Felony Background Checks. An important step in hiring people. If an employee has a felony conviction and the agency has not obtained the proper waiver from their state’s insurance department, the agency may be violating the Violent Crimes Act. Some …
Flood Insurance. Who Ever Said Mortgage Companies Know Everything About Flood Insurance? In agency after agency I visit, flood insurance is usually only offered to people if their mortgage company requires it. De facto, this means the agency is accepting …
Job Descriptions. A simple solution to minimizing E&O exposures. One of the most significant E&O exposures is literally a “he said, she said” issue. Producers think a CSR will do something and CSRs think the producer is doing it. The …
Agency Catastrophe Plans. How to keep a catastrophe from becoming an even bigger catastrophe. I don’t know who said it, but they correctly concluded that the best E&O audit is a natural catastrophe because so many clients have claims and …
Bond Specifications & Company Ratings. Do you check? When commercial clients need a bond, they almost always have a contract that requires the bond meet certain specifications. Among those specifications is the bond be issued by an insurance company with …
As Americans do their best to plan for retirement, all it takes is a visit to a financial planner to realize the importance and value of long-term care insurance. The goal of purchasing it is two-fold: retaining as much of …
Is Your Agency Still Accepting Cash Payments? Relatively few agencies today, at least relative to ten years ago, are accepting cash. Technology will reduce cash payments even more. The means to never accept another cash payment already exist, but this …
Have You Updated Your Procedures to Cover Handheld Devices? Without question, handheld devices, whether they be simple phones, pda’s, or smart phones, have transformed agency communications. Agency producers and staff can and do communicate with clients, vendors, and carriers using …
Firmer insurance prices and an upward trend in agency revenues are signs of good times for most independent agencies. These same trends, however, are reflected in today’s insurance market for agency errors and omissions coverage where they can pose challenges …
Review Your E&O Carrier’s Requirements for Carrier Writing Standards. There’s a myth going around that if an agency writes with a carrier rated B+ or better by A.M. Best, their E&O policy will cover them. Based on the E&O policies …
