Solving the “What If” for Your Business Owner Clients

“What if…?” It’s the question your business-owner clients face on a daily basis.

What if…

• …a customer slips, falls, and is injured at any of the owner’s buildings and the injured party sues, claiming the owner was responsible?
• …the owner, principal or an employee is involved in an auto accident while driving a company-owned vehicle?
• …the building owned or leased by the business owner or principal suffers a fire, explosion, wind, flood or other catastrophic event that causes physical damage to the property?

In all of these cases, you’ve probably provided your client with the options to purchase insurance policies that are quite comprehensive and include numerous coverage enhancements.

• Liability Insurance to defend the owner and offset expenses
• Auto Liability and Physical Damage Insurance to offset expenses
• Property Insurance to offset expenses of building repair

The intent of these policies is to fully protect your client against the standard “what if” scenarios that could jeopardize the viability of their company and their life savings.

Over the past year, your clients and their companies have faced many new and unexpected challenges and obstacles. For example: government-mandated lockdowns and closures, reduced operating capability, reduced employee participation, and supply chain disruptions. Your clients have worked tirelessly and courageously to lead their companies through all of this and remain viable.

Unfortunately, even as we move into a post COVID-19 world, new scenarios are emerging that will impact your clients in both the near- and long-term. Perhaps more troubling, protection against these scenarios may not be included in your clients’ current insurance portfolios.

What if…

• …investors sue your client seeking damages for not achieving forecasted revenue goals, or the return on investment is not what they expected?
• …vendor agreements are not fully achieved, and the vendor takes legal action against your client to get remuneration for their loss?
• …your client’s employees seek action for purported discriminatory acts in the re-opening and return-to-work structure and policies?
• …customers of your client bring legal action for failure to fulfill and honor agreements?
• …government entities seek legal action for purported improper operating structure and procedures?

When these “what ifs” emerge – and they will – and your client reaches out to ask you which insurance policy protects them, the unfortunate answer is, most likely none of them!

Work Comp, GL, Auto Liability, and even Excess Liability policies are not designed to meet the needs of these lawsuits and actions. Specialized protection is needed to shield against these threats. The solution is the Management/Principal Liability Policy.

You might be thinking that those policies are for the large, publicly traded companies – big companies with thousands of employees – who get sued all the time. It’s true, those companies really need this kind of policy, but they’re not the only ones. Mid-sized private companies have to come to terms with the new business reality and understand that they, too, are facing these “what ifs” – and at an increasingly rapid pace.

In the market today, there is a select group of insurance carriers that provide this kind of policy, with comprehensive coverage, superior claims service and top rated legal teams who will work alongside you and your client in navigating these “what if” scenarios when they occur.

Gaining access to these carriers is not easy. You need a broker partner who is an expert in the private company management/principal liability arena and a specialist with relationships and access to these select insurance carriers.

I think you’ll agree that as the end of the pandemic is in sight, immediate action is needed to ensure that your clients have the protection they’ll need to shield them against these emerging threats.

It all starts with a conversation. I’m here to help. Feel free to text, email or call me, and see what we can do to keep your clients’ wealth and businesses safe.

Alan Belthoff
Senior Vice President
Breckenridge Insurance Services
201-739-0631
moc.sikcerb@ffohtleba