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Monthly Archives

May 2015

May 04
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Do You Need Insurance Coverage When You Rent a Vacation Home?

By Personal Perspective

Renting a house saves you big bucks on vacation since it’s usually cheaper per night than a hotel. Plus, you have amenities like a washer and dryer, kitchen, full bath and maybe even a large backyard. That doesn’t mean, though, that your vacation home is perfect. Like any home, it’s susceptible to thieves, weather damage or other problems.

You might want to invest in insurance coverage as you rent a vacation home this summer.

Make Sure the Landlord has Property Insurance

You don’t plan to go on vacation and have a terrible time, but accidents, bad weather and mistakes happen. Who will pay the bill if the home’s rotted stair railing fails and sends you tumbling off the steps and into the ER? Can you afford to replace an antique vase you or one of your kids accidentally breaks?

In most cases, the landlord’s insurance will cover these accidents. Always ask if the home is covered before you sign a rental agreement, though, to ensure you’re not left covering the bill that should be the vacation home owner’s responsibility.

Make Sure you Have Insurance

Most homeowner and renters insurance policies cover your belongings if they’re lost, stolen or damaged. This coverage applies whether you’re in your home, at school or at vacation.

It’s a good idea to double check your policy before you travel. Add additional coverage if necessary to ensure you are indeed covered for every possible scenario. Ensure the policy is current and paid in full, too. You don’t want to file a claim while on vacation and discover that your coverage lapsed.

Renting a house can be an affordable, comfortable and fun part of your next vacation. Before you sign a lease agreement, make sure the home and your possessions are insured. The peace of mind helps you truly relax and unwind no matter where your vacation takes you. 

May 04
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Auto Insurance Coverage for Borrowed Vehicles

By Personal Perspective

Do you ever borrow a friend’s car or let someone borrow yours? In either case, you could be liable to pay for any damages or expenses caused by an accident. Understand how auto insurance works for borrowed cars before you borrow or lend a vehicle.

Insurance is Specific to the Vehicle

When you purchase auto insurance for a vehicle, the coverage stays with that vehicle. Borrow a car, and you also borrow that car’s auto insurance. Likewise, lend your car to someone, and that person borrows your vehicle’s insurance.

Your Auto Policy Covers You and Immediate Family Members

Typically, auto insurance covers the primary insured, which is usually you, and members of your immediate family who drive the car. It doesn’t cover anyone who doesn’t have your permission to operate the vehicle. So if your child gives a friend permission to drive your car but doesn’t ask you first, that person isn’t technically covered by your auto insurance policy.

Before you Borrow a Vehicle

Even if you’re an excellent driver, accidents can happen. Be sure the vehicle you borrow has current insurance with adequate coverage. Also, understand that your policy could be tapped as secondary coverage after an accident, meaning you could be responsible for expensive vehicle repairs, large medical bills or costly fines that result from an auto accident in a borrowed vehicle.

Before you Allow Someone to Borrow Your Vehicle

Give someone permission to borrow you vehicle, and you also give them your insurance coverage. Never allow an unlicensed, inexperienced or unsafe driver to operate your car. If they’re in an accident, you could face criminal charges, lose your auto insurance or be left with expensive bills.

Borrowing or lending a vehicle isn’t as easy as handing over the keys. Check your policy and talk to your auto insurance agent for specific details about your coverage and responsibility. With the facts, you can borrow or lend a car with confidence.

May 04
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Insure Your Vacation Property for Less With Four Tips

By Personal Perspective

Vacation season is almost here. Do you plan to hit the beach or head for the mountains? No matter where you’re going to relax and unwind, make sure the vacation property you own is insured. Use four tips to save money on your policy and protect your assets.

What is Vacation Home Insurance?

Your primary home insurance policy includes coverage that protects your house and possessions. It pays for repairs needed after a fire, bad weather like tornadoes, hurricanes and rain, snow, wind, lightning and hail storms or burglaries and vandalism. Insurance also covers liability you may face if someone’s injured on your property or bitten by your dog. The same coverage applies to your insured vacation home.

Ways to Save on Insurance Costs

You certainly do not want to let your vacation home sit uninsured. Because you don’t live there year round, it’s more susceptible to burglaries and weather damage that can go unnoticed for months and lead to additional and expensive repairs. Vacation home insurance can be expensive, though, and might not be an expense you consider when you buy your second home.

You can easily cut your insurance costs when you:

1. Install a new security system, preferably to one that alerts the police or other outside security agency.

2. Update the home’s overall structure, electrical wiring, plumbing, HVAC and insulation. These measures reduce the risk of storm, fire and other damage to your vacation house.

3. Bundle home, auto and vacation home insurance policies with the same company. Shop around every year to find the best coverage and price.

4. Ask your insurance agent about a loyalty, senior citizen, lump sum payment or non-smoking discount.

A home insurance policy for your vacation house is a necessity. With four tips, you can save money on your policy. Discuss your specific needs and your policy details with your insurance agent, and then prepare to enjoy your next vacation with peace of mind because your house is covered by vacation home insurance.

May 04
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Water Damage Happens: Do You Have a Plan to Fight It?

By Risk Management Bulletin

Spring is a wet and rainy season for most parts of the U.S., and that makes it a good time to make sure your business is protected against losses due to water damage. Most water damage arises from three sources:

1. rain or surface water runoff

2. gray or foul water from ice machines, cafeterias, coffee machines or lavatories

3. water from facility systems like HVAC, boiler rooms or connections to city supplies.

The first step in preventing damage is assessing where damage is most likely to occur. Touring the property and making a list of potential entry points for water can provide you with the information you need to develop a risk mitigation plan.
After identifying potential sources of water damage, create a checklist that can help ensure a consistent review. Keep in mind, checklists should be updated when new features are added or whenever construction takes place that could affect your facility’s risk of damage.

ü  Here are a few potential questions for your checklist:

ü  Is a system in place to surveil for small leaks on a regular basis?

ü  Are small leaks being repaired promptly?

ü  When a leak occurs, is it evaluated to determine if it poses any future risk or if it’s a one-time occurrence?

ü  Are facility diagrams updated with recent plumbing changes and all shutoff valves?

ü  Are shutoff valves regularly checked for proper operation?

ü  Are all storage tanks (including boilers and hot water tanks) regularly checked for leaks?

ü  Is a leak response plan in place and do key personnel understand the protocol for handling leaks?

ü  Who is authorized to call in repair personnel or outside contractors on an emergency basis when leaks are identified?

ü  When outside contractors are called in, is there a process for monitoring them to ensure systems are maintained?

This brief list can serve as a jump-off point for your own checklist, based on your specific facility. Even if your business is not in a moisture-prone area, spring is a great time to develop a water damage mitigation plan.
Need help? Ask your insurance agent for some tips and guidance.

 

May 04
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Why you don’t need – or want – a Wikipedia listing

By Risk Management Bulletin
Wikipedia can be a good resource for lots of information, and because of its high-profile visibility about 8 million page views PER HOUR in North American alone it’s no wonder businesses view a Wikipedia listing as a penultimate achievement in their marketing strategy. But is Wikipedia all it’s cracked up to be for small- to medium-sized businesses? In most cases, no. Here’s why:
Wikipedia is editable by anyone. That means any person a disgruntled customer, a competitor, an unhappy vendor or just a random stranger can edit your company information, and if you aren’t prepared to constantly surveil your page to hunt down and immediately change erroneous information, you could wind up projecting an image that’s extremely damaging to your brand.
It was just three years ago that a misspoken sentence by Alaska politician Sarah Palin caused havoc at Wikipedia’s page on Paul Revere. When Palin said Revere had announced the arrival of British soldiers by ringing a bell during his famous ride to Lexington, supporters ran to the Wikipedia page to change its contents to match Palin’s misstatements. In return, historians and Palin detractors re-edited the page in a series of salvos that lasted for days.
Of course, that’s an extreme case on a very public page. But considering how easily those edits were made most edits appear as soon as any change is made it’s not hard to see how having your business on a publicly-editable page can pose significant reputational risks.
The cardinal rule in putting your name on a publicly available site: Make sure you have control over the content. That means keeping track of comments on your social sites and blog and amending privacy settings to give you the most control over who sees what.
Wikipedia was designed to be a public exchange of information, facts and data, but its openness has left it open to considerable misuse and abuse. Steer clear of the controversy and focus instead on improving your presence on other platforms to take some of the risk out of reputation management.

 

May 04
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Do you need business interruption insurance?

By Risk Management Bulletin
Business interruption insurance can play a critical role in just about any business, yet many business owners fail to purchase it or wind up underestimating the amount they need. Why? Because compared to other types of business-related insurance like equipment damage or fire, the role of business interruption insurance may not be entirely understood.
So just what is business interruption insurance? And why do you need it? It’s actually pretty simple: Business interruption insurance is coverage that protects you if your business activities are curtailed (or interrupted) by some unforeseen circumstance, like a fire, wind damage or vandalism. Any of those events and plenty more could keep you from operating your business, and that could mean a substantial loss of profit and opportunity for you and your company.
A business interruption policy covers the revenue you would have earned during the interruption period, and it also covers operating expenses that continue even though your business has come to a temporary standstill. Most policies offer coverage for interruptions caused by events covered under your property insurance policy, with extras like interruptions due to power outages or power surges following an outage available as riders for an extra cost. Because business interruption insurance is in addition to your property insurance, it can be a surprisingly affordable way to gain some added peace of mind.
To determine your needs, consider the potential losses and costs your business would accrue during an extended period of interruption. Many disasters take more than a few days to correct, so be generous in your estimates. Also be sure to determine when business interruption coverage kicks in; many policies aren’t activated until 24 to 48 hours after an interruption begins.
Like other types of insurance, your policy premiums will be based on your business’ risks for fires or other disaster. Your insurance agent can help you perform an assessment to make sure you have adequate coverage based on your historical financial data and other factors.

 

May 04
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6 Tools to Make Running Your Business Easier

By Risk Management Bulletin
Managing risks is an all-encompassing effort that affects every aspect of your business. In an earlier edition of the newsletter, we looked at a few apps that can help businesses manage risk. This edition, we’re taking a look at six tools that can handle some other business-related tasks to make running your company less stressful and maybe even a little more fun:
• Quora: This popular question and answer site enables users to pick the brains of business and industry leaders from across the globe. You can ask questions, get answers and follow lots of different topics that are important for our business.
• Todoist: This simple app lets you create to-do lists and share them with project team members, showing real-time progress toward goals so you and your team can stay on track and be as productive as possible.
• HootSuite: Being active on social sites is an important part of every business’ marketing strategy, but maintaining multiple accounts can be time-consuming. HootSuite lets you manage and update all your social sites from one place so you can ensure your messages are consistent and published on a regular basis.
• DropBox: Store, edit and share documents, videos and photos from any Internet-connected device for easy collaboration no matter where your team members are located. While perhaps not as comprehensive as Google Docs with its plethora of apps and add-ons, DropBox provides a simpler interface that many businesses find easier to use.
• Zoho CRM: Managing client relationships is critical, but it’s also time-consuming. ZohoCRM offers a robust client management platform that’s free for up to 10 users. The platform makes it easy to access client data so you can fine-tune future sales efforts and incentive programs.
• Free Conference Call: Hold conference calls and online meetings with clients and business partners at no cost. You can record and share calls too, and the meeting app is free for up to 25 participants.
All of these apps are free, and signing up is easy. As with any app, make sure you read the terms of service before registering. Make a commitment to explore one of these apps this weekend to learn if it could make doing business easier for your company.

 

May 04
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Fire Drills and Containment Responses

By Workplace Safety

The fundamental reason for fire drills is to organize a plan before disaster strikes.

1. Has everyone escaped the building?
2. Have the fire department or responders been called with all the location information they need?
3. Is someone serving as a signal at the road to wave in the responders?
4. Are there adequate personnel to direct the responders to the site of the fire without getting in the way?
5. Does someone have a list of chemicals and supplies anticipated to be involved or potentially involved in the fire?

Start with the first fundamental: set up a meeting place or places to roll call employees. This task is completed quickly by having each operational group handle their own personnel. Do not count people, roll call.

Have groups of seven to ten people gather and assure all are present. Have one person from each of those groups report to one person. No one need count more than ten people this way, and this process should be complete and specific.

Any visitor to the building should be escorted through the system by the person last with them.

Just get out and account for everyone, then move to step two through five. But have the personnel assigned ahead of time. Panic or stressful situations are a bad time to get organized.

Why not fight the fire with extinguishers?

Absolutely do: trash can fires, small electrical fires, friction fires in machinery. Easily accessible, extinguisher immediately available, small contained fires can be extinguished quickly and effectively. Extinguish the fire and leave the building.

Clear the building anyway. You’ll lose a few minutes of production time, but the live drill will be safety reinforcing and, just in case you’re wrong about the extent of the fire or the chemical release due to the fire, you’ll be safe.

Place fire extinguishers with two thoughts in mind:

1. Easy access and availability to put out fires.
2. Easy access to help fight the way to an exit.

How does the second reason sound compared to getting out before the spread of a fire that looked contained?

 

May 04
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Lifting Equipment in the Office?

By Workplace Safety

Muscle strains and back sprains from utilizing improper lifting techniques decrease in frequency as management trains the workforce.

What happens when a manager, office personnel or even the boss decides to move a heavy object because “this’ll just take a second”. Are they thinking about the safety aspects of the task or getting it done?

These injuries occur frequently because most companies spend money training the production line personnel but not the office employees. Yet, ergonomically speaking, the office employee manipulates their body in more tortuous ways throughout the day. Add weight to that equation and back strains happen.

How can these injuries be avoided?

1. Design workspaces ergonomically and efficiently. Fewer, more comfortable movements create productivity and safety. Start with the office chair fit for the individual and the task.
2. Encourage standing, even pacing, while on the phone. A change in routine, a change in motion, refreshes the body and spirit.
3. Encourage stretching exercises while working. Even a quick five-minute routine will help break the repetition of paperwork hypnosis.
4. Organize the supply room so bending is avoided, especially to lift objects weighing more than twenty pounds. Store supplies between knee height and shoulder height with the most heavy objects at waist height or slightly higher.
5. Organize supplies in small quantities. A ream of paper is easier to lift than a case. One individual can be trained and tasked with filling copiers and printers with paper every day. Designate a hand truck for this operation if needed. If the office is busy enough or uses hat much paper, task the employee to keep machines filled. Production will rise and injuries will decrease.
6. Train your management team to ask for help or at least think about safe lifting when moving “light” office machines and equipment. Often, the bending and back manipulation creates the injury scenario, like a boom over-extended for the lift.

The most important aspect of office safety is awareness. Even if the job will “just take a second”, take ten more seconds to consider the dangers. Injuries lurk in the safest feeling environments.

 

May 04
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Environmental Risk Management in the Office

By Workplace Safety

The latest trend in environmental risk management is vapor intrusion, usually referencing toxic fumes from historical external spills penetrating the building envelope creating unhealthy air conditions.

Unfortunately, the canaries in the office coalmine tend to be people already at-risk for lung related issues, like those with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Vapor intrusion worsens in recycled air environments like homes and offices, or trapped areas like basements. Standard air filtration does not always eliminate chemical molecules, so they accumulate to higher concentrations, or worse, react with other present chemicals to create a more harsh molecule.

How about chemicals brought into an office environment?

Will the rug shampoo react with the linoleum stripper? Will the ink drying agent chemically reduce to a more toxic form?
Read the material safety data sheet (MSDS) alternatively the safety data sheet (SDS) or product safety data sheet (PSDS), to understand the chemicals or vapors potentially released by the product and if they have a injurious pathway to your employees.

Also, read the chemicals which should NOT mix with the product. Make a simple spreadsheet of the main products including cleaners, solvents, inks, bleaches, ammonia products, chemicals used in manufacturing or other processing like dry cleaning.

Most of these sheets are written in understandable language. List the family of chemical and what mixes are to be avoided. Does anything match?

Don’t be fooled by separate spaces or activities. These chemicals, in vapor form, can travel through vents, under and over doors, or through windows. Research each possible toxic material producing combination. Then find a way to change one or both chemicals, avoid possible mixing, or at a minimum, detect the toxic mix when it occurs.

Keep the (National Institute of Health) NIH – WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders) website handy for quick reference. It is the best tool to quickly determine potential vapor or chemical toxic issues:
www.wiser.nlm.nih.gov/ 

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