefully nearer the top than the bottom, is the need for small business insurance. This does not mean that your new venture is small, just that you tend to start out requiring this type of policy which will then evolve into something much, much bigger as time goes by.

You need to do two things. Firstly, speak to someone that understands that you are looking for a policy that provides the essential protection required for your business, at a competitive price. Anyone can over-insure and if you visit one of the compare business insurance websites, you may not receive a bit of personal advice and guidance and end up buying an unsuitable product.

For this reason, without fail, you should speak to a business insurance broker.

Secondly, you need to get as much information as possible together for your business. The sort of information you need is the type of security, the construction of your building, replacement costs of stock, business assets and computers etc.

The more information that you can bring to the table, the more that your risk can be properly assessed. For example, most companies that provide shop insurance, will provide additional discounts if you have external grills and/or shutters across the frontage.

It is the small things that you may be asked by the broker that build up the bigger picture of your risk. Simply clicking boxes on a screen may give you a price, but how do you know the policy is suitable for you?

Posted in compare business insurance, shop insurance | No Comments »

Business insurance advice – speak to the experts

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Financial services can appear to be mysterious to many people. The mystery is only because there appears to be a limitless amount of choice out there.

Business insurance has been around for ages in one form or another. As time moves on, the commercial insurance companies do two things. Firstly, they look for better, easier, quicker and varied ways to get their products to market. And secondly, they change, adapt and amend the policies they sell and the pricing that is applied to them.

Both points are equally important and you could read thousands or millions of words on each topic.

The second point is the one that adds to the mysteriousness of the products. Put a standard restaurant insurance policy in front of most business owners and they would struggle to interpret the whole policy and how it affects their business. This does not mean that they are not clever enough to understand the policy, just that it is not something that is core to their business, so there is no need for them to follow what the wording means and how it all fits together.

What they want to do, is to speak to a provider of these products and delegate the technicalities to them. For sure, they want to get the best price, who doesn’t, but the canny business owner will alos understand fully that if the policy does not have the right cover, then it is not worth having.

For this reason, most business owners will speak to an expert. An established business insurance broker is there purely to serve the business owner. In law, our first responsibility is to you, not the insurer. We have to be careful and senisble about what products we offer, so we take time and care to understand what are the best policies for you.

Don’t whatever you do get sucked in to the non-independent (single insurer) providers that tell you their product is the best and the cheapest. It can’t be, without the full appreciation of the market and the ability to search insurers, they are not giving you the choice. They may be experts in their own policies, but what is the point of that when there is better choice for you elsewhere?

Posted in business insurance broker, restaurant insurance | No Comments »

Who is my business insurance provider?

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

In the olden days, pre 2000, in the UK, if you were looking for a commercial insurance quote, you would usually recognise who the insurers were. The main brand names, Commercial Union, Norwich Union, General Accident, London and Edinburgh, Royal Insurance, Sun Alliance and Lloyds of London, would all be in the top ten or twenty of the companies most likely to provide you with your quote.

Nowadays though, you may find that when you get your documentation, there are names that you have never heard of. If you are buying a product or service, then you are always told not to trust an unknown quantity or company you have never heard.

However, when you are getting a business insurance quote, you are protected to a great deal. On the 15th January 2005, there was a massive change to the world for all business insurance brokers. You will of course have missed this change, because it only really affected us in the industry. What happened was that every single broker and insurer had to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in order to be able to trade.

Without this authority, you could not operate. In addition, the authority means that you have to prove significant financial capabilities. Insurers are checked, double checked and triple checked through a combination of returns sent in, audit checks and un-announced visits.

So, even though you may not have heard of the insurer, you can rest safe in the knowledge that the insurer should not be a mushroom company that has grown quickly and will disappear just as fast.

As a business insurance broker, we also have to be content that the insurer we are recommending, or quoting, will be one that has good service standards and offers the widest choice of cover, for the best premium available.

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Wholesalers insurance – what is a stillage warranty?

Monday, June 7th, 2010

When we talk about commercial insurance policy wordings, insurers do still use certain terminology which can be difficult to understand. The days are gone when you needed to have worked for years in the industry before you could interpret wordings, but we are still not quite at the stage where anyone can understand the policies.

There is a good reason for this, they need to be understood if a claim goes to court or is considered by solicitors. Additionally, to make things clearer can mean m0re lengthy, and nobody wants to receive a 300 page document when they have just bought a shop insurance package.

But, you do need to consider, and sometimes look for specialist advice, when you have obtained a quote. If you are looking for a wholesalers insurance quote, you will need to go to an independent broker so that you get some real choice of options.

When you get your quote, there will, as always, be terms, conditions and excesses specific to you. One of these, for wholesalers and importers, is called by most insurers a stillage warranty. If this were put into plain English, it would be called a stock storage minimum height warranty. You can see my point therefore about the need for shorter policies.

One of the biggest culprits of major claims against policies is from water. Whether this be from a burst pipe, leaking sprinklers or a flood, most types of stock are susceptible to serious damage, even if they get slightly wet.

So, to try and prevent this, insurers request, through a warranty, that you keep your stock at a certain height about the ground, or floor level.

Stillage warranties can be for different heights, the usual minimum is 10cm going up to 30cm in certain cases.

A stillage warranty is not going to stop a catastrophic flood damaging stock, but just raising the stock off of the floor will prevent a lot of claims. You will need to put the stock on pallets or shelving, it is usually cheaper and easier to have this on pallets.

If you have a claim for water damage and the insurers can prove that the stock was not stored at height, then you could have your claim turned down. Make sure you check very carefully the policy and/or quote.

Posted in wholesalers insurance quote | No Comments »

Wholesalers insurance – goods in transit cover

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Under a standard wholesalers insurance policy, there are three main elements of cover that you will need. Stock, employers and products liability insurance.

Under the stock insurance, your policy will normally provide you with cover for fire, storm, flood, theft, malicious damage etc, whilst at the business premises. But, what happens to the stock whilst it is being delivered to your customers in your own vehicles?

If you use a third party courier, you will normally obtain cover through, or from, the company undertaking the transit as they will have a “block” marine transit policy.

If however you are moving the goods yourself, in your own business car or van, then you will need to ensure that cover is in place should any stock be stolen from the vehicle or damaged in the event of an accident. Business car insurance will not cover stock, unless you specify this and even then only certain insurers will do this and the limits are woefully low.

You will therefore need to check with your business insurance broker exactly what cover you have, and importantly, what the limit is for any one claim. You need to make sure that you have cover in place for the maximum loss you could face at any one time.

If you regularly have a few thousand pounds in stock in your van, but once a week or month you have two or three times this amount, your policy limit should be the full, maximum limit, ie £6,000.

Posted in wholesalers insurance | No Comments »

Save money with a competitive business insurance quote.

Friday, June 4th, 2010

Businesses are still finding things tough as we hit the tail end of the recession. The problem with actually being formally in a recession is that it takes up to two years for the growth to gradually slow down to get the point of being negative.

Entering and exiting recession is like an oil tanker going through a slalom. It takes ages and ages to turn and build up speed again. In 2010, and probably going into 2011, we will still find that tough times are amongst us.

One way though that you can help yourself, is to look around for a cheap business insurance quote. Whether you are paying £500 or £5,000 (or more), if you can shave 10% off your premium, this is better in your pocket than going to your insurer.

A word of caution though. Cheap does not always mean best. Everyone knows this, but the problem with business insurance is that how can you tell the quality of 80 page insurance policy compared to another?

The secret is, always, always, always use a business insurance broker to get an alternative quote. A broker is legally obliged to do the best for you, if they offer you a worse product (ie higher excess, less cover) without pointing this out, you can complain in the event of a claim being repudiated or not paid.

If you are looking to compare business insurance, then you need to get an expert to do this for you. The best starting point is to get hold of your current schedule of insurance, tippex out the premium, and fax this through to a broker and ask them to get you a comparison. You may need to confirm that you have had no claims or losses in the past five years (or give details of these), but a schedule usually gives as much information as a broker needs to at least give an indication.

Posted in cheap business insurance quote | No Comments »

Free business insurance quotes?

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Some people say that if anything is offered to you that is free, there is a catch. Well the good thing is that this is not strictly true.

If something, a product or a service, appears to be too good to be true, then it probably is. But this is different to getting something free. Unlike many professional services, getting a free business insurance quote is easy.

All you need is internet access and a telephone. In the good old days, if you wanted to get yourself a quote, you had to book an appointment with a business insurance broker. Either you went to speak to the broker or the broker came out to see you. After a nice cosy meeting, you then had to wait a few days to get a written quote. To proceed with the quote, you then had to fill out a proposal form and then wait ages for your policy documents.

Of course, it was still a free process, it just took ages. With the internet and your telephone, you can find a broker and get a quote within ten to fifteen minutes.

And yes, the process is still free. It may cost you some time, but if spending some time can save you some money over the year, then it is worthwhile.

The good thing about searching on the net, is that you do not need to speak to a local broker. You can deal with a broker just about anywhere, as long as they are UK based and authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. If they are not, then you should not deal with them.

Posted in free business insurance quote | No Comments »

Professional Indemnity Insurance – pick your limit of indemnity

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

When looking for a professional indemnity insurance quote, you will, if you use the internet, find this to be a much easier process than 10 years ago.

In 2010, you can take your pick from the type of intermediary you want or you can go direct. The recommendation is, as with all types of commercial insurance, to speak to a business insurance broker.

Their raison d’etre is to serve you, the purchasing customer. They understand what you want, what you need and where to go to get the best price.

But, the question you will be asking yourself is what limit of indemnity do I go for. With business building insurance, it is easy. You get a professional valuation done of the building and they work out the square footage and the rebuilding cost per square foot. Multiply the two and you get the amount that you need to get cover for.

With PI insurance, things are not quite so easy. Depending on the insurer, you can get a limit of indemnity (the maximum amount of any one loss) from £100,000 all the way up to £5 or £10m. Obviously, the higher the limit of indemnity, the higher the premium. You do not, therefore, want to pay over the odds so need to pick your limit carefully.

There are two ways to do this. Firstly, discuss with your broker what sort of limit they feel you need. Ultimately, it is your decision but they can help you understand what is needed.

Secondly, and you do not get so much choice, you may need to go with whatever limit your customers require.

You may be looking for cover because a supplier or customer insists on you having this, if it is the case then you need to speak to them to see if changing the limit is a deal breaker. If it is, then stick with it but if not, you may decide to negotiate the requirement to be for a lower limit as this will be cheaper for you. Only do this though after giving full consideration to the steps in 1 above.

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Unoccupied building insurance – is wider cover available

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

If you own, or are looking to insure a commercial building, you will find a great variety in the prices, or premiums, you will get from different insurers for the same type of risk.

As with all financial services, it pays to look around. There are a lot of consumer based sites around that all say the same thing. Do not, whatever you do, buy a financial service or product from one single company. Without a shadow of a doubt, the one thing with banking, insurance, mortgages etc is that you will in the vast majority of cases always get different prices. It is just the way of the world in this day and age.

Commercial insurance companies love, and survive, through customers not looking around. If the law were changed and you were not allowed to insure with the same company for more than one year running, you would find that prices would plummet. You would get the super introductory, new business super deals year in year out.

For unoccupied building insurance, you will need to be even more careful. Most insurers will only provide you with five covers. Fire, lightning, explosion, aircraft and property owners liability for empty buildings. They have years and years of statistics which show that they do not make money on empty building cover, unless they restrict the cover and charge higher prices.

There is a silver lining though, that is that certain insurers do know how to make money at this type of business and are prepared to offer better insurance cover at better prices as a result of this knowledge of the market.

So, wider cover is available, what you do need to do though is to look around and see what options there are. As ever, speak to a business insurance broker and see what availability there is for the wider cover.

Posted in business insurance broker, unoccupied building insurance | No Comments »