As business owners we all need insurance. Exactly what your insurance needs are depends on your sector, and/or industry, and you should be talking with your broker in some depth about what those are. Essentially, your insurance should reflect what within your business is important to you.
Generally, insurance is there to tackle the simpler things, like Professional Indemnity or Public Liability, but there is also a lot more topics where insurance can be useful. Other very topical types of insurance are, Employers Liability, Directors and Officers and Cyber Insurance, etc.
You probably won’t appreciate how important these other types of insurance are until you discuss your business with both your compliance consultant and your insurance broker.
Isn’t Insurance a Get Out Of Jail Free Card
When discussing things with your compliance consultant and your insurance broker two common themes will be asked of you; a) do you understand your insurance? and b) do you have things in place that the insurance policy requires?
Insurance companies are very happy to provide you with quotations, however there is an assumption that you know what you have to do to meet the requirements of that type of insurance. Employers’ Liability Insurance requires you to have certain practices in place and that you can demonstrate you have a process to follow. On a claim being made you will be requested to provide evidence that these confirmed practices were being followed before they support your claim and start negotiating a settlement.
Your Role
As a business owner. Or a director, it is your role to ensure that you understand your responsibilities. Let’s paint a picture. Your car gets stolen, but it is unlocked, and the keys are inside the car… Why, well you popped back indoors to get some de-icer to clear your windscreen so you can drive safely. Obviously, the insurance company will not pay out on this claim as you did not act in line with the clauses in the policy.
What the insurance company expects you to do is all in the various sections of that policy. They will also let you know of any other exclusions, and some of them are getting quite tight. For example, at my last renewal for car insurance I was told that I could not leave my car away from its given location, i.e. my home, for more than 48 hours. If I wanted to do this I would need to rely on the insurance in place by the operators where I left it, for example an airport car park, or get a quotation where I could leave my car away from my home for longer periods.
Restrictive Practices
Insurance companies are a business too and they need to make money just like we do. When there are too many valid claims that they have to pay out on, our premiums go up. It makes sense of course, but it’s annoying all the same.
Insurance companies will look for ways not to agree your claim, and even when they do they will also look for ways to pay you less than you were hoping for. Whether you are looking at domestic insurance, or business insurance, it’s the same thing.
It may be too mean for us to entitle this section restrictive practices, but unless you are fully aware of what impacts any potential claim the insurance company will try to restrict the amount of money they pay out to you.
How to Prove You’ve Got a Handle on Things
Your insurance broker and your compliance consultant will probably both say to prove you comply with the sections in the insurance document you have to be willing to prove you have policies and procedures in place. Not just this, but you will also have to prove that these internal guidelines have been followed.
In short – If it isn’t written down it doesn’t exist.
What about the other types of incidents that don’t have written evidence? Well, let’s go back to vehicles. Dashcam footage is just like gold dust! It proves who was moving where and where on a carriageway any vehicle involved in the incident was. Similarly CCTV can be used as evidence for certain types of claims in a business.
It is your responsibility to make sure everything you do has got something relatively substantial to back up any claim that might be made. Having a certification of some kind can help you stick to this approach as many of them also require policies, procedures and evidence for them to be granted to you (also see: https://eyebray.com/standards/ )
Like an umbrella only covers you (and maybe not all of you if you’re walking), each type of business insurance is designed to cover a certain section of your business. It is down to you to decide what types of insurance are important to you – and there are many different types.
Options
Our experience in the compliance field helps business owners understand all their obligations (not just those about Data Protection) and to help them make the right decisions for their organisation. As business owners, you are accountable for the compliance of your organisation. No matter what we, or your insurance broker, might give an opinion on, any decisions are completely down to you.
Insurance is an important part of your risk management, also see this, but what you can prove you have in place to your insurer is critical.
What is in here that you do not know about? Contact us now to find out more about how we can help. Also look here for more information about what we know about.
You can book your discovery call by using my calendar link: https://meetings.hubspot.com/eyebrayltd
Otherwise, email using: enquiries@eyebray.com or call me on 020 3026 5600, or 07943 211611
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