I've Read the Policies. I've Been on the Scene.
For over twenty years I've assessed risk for businesses and families. It taught me to look at an operation and see what could take it down. I don't sell insurance advice, but I've never stopped seeing a business that way.
Licensed in Property & Casualty. Licensed in Life & Health. Held Series 6 and Series 63 during my securities years. Two decades assessing operational, human capital, and financial exposure.
The day I put out my client's house.
My pager went off at my desk for a structure fire. The department was a mile away. I grabbed my gear and made the first truck out the door.
When we pulled up, the address sounded familiar. I hopped out with my air pack and mask on and realized it was one of my clients' houses. I pulled the hose off the truck, took it in the side door, kicked through to the front where the flames were coming out, and pushed the fire back until it was knocked down.
When I came out to change my air bottle, I walked over to my clients and told them I hated that this happened and I'd come talk to them as soon as I finished. They stood there in disbelief. She laughed, the kind of laugh that comes out when nothing makes sense.
Before that fire truck left the scene, I had claims on the phone and I had them a hotel room for the night.
They told me they didn't care what their insurance cost for the rest of their lives. They said an agent who shows up, puts the fire out, and then pays the claim is not somebody you leave.
The four things I find most often.
You said yes to work you aren't covered to do.
A cleaning company insured to clean houses puts an employee on a ladder to do outside windows. The policy covers cleaning. It does not cover that ladder. Scope creep is an operations decision that shows up as an insurance failure later.
You never collected certificates from your subs.
Every contractor and subcontractor touching your business without a current certificate of insurance is exposure you absorbed on their behalf without knowing it.
Property in your care, custody, and control isn't covered the way you think.
General liability does not follow other people's property once it's in your hands.
You believe you have more coverage than you have.
This is the most common one, and it's the one that ends businesses. "I have insurance" is not the same sentence as "I am covered for this."
I've helped people replace a totaled car. Put a burned house back together. Deliver a life insurance check to a daughter who had just taken a second mortgage to bury her father. Cover an employee's injury while he recovered.
Not one time, in any of those moments, did anybody ask what it cost.
I've always been people's best friend on their worst days.