Data Breach

Best Review reported this month that the average cost of a data breach is now $204 per record exposed.

This includes the cost of notifying those whose records have been released, reissuing credit cards, credit monitoring services, and counseling services.

Standard insurance will not pay for these expenses.  Insurers are coming out with Cyber Liability policies to pay for the liability of data breaches and the expenses of mitigating the loss.

-Protect your data - paper records and electronic data - onsite and online.

-Have a plan in place to deal with a breach.

-Monitor laptops and consider retrieval services like "Lojack for Laptops."

-Train your people about the consequences of a data breach.

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Best Insurance Companies

Every year The Ward Group publishes a list of the 50 best insurance companies, rated on the basis of financial strength and business sense.

Here's the latest list.

Quality of insurer is an underutilized insurance decision criteria.


Ward's provides insurers with industry benchmarks to gauge operations in many different part of their operation.  Well run insurers do a better job for insurance buyers.


Besides the Ward list I use AM Best and Weiss Ratings in my review of insurer quality.  I also use my experience as a guide.

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Extended Business Income Coverage

I have often posted on business income insurance.

The coverage pays for lost profits and expenses that continue while a business is rebuilding from an insured loss that causes an interruption in the business.

What about the time it takes to get a business back-up and running after construction is complete but when the business is still not operational?

Your manufacturing plant is rebuilt and operational.  However, it may take 3 months for your customers to come back - if they come back at all?

Many policies only provide 30 days extension.

What if you are a hotel in Maine and your place burns in July and is ready to open in December?  You have lost a year's worth of business and may not see your first guest until June.

Consider how long it will take to rebuild.  Move that loss into your most profitable time of year (the worst possible loss).  How long will it take to get back into "normal" operations.

Talk with your insurance advisor about how your insurance responds.

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Backups

You simply must backup your computer.

Yesterday, a panicked friend called asking for advice.  Her laptop had been stolen and she wanted to know if I knew how to track it down.  She called Apple and they couldn't help either.

You must backup your data.

You must have a way to quickly change passwords and logins in case your computer is stolen

If you have a laptop, consider Lojack for Laptops.  The service allows you to track a stolen laptop and can even wipe the harddrive if necessary.

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Moving To A New Location

A client just sent out a mass email with the details of an upcoming move of their central office.  I reminded them of some insurance issues in such a change.

First, there is the insurance on your stuff being moved from one location to the other.  Movers usually only provide coverage of xx cents per pound and are almost always only responsible for damage caused by their negligence.  Theft, lightning strikes, and an accident caused by another probably will not be reimbursed by the mover.

Look to your own insurance to cover your stuff while in transit.  Call your agent and tell them you need to be sure your property is covered during the move.

Second, you need to add the new location to your property, liability, and workers' compensation insurance. Again, your agent can help with these endorsements.

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Unbiased Insurance Review Video

My new video on the importance of an unbiased insurance review...

HERE

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Inherent Vice

Inherent vice is an object's tendency to deteriorate.

Ray Burnham, in his most excellent, Burnham's Insurance Dictionary, uses examples of meat putrefying, iron rusting, and people aging.

Property insurance almost always excludes inherent vice, though most policy forms do not use the term.

The ISO property form excludes inherent vice with the following words:

"Rust or other corrosion, decay, deterioration,
hidden or latent defect or any
quality in property that causes it to damage
or destroy itself;"

Class dismissed.

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