When it comes to ensuring buildings, fire, wind, hail, lightning and explosion are the big perils. So, when one of my client’s buildings exploded just three months after I took over his account from another agency, he was beyond grateful.
Here’s what happened. Before we take over any account, we always provide a thorough review of the existing coverage to locate any gaps. I am very familiar with manufacturing businesses and had drawn this particular client’s attention to one specific deficit in his former policy.
He was very fortunate that no one was hurt even though a supervisor was thrown about 50 feet. Being the agent of record who was handling the claim, I told the supervisor to go to the ER but he said he was fine and refused. We worked with the client nearly everyday for 12 months as the building was being rebuilt to manage the claim. In the end, all went as well as could be expected because my client was now nicely covered for the material losses of his building.
But what was not expected, and not covered in their old policy, was a major loss of revenue due to his business being shut down for a year while they were rebuilding. My review had exposed this deficit and here’s the good part. After reviewing his coverage three months earlier, I convinced him to buy some business interruption coverage. The total claim for the explosion was 6.7 million of which 1.1 million was for the loss of business revenue for that year. That’s a lot of money!
If I had not added that business interruption to his policy, he would have been out almost $1m, and probably would have been forced to lay off his employees and close his business. Yes, it added a little more to the premium but there is nothing better than hearing your agent say “Relax! We’ve got you covered!”.
He was so happy that we had properly protected him that he said he wanted to hug me. Pre-COVID I might have accepted but his gratitude felt pretty good from a distance too!
