Risk & Business

In my meeting with business owners, the discussion of loss of income usually comes up. It starts out with a simple question such as this, "How are you going to make income if you lose your store..."? From this point on most business owners will tell me they have friend in the construction business and as soon as they get their claim check from the insurance company they can rebuild in a few months. No sweat, they would only have a short period of  down time and income loss to deal with. This is where a reality check is needed. Unfortunately most business owners think this way but it never happens like that. Most businesses that suffer a devastating loss to their property don't get back in business for 8-10 months, and sometimes even years. The loss of income forces them to lay off key employees, deplete cash , lose vendor relationships, lose customer relationships, and go out of business. This can all be prevented by buying insurance coverage for business interruption or

Recently I had the experience of being in a coverage interpretation battle with an insurance company. My client had suffered a major loss to his business. The coverage with an adequate limit was on his policy so I figured the claim would be a slam dunk and be paid. Imagine my surprise when the insurance company denied the claim because of an interpretation of a word in the insurance policy. The debate then began as I unleashed my 26 years of experience and knowledge on the carrier. At first it looked bleak, as the insurance company had adjusted claims similar to my client using their interpretation. The case law was weak on the subject so I was left arguing my point with example after example I had experienced over the years. It all paid off as the insurance company attorney agreed with me and they paid the claim to my client. It just goes to show that in a insurance policy one word can mean everything, or the interpretation of one word. In this case I was fortunate to have someone on

Heat exhaustion work comp claims increase during this time of the year. Employers need to take heed and keep your employees out of the heat of the day, especially in the construction trades. Heat related work comp claims can be severe, with long durations of time out. Use common sense and watch the temps. Until next time be careful out there and know your risks. G. Kevin Nemith President CNC Insurance Associates Inc. Proudly Serving , DE, MD, NJ, PA, & VA. www.cncinsurance.com www.bizinsurancetv.org

More and more business owners are going to cloud computing to run their operations.  While the numbers continue to show a steady climb in the growth of cloud services, there are still many businesses unwilling to make the switch. Concerns such as breaches in security, loss of data and privacy are at the top. While there have been incidents that fuel these concerns, there are also many benefits that have to be considered as well. Those benefits include reduced costs, increase control over virus attacks and also more efficiency.  While there may always be some risk associated with off-site cloud services, their popularity is definitely increasing. My prediction is that most businesses will use a cloud service routinely over the next 5 years. Well until next time, be careful out there and know your risk.  G. Kevin Nemith, President CNC Insurance Associates Inc. Enterprise Risk Management Consultant. Serving, DE, MD, VA, NJ, & PA.