3 risks to your business to address in 2016

With the New Year well under way it's maybe a good time to set out some "must dos" for the coming year with regard to protecting your business. Any insurance programme should be regularly reviewed to make sure it continues to meet the needs of your business, and the rapidly changing environment that you operate in.

However, if there are 3 key areas to make sure that you have addressed this year then they are as follows:

1. Underinsurance
It is estimated that 40% of business interuption policies and a staggering 80% of commercial property insurance may be underinsured. Whether this is by neglecting to adequately review the current sums insured, having an indemnity period too short (see 2 below) or not understanding the basis of settlement provided by your insurer, underinsurance can lead to claims not being fully funded and a critical exposure for your business.

2. Business interruption periods
Take a look at your business insurance schedule. If your current business interruption insurance covers you for an indemnity period of 12 months then it will, almost certainly, not be adequate any more. The time taken to return even the smallest business back to full health after a major loss is likely to exceed a year. With lead times for machinery, planning consent and re-winning lost contracts, a 24 month indemnity should now be seen as minimum.

3. Cyber risks
An ongoing theme, more and more businesses are facing losses due to breaches of their data, and with an increasing amout of that data being held in a variety of devices, the risks are exponentially increasing. Dont get caught out in thinking that the bad guys are only after data held by the big companies, your data is equally valuable to them and, probably, is easier to come by. If you use internet banking, your bank funds are exposed to hackers and, for a relatively small premium, you can protect against the fraudulent transfer of these funds.

If you want to review your insurance and make sure that it is in the right shape for 2016 then get in touch with me today.