With an abundance on the figurative plate and mind right now as a business owner during these uncertain times, reviewing your insurance policies may feel low on the list of priorities.  We are here for you now more than ever and would be happy to partner with you and review if there are any adjustments that can be made as a short term solution to help your business get through the next few weeks to months as our communities continue to navigate COVID-19.  The following suggestions may not apply to every business and their unique policies or operations but are intended to spark thought and hopefully initiate a conversation as we partner with your company to navigate this together. 

Reviewing Payment Options:

We have been in communication with many of our carrier partners and are proud to report the majority are providing a great deal of leniency and understanding with regards to premium payment schedules during this time.  It is recommended that:

• If you are unable to make a regularly scheduled payment, please give us a call and we can review if your carrier has adjusted their deadlines and if they are offering a flexible payment option that would better benefit your needs during this time. 
• We would not recommend skipping a payment without contacting us first but encourage you to please reach out so we can further investigate by carrier if they are providing due date flexibility that would be of assistance to you. 
• Depending on your payment option selected at policy inception, we may be able to adjust the billing cycle to provide temporary relief especially with regards to workers compensation insurance.  As businesses are laying off payroll, there are pay-as-you-go options that could be employed to avoid audit later.

Please reach out with any questions or inquiries regarding billing.  This is usually an area where we have limited flexibility, but in response to current events carriers are being very understanding in their partnership with their customers. 

Reviewing Policy Rating Factors:

Regarding your business insurance policies, we would never suggest making any adjustments to coverage limits or property coverage as property losses can still occur during a shutdown and be devastating to a business.  However, there are a few key areas impacted by a reduction or shutdown in operations that could have an influence on premium and hopefully provide some short-term relief for your business. 

• Should you be experiencing a reduction in sales or income as a result of the COVID-19 government ordered shutdown, we can update your annual sales or income expenses to reflect accordingly.  This would vary situationally as far as how heavily that is rated, but the decreased operations could trigger a slight reduction in premium. 
• Layoffs, closures, reduction in hours of operations, there are many factors that could also be influencing your payroll expenses during this time.  If the shutdown has affected your annual payroll, we could adjust that figure to reflect current operations to see if it would produce an impact on premium. 

Please reach out with any questions or inquiries regarding your coverages, the above mentioned rating factors, and how it could have an impact on policy premium.

As always, we are here for you and are invested in the continued success of your business.  If there were ever an opportunity to apply a ‘no-question-is-a-stupid-question’ attitude, we are currently living it.  Please reach out with any questions you may have and remember; we are in this together.  We thank you for the opportunity to be of service to you and your business and please know you, your families, and companies are in our continued thoughts during this time.  Stay safe!