Now’s the time to review your Business Insurance

It’s evident that the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked major change across the commercial landscape, meaning that many businesses have been forced to adapt in order to survive.

Despite many businesses across the nation having been given the green light to reopen their doors, many aspects we once considered ‘normal’ will remain different for some time to come and perhaps, irreversibly. 

With this in mind, it’s important that as a business owner, you take the time to speak to your insurer or broker to ensure that your current business insurance policy is still relevant. 

If you’ve reduced your cover in reaction to a temporary period of closure, it’s essential that you reinstate this back to a suitable level prior to opening up for business. You will also need to consider the changes that you’ve made to your current operation in order to adjust your cover to match your current requirements. 

Preparing against future waves of coronavirus  

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us had never experienced anything comparable before, which meant that preparing for such an event wasn’t a high priority. While pandemic insurance has been available in past, it wasn’t something that many businesses would have opted for due to the perceived low level of risk and high premiums.

In recent weeks, we have seen some countries battling to contain new incidents of infections rising in localised areas. While we’ve come a long way in terms of track and trace methods, medical developments and protecting the NHS from overcrowding, these measures seemingly allow us to better handle a second wave rather than to prevent one. While it’s hoped that any future outbreaks can be handled by region, rather than by putting restrictions on the entire nation, this could still cause significant disruption to many businesses in the coming months and even years. 

So, what is the insurance industry doing to help businesses better equip themselves against future pandemic-related incidents? In a bid to develop a long-term solution, British Insurance Brokers’ Association (Biba) has recently backed a concept named ‘Pandemic Re’, which has seen top insurance bosses work with government-backed terrorism reinsurance fund Pool Re to develop a similar cover for pandemics. This aims to provide mass support to businesses who have experienced interruption as a consequence of the pandemic, without putting excess strain on the insurers. 

Want to know more about what you can do to safeguard your business both now and in the future? Make sure to get in touch with your insurer or broker as soon as possible.