Shopping for Business Insurance? Your Bank Delivers Bang for the Buck
Small business insurance is complicated, and getting the right coverage – at the right price – is important for all SBOs. It’s a guarantee of protection for all that you’ve worked so hard to build. Therefore, it just makes sense to get professional consultation when shopping for coverage to protect your company’s assets from risk, and to integrate insurance coverage with your business’ financials.
Broker or Banker?
Most of us turn to the local insurance agency that services our personal insurance needs – car, home, disability and other coverages that protect us from risk in our personal lives. It makes sense, but is it the best option for SBOs?
Not necessarily.
Start by consulting with the banking professionals, who already serve your company with various commercial accounts, when shopping for the right insurance coverages for your small business.
Your bank?
Many business-owning consumers are unfamiliar with the insurance lines offered by large and small banks, but your banking representative knows your business model, revenues, assets and other aspects of your business, whether you sell products or deliver services. Thus, these money professionals integrate insurance coverage into your company’s overall financial portfolio to protect your business (and personal) assets against the unforeseen, the unavoidable and the unpredictable.
If a bank doesn’t offer a particular insurance line, your banking representative impartially recommends dedicated insurance agents or brokers in town, and provides advice about which insurers are expensive and which settle claims quickly and without the hassles of less client-centric carriers. Your banking professional knows which insurance carriers settle claims quickly, or dispute them aggressively – something you want to know when it comes to protecting your business.
The local insurance agency carries specific insurance product lines. It represents the insurers and you – an important part of their client base. However, insurance agencies only offer coverages that they carry and that coverage may not be tailored to suit your risk management needs. In fact, insurance agents are paid by insurance providers to service clients at the local level so they’re not likely to recommend a carrier that’s not part of their portfolio of products.
Commercial bank reps take a broader view of your insurance needs. They know your risk exposure – and they know the local agents in the area. They also know your business needs and where you need protection.
Simplify the Business of Business
Purchasing commercial insurance coverage through your local bank has other advantages. Yes, banks do sell insurance but it’s not their primary business. It’s a convenience for its commercial customers – people like you.
Purchasing protection through your commercial bank, or consulting with your local banker on which coverages are required and how much insurance is enough, eliminates one other vendor. All of your financials and insurance needs are sole sourced through a single, reputable institution that’s interested in your business success. After all, if your business is profitable, it grows the bank’s bottom line, as well.
Using your bank to secure insurance coverage, and to mitigate the risk all SBOs face, makes good sense. You get impartial advice, you talk to someone who’s familiar with your business and revenue models and you simplify the business of business by using your bank to manage everything from cash flow to liability protection, fully integrating two key aspects of a growing small business.
Didn’t know your bank was a source for quality coverage against the risk small business owners face every day? Before you renew an existing commercial policy, or before you even start shopping for commercial coverage, give your bank rep a call for a sit-down to discuss your business’ risk exposure.
Your bank will perform an analysis of what coverages your company needs and find the right carrier to mitigate business risk from employee theft to product liability, protecting what you’ve worked so hard to build. Your company.
We live in a litigious society, like it or not, and a single, frivolous lawsuit undermines even the best run small business. Fighting a lawsuit taps company resources, costing time, money and critical manpower required to keep a small business on the growth track.
You need insurance to protect yourself, your employees and your company’s future against outside legal action, or illegal or inappropriate activity that takes place within your business – right under your nose. Examples?
Externally, sell a product that inadvertently causes the consumer harm and you face legal action and the risk of losing your small, growing business, no matter how robust.
Internally, employee theft or interruption of services delivery erodes the company’s bottom line despite your best efforts and due diligence. Insurance coverage may not prevent the unavoidable but it protects against the damage caused by the unavoidable. An insurance policy doesn’t stop a hurricane from knocking your business for a loop. It just guarantees that you’ll rebuild after the storm passes.
The right insurance professional is an invaluable resource who plays an important role in protecting the financial health of your company. Syncing up your company financials with insurance protection through your commercial bank is the best way to protect assets and to get the right coverage, in the right amounts, at the lowest price.
And that’s insured.
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