R&R Insurance Blog

The Business Income from Dependent Properties portion of your property policy provides insurance coverage in the event the damage or destruction of non-owned property reduces or terminates the insured's earnings. Dependent property coverage extends to protect the insured from business income losses emanating from the suspension of operations of non-related entities. You don't want to underestimate the impact that dependent properties could have on downtimes and the restoration and resumption of a business.

What is a Dependent Property?
There are four types of entities that qualify as eligible dependent properties:

1. Suppliers: 
   ISO refers to these as "Contributing Locations" - Contributing locations supply the insured with the parts, materials, or services necessary to manufacture its product or provide its service.
2. Buyers:
   ISO's terminology for a buyer is a "Recipient Location" - A recipient location buys/accepts the products, goods, or services of the insured.  This may be the insured's sole buyer or one that buys a majority of the insured's output.
3. Providers:
   ISO's terminology for a provider location is a "manufacturing location" - A manufacturing location as used in this endorsement, is not a location owned by the insured and part of the insured's supply chain.  
4. Drivers:
   Also known as a "Leader Location"  - these can include anchor stores (Sears, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, Boston Store, Target, Macy's, etc.), sports and entertainment venues, and other such operations or entities that draw customers to the area.

For more information about business income from dependent properties, business continuation, business income worksheets or property insurance, contact knowledgebroker Scott Brookes.

About Scott
Scott has over 25 years of risk management, risk control, underwriting and leadership roles with insurance carriers.  He has detailed experience in large accounts, large property exposures including fire protection engineering, property valuation including building, business personal property, business income, and acting as a risk manager for insured’s.  In addition, Scott has written and taught a number of property training classes, property valuation classes, and business income valuation classes.

It’s possible not to laugh when America’s Funniest Videos runs a montage of people falling down. But when someone is hurt in a slip-and-fall accident on your property, the humor fades quickly.

Nearly 9 million people seek emergency services from slips and falls each year, millions more see a doctor within a few days, and thousands more die.

Unfortunately, there’s also a pervasive belief that you’re automatically liable if someone slips on your property, which makes slip-and-fall scams the second most common type of insurance fraud.

Winter is slip-and-fall season

Not all injuries are visible in a slip and fall. If someone reports an accident on your property, treat him or her with kindness, respect and empathy, and collect the following information for your incident report:

• Name, birth date, primary and secondary contact information
• Detailed description of the incident, including date and time
• Any physical or visual impairment
• What the person was carrying, if anything
• The type of shoes he or she was wearing
• List of witnesses
• If able, ask him or her to show you exactly where and how the accident happened
• Take pictures of the area and document the conditions
  • Rain, snow, ice, tracks
  • Weather conditions for the current day and several days leading up to it
  • Lighting
  • Any other observations

Healthcare workers are frequently exposed to bloodborne pathogens. OSHA - Occupational Safety & Health Administration together with NIOSH - National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is continously working to educate employers and employees about these hazards and the best means of prevention.

A recent NIOSH-supported study shows how the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act (NSPA) and OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens standard have significantly reduced needlesticks and bloodborne disease exposure for healthcare workers as recent as December 2011. OSHA's revised standard requires employers to provide safety-engineered devices to workers who are at risk for exposure to bloodborne pathogens, to include employees in the selection of these devices, to review exposure-control plans at least annually, and to maintain specific sharps-injury logs.

For more information about bloodborne pathogens and needlestick prevention, visit OSHA's Safety and Health Topics page . To request a review of your organization's bloodborne pathogen plan or other safety programs contact Maureen Joy with R&R Insurance's Resource Center.

The first thing a business owner needs to overcome is that it is possible that their business could be subject to a loss.  Tempting fate is not a good idea when you have the fiduciary responsibility of so many people and families - not to mention a business to keep running! Don't think it can't happen to you - it can! Accepting that fact is one thing...understanding how to protect yourself if something does happen is another matter. Understanding the components of property coverage is the first step. 

There are two parts to property coverage - Direct Damage and Business Income.  

Property Coverage - Direct Damage:
Protects the insured against loss or damage to the property itself.  Direct Damage Coverage (loss to tangible property) is only one piece of the total property protection you should have. 

Business Income/Extra Expense:
Responds to the resulting financial loss and  the additional expenses necessary to maintain the business, employees, and customers. 

These two parts of the property coverage would cover these basic adverse financial results that could happen as a result of a loss:

1. The cost to repair or replace the damaged property itself.
2. The additional cost to use substitute property and other resources. 
3. The lost opportunity to use the damaged property to generate income/profit and pay expenses.
4. Loss of customers and/or loss of goodwill.

For more information about business income from dependent properties, business continuation, business income worksheets or property insurance, contact knowledgebroker Scott Brookes.

About Scott
Scott has over 25 years of risk management, risk control, underwriting and leadership roles with insurance carriers.  He has detailed experience in large accounts, large property exposures including fire protection engineering, property valuation including building, business personal property, business income, and acting as a risk manager for insured’s.  In addition, Scott has written and taught a number of property training classes, property valuation classes, and business income valuation classes.

Business Income Extra Expense coverage responds to the resulting financial loss & the additional expenses necessary to maintain the business, payroll for employees, and customers. 

Business owners must also protect themselves against financial loss due to a slowdown or shutdown of their operations that can result from the damage or destruction to their property. 

Some common questions as you start the discussion:

• How do I protect my business with business income coverage?
• Where do I start?
• How do I set a limit?
• What should I include in the business income limit?
• What is excluded in the business income limit?
• What type of coverage should I go with?
• What do I take into account?

Business owners need to ask and evaluate how long will it take to:

• Obtain necessary permits & comply with building ordinances/codes
• Repair/reconstruct building or obtain new facility
• Obtain and install equipment / assembly lines
• Re-assemble work force
• Get production back to “pre-loss” levels
• Get sales to the level that would have been achieved had there not been a loss
• Identify the longest possible interruption.  “Worst Case”
• Consider peak seasons.
• Consider employment market conditions and training of new employees or loss of key employees.
• Identify and analyze other situations that could affect repairs & the restoration of a business.

The Business Income (BI) worksheet is a great tool for walking through this thought process.  The worksheet helps the business owner assess loss potential and determine proper coverage/limits.

Coupled with the above analysis is the development of a business continuation plan.

For more information about business income from dependent properties, business continuation, business income worksheets or property insurnace, contact knowledgebroker Scott Brookes.

About Scott
Scott has over 25 years of risk management, risk control, underwriting and leadership roles with insurance carriers.  He has detailed experience in large accounts, large property exposures including fire protection engineering, property valuation including bduilding, business personal property, business income, and acting as a risk manager for insured’s.  In addition, Scott has written and taught a number of property training classes, property valuation classes, and business income valuation classes.

Home healthcare workers can find themselves in unprotected and unpredictable environments and can be vulnerable to verbal abuse, stalking, threats of assault, and even homicide.

NIOSH -National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has published a new resource (PDF*) to assist employers in preventing violence against home healthcare workers. This factsheet offers strategies for workers and encourages employers to establish a zero-tolerance policy for violence and provide workers with violence-prevention training. OSHA - Occupational Safety & Health Administration has guidelines for preventing workplace violence for health care and social service workers. For more information, visit OSHA's Workplace Violence or CDC/NIOSH’s Occupational Hazards in Home Healthcare sites.

Contact R&R Insurance - Resource Center if you would like to discuss this or other employee work place exposures

The Joint Commission (not-for-profit organization that accredits health care organizations) recently published a Sentinel Event Alert discussing healthcare worker fatigue and patient safety. 

We can all think about a personal experience where fatigue has impacted one or more of our performance behaviors resulting from insufficient quality or inadequate sleep.  Research clearly documents mental overexertion can lead to any number of the following:

• memory lapses
• delayed judgment
• diminished reaction time
• lapses in attention or inability to stay focused
• ineffective communication
• irritability
• lack of motivation

For years Department of Transportation has implemented requirements on the hours of service for specific commercial driver classifications.  In 2007 and 2009 Joint Commission released studies that revealed impact effect of fatigue and patient care.  The hyperlink also offers a link to these studies.

Joint Commission offers several evidence based actions healthcare organizations can use to help mitigate the risks of fatigue and promote quality of care.  Contact R&R Insurance if you would like additional information for your risk management department, human resource department, safety committee or quality improvement committee on this or other employee safety concerns.

What do you considered an “at risk” activity that staff is required to perform when working extended shifts?

There has been another round of fraudulent letters issued to U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) contractors and potential contractors purporting to be issued by DOT.  This new string of letters appears to be from the "U.S. Department of Transportation Procurement Office" and signed by a fictitious name of "Julie Weynel – Senior Procurement Officer."

The letters are attempting to obtain banking information from the targeted companies. These fraudulent letters request that current or potential contractors register by submitting their company's financial information on a release form entitled, "Authorization to release financial information".  Please note that DOT does not require any financial information to be submitted in order to be eligible for procurement.

Please be aware of this fraudulent financial data collection activity and be suspicious when banking information is requested from you.

You can also find more information at the following USDOT OIG Web sites listed below:

http://www.dot.gov/ost/m60/fraudulent_letters.htm
http://www.oig.dot.gov/fraud-alert

The tax liability of disability benefits is determined by who is making the payments. If you are a professional and your firm pays the premium for the disability policy, the tax liability is much different than if you were paying the premium yourself.

Learn more about the tax ramifications of paying disability premiums in this quick video...

[video src="http://myknowledgecenter.com/video/Don_Levings/Don_Tax_Issues.mp4" width="480" height="272"; poster="http://myknowledgecenter.com/video/skins/RRI_Video_logo.jpg"]

Wisconsin doctors and attorneys should have a professional disability specialist on their side for protecting their practice and their future. Contact Donald Levings for more information on disability insurance for doctors, dentists and attorneys.

Professionals should review their disability insurance needs as their career changes.

If you've enacted a disability policy early in your career, it is wise to re-visit the amount of your policy if your income level has changed. If you're a doctor - it may have been early on in your practice. If you're an attorney, you may now be a partner. Scenarios like these have probably changed your income, which means you are most likely underinsured.

As I explain in this short video, re-evaluation to make sure your family is protected is a smart choice....

Wisconsin doctors, dentists and attorneys, contact Donald Levings, Disability Specialist for R&R Insurance Services for more information about protecting your future.