Is Your Business Really Covered?
By Mike Carroll, Carroll Companies
Take this quiz to find out.

1. Is your equipment or merchandise insured while in transit, at a trade show and anywhere else other than your regular business address?

2. Consider this scenario: The police call you at 2am. The windows at your business site are broken, and there is a flood big enough to send Noah and the animals running for the Ark. Will your insurance pay for the horrendous water damage and your lost income until the business opens again?

3. When you invest in new equipment, new buildings or remodeling, is coverage automatic or must you report the additions to your insurance company before getting coverage?

4. Does your insurance policy guarantee the full replacement cost of your building after you suffer a loss covered under your policy? Would you still receive full replacement value if you wanted to rebuild on another site (that would be better for your business)?

5. How about this: Your business is completely shut down by fire. Does your policy continue to pay your business expenses and the profits you’ll lose during the shutdown? How about if you don’t suffer a complete shutdown, but a 60% loss of business? What if permission to rebuild is delayed?

6. You borrow a friend’s truck to make a delivery, one of your drivers slams into a bus stop and injures four people, and you’re sued for a total of $2,600,000. Are you insured at all because it was a borrowed truck?

7. Do you have full coverage for the costs to recreate your destroyed valuable papers and electronic records?

8. You sell a product over the Internet to a firm in England. Six months later, you receive a summons of a lawsuit filed in England for damage your product did. Does your insurance cover you for lawsuits filed outside the United States?

9. An employee drives her own car to run to the store to pick up some office supplies. She loses control and rams into the corner department store causing $13,000 damage. Does your insurance policy pay the damages? Your employee is injured and has $6,000 in medical bills and six weeks off from work. Who pays those bills and her lost salary?

10. On a pleasure trip, you rent a car with your business company credit card. One hour later, you lose control, injuring four people. Do you have protection for at least $2,000,000 to pay for medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering of those injured? Remember that it was a rental car rented on pleasure using your business credit card. What if this scenario occurs outside of the United States?

Insurance is like a hospital gown. You never know if you’re covered. After this quiz, if you feel like you’re wearing that hospital gown, call me and get a checkup, 419-897-0101.