Best practices for determining TI and BPP in a BOP?

[shanecw33]

Coming from personal lines with the majority of my property risks being owner occupied, and having proprietary software to calculate reconstruction cost, I was comfortable in my coverage levels.

My experience in commercial lines, thus far, has been that the majority of my risks are lessees, requiring only TI and BPP. When I'm writing these risks I've been using either, prior policies and coverages (when available), insured’s estimate, or a personal estimate after a quick inspection of the premises. As a "professional" I'm just not comfortable relying on previous agent info or my ability to estimate proper levels of coverage accurately.

Does anybody have some general guidelines/best practice suggestions for determining TI/BPP coverage levels?

Thanks!

[Big Dog]

If your insured's leased office were to be totally damaged, what would the cost be to both replace all of their business personal property, and replace the TIB's. That's pretty much it. A good guage for TIB's would be what the construction costs today would be, or to ask the insured what it cost when they were originally put in, and factor in for inflation.

Make sure that the insured is the one that gives you these figures, and not a WAG from you after doing an inspection.