Premium Cuts

To do well in today’s insurance jungle, to hold down costs and possibly cut premiums, you need the right agent or broker, an insurance strategy that fits your business and a good story about your business to tell the underwriters who decide whether to offer you coverage and what to charge.

That is the advice of Bradenton insurance specialist John C. Laurie, who is the finance committee chairman for the Florida Association of Insurance Agents and vice president-agency manager for BB&T – Wyman, Green & Blalock.

A typical business carries property and casualty insurance, liability and workers’ compensation insurance, and many provide health insurance and retirement plans as employee benefits. “Agent and broker selection is critical to the success of your insurance program and pricing,” Laurie says.

John Pollock, president of Oswald Trippe & Co., an independent insurance agency headquartered in Fort Myers, says that a good insurance agent can serve as a “quarterback to help you through the maze.”

Fort Myers senior business consultant James Warnken agrees. “Insurance contract language and the nuances of different types of coverage can be very complex and few mid-size to small companies have the in-house expertise to truly understand it all. An experienced broker will typically have a good working relationship with insurers, which also helps with timely response and competitive pricing.” Warnken is with Markham Norton Mosteller Wright & Co.

What will also help business owners is a comprehensive, positive story to tell underwriters about the business, its record of claims and losses and its commitment to risk-reducing programs such as an injury-free, drug-free workplace. “Taking the ground-up approach with an agent to understand your exposure, the nature of your business and your appetite for risk, you can design the best insurance program for the best value,” Laurie says.

Pollock says an important step that a business owner can take right now is to complete a mitigation form on any building he owns.

“Talk to your agent about this,” he says, because improvements you have made such as installing a new roof, storm shutters or impact glass could mean a significant reduction in your property insurance premium. “The insurer wants someone to verify you have done these things to your building,” he says, and your agent can confirm that through a mitigation form. “We have seen savings on property premiums of up to 40 percent, depending on the characterization of the building (age, type of construction) and what has been done to the building.”