Failure to Communicate

I just saw it happen again. I get a last minute call from my retailer for me to urgently help them place a new piece of business.  Turns out it's a disgruntled insured that is frantically shopping after they got a quote that more than doubled on them from last year at the last minute, just before the renewal date.  It mystifies me that an account can get that out of control and the insurance agent and the insured don't know about it.  In every business in any industry the Captain's phrase "What we've got here is a failure to communicate" is alive and well.  Stay close to your customers and deliver the appropriate expectations about their accounts.  If there is a chance that prices are going to rise, tell them early so they can prepare.  Waiting and hoping that they don't rise becomes deadly for your relationship when the worst happens.  Increase your transparency.

Peeling Back the Onion with Parking Lots

My retailer called me up last month with a quick question on one of the policies that we write for him.  The insured was adding a new property to an already large schedule and wanted to know if the parking lots were still going to be covered since they were one foot below the flood plain.  It turns out that there would be no problem with the parking lot being below the flood plain…if the parking lots were covered!  You know that brief moment of panic where you think you have the perfect placement only to find a gaping hole in it?  At first, it doesn’t seem like parking lots not being covered wouldn’t be a big deal.  But thinking about the different scenarios makes you realize that an earthquake can destroy a parking lot quickly and a flood has the possibility of washing it away.

Luckily, we were able to endorse the policy to include ‘parking lots’ in the definition of other property covered and add a sublimit that is sufficient to cover the parking lots.

You probably already know that parking lots are excluded in the standard ISO form, but your major clients are probably not 'standard'.  The key is to make sure you understand your client's needs and ask for coverages that are free for the asking before coverage is placed, but very expensive if left uncovered for your insured to foot the bill when a loss happens.