Even the safest businesses have to keep in mind their liabilities and risks when doing business. You need insurance to protect yourself and your business. There seems to be insurance for every aspect of your operations, but where do you start?
Today, we’re speaking with Danny DeBeikes of Hearth Insurance about how the right insurance policies can protect your business, what to look for when finding a policy, and how to make sure your claim processes as fast as possible.
Visit hearthinsurancesolutions.com to find the right policy for you.
On finding the proper coverage for your business
“I would say something that may be overlooked is making sure that all of their tools and equipment is always covered, whether it’s in the yard, at the office, on the truck. Because there are areas where gaps in coverage where it may not be covered when they think it is. Another area that may be overlooked in the beginning, is making sure that I mentioned a personal umbrella, an umbrella policy to go over and above the general liability limits to make sure that you can work on bigger jobs. And, that if you’re working on a bigger job, there are bigger accidents that can happen. And, you don’t want to have the insurance policy exhaust its coverage and then be left on the hook for anything personal.”
On making sure you have the right coverage for your jobs
“If they are doing a certain type of job, and they want to save some money, by being classified as a different type of job, there’s less and less ways to get away with it. Now just because of technology, it’s as easy as an underwriter just pulling up a website and saying, calling me back and saying, ‘Hey, you know, you guys said that these guys are just going around and mowing lawns, but their website shows that, you know, up 40-foot palm trees with just their bare hands and feet, chopping off the leaves.’ So, you got to be careful what you put out there, you want to advertise that you can do everything. So, you get the customers, but then it’s also going to kind of expose to the world exactly what it is you do. And you should have the correct coverage in place, or at least have an answer.”
On why it’s important to have an agent look out for you
So, a big key to that is just having an agent that’ll kind of show you the difference between the two different policies. And, where one may seem like it’s a really great deal. For instance, actual cash value versus replacement cost. That’s those are two terms that are used to replace property, if there’s a loss. So, let’s say there’s a fire and all your tools burned down, and it’s $20,000 worth of tools. If your policy was written on actual cash value, they’ll take the tool, and they’ll take the value of when you bought them and depreciate them and then pay you for that. If it’s written on replacement cost, then they’re going to cut you a check for whatever it costs to replace, let’s say it’s a generator, and it cost $5,000. Well, if you bought it 10 years ago, it might only be worth $2,000. Replacement costs are going to give you $5,000, to go get a brand new generator. So, that’s definitely one right off the top of my head, that you need to really look at the fine print.
