Risk & Business

Total Cost Of Risk (TCOR) , is a measurement that many business owners do not know about. Calculating your business TCOR and working to reduce it each year can add more profit to your bottom line. Let's dig in. Just operating a small business everyday produces risk. Buying insurance to protect the business from risk is what every business owners have to do. Adding up how much insurance costs your company is Step 1 in figuring TCOR.  Now look at any retained losses you had to pay out of  pocket in the course of a year, like deductibles, or losses that you didn't even turn in to the insurance company. Add these up and you have Step 2 in figuring TCOR.  Including any fines or penalties is Step 3. This would include Federal or State fines, or regulatory penalties for your operations. It could also include contract damages, or breaches. Next,  add the labor costs and administration costs of safety personnel and risk management personnel to get Step 4. Now total the result...

The FBI recently issued a warning to consumers about the increasing vulnerability of vehicles being hacked by cyber criminals. Modern technologies built into today's vehicles expose car owners to the same cyber risks that your business faces with your computer systems and point of sale credit card scanners. Let's break down just a couple of the risks this  may bring to your business. Hackers could break into your WiFi connected vehicle and shut it down. What would be the cost to your business if your fleet of delivery vehicles is out of commission because of a cyber attack? Who is going to pay for the repair of the computer module and the re-programming in the trucks, your insurance company? I doubt it. How about if a hacker steals customer data or sensitive business data from a smart phone carried by your driver that has connected to the truck's WiFi? Is your cyber insurance protection going to cover the costs to notify the customers and recapture the lost data? What happ...

In almost 28 years of selling and servicing business insurance, every month that goes by one of my clients will most likely ask, " how much liability limit should I buy for my business?". This is not an easy question to answer. Every business has their own risk profile  and budget, which has to be taken into account. There is also one other item that has to be considered when buying liability insurance. The limit can run out during the policy year! Allow me to explain. When you buy a property policy covering your building you determine an insurance limit. If the building is damaged due to a covered claim, the limit would be used to repair and replace the damaged portions of the building. The limit then "resets" to its full value and is available to cover the next claim to the building even if it is in the same policy year. Contrast this with liability limits. If your business is sued during a policy year and your liability limit is paying the costs of the lawsuit, ...