Business is always changing, but it’s important to keep your agent in the loop

If you’re like most people, chances are that you think about your insurance program about as much as you think about the dentist – once or twice a year. You could face significant gaps in coverage if you don’t keep your agent informed of significant changes to your business.

Changes in payroll

Payroll is a large part of your workers’ compensation rate, so changes in expected payroll can cause a premium difference in your end-of-year audit. For some types of businesses, payroll is also a factor used to determine your general liability rates.

For example, if your payroll has been $100,000 but you just hired 2 new people. Now it’s expected to be $180,000 and you can expect to receive a significant bill when the insurance company does it’s workers’ compensation audit at the end of the year.

If you let your agent know of your new hires, they can advise if you need to adjust your payroll as it happens. While you’ll still have to pay a higher premium, you won’t be faced with a large one-time bill to pay at the end of the year.

Changes in sales

Your sales numbers are usually used to determine your general liability rates. Similar to your payroll numbers and a workers’ compensation audit, a general liability audit will be conducted at the end of the year to determine your sales volume and appropriate premium.

Keeping your agent informed of any large increases in sales during the year helps prevent a large audit bill from coming at the end of the year.

Business expansion

If you buy another property, expand to another location, buy a new business vehicle, acquire another business, or any other type of commercial expansion of your business, you’ll want to let your agent know. Commercial insurance is usually fairly narrow when it comes to what’s covered and what’s not, and new purchases have limited automatic coverage or will have a short time frame of automatic coverage if they do have it.

For example, your commercial auto policy may not grant you any automatic coverage at all for new vehicles purchased or new property you acquire may exceed the automatic coverage you may have.

Equipment upgrades

Similar to expanding your business, if you’re expecting a significant upgrade in equipment or any other type of business contents, you may not have enough coverage and will need to notify your agent to increase your business personal contents limit.

Business personal property typically only applies to specifically listed locations as well, which means you wouldn’t have any contents coverage at all if you do expand to another location or property until you notify your agent.

If your business is finally making the plunge into the online world, perhaps with an upgraded website, more robust digital marketing, or online sales, then you’ll also face an increased exposure to cyber crime. Your current policy may have little to no coverage for cyber insurance, so you’ll want to talk with your agent about adding coverage to your commercial package policy or buying a separate cyber insurance policy.

Let our agents review your business insurance package to make sure you are properly covered. Connect with us.