Disaster Management

A disaster management plan is a key element of any business plan and is often missing in plans we review for clients

A little over 12 months ago we sat in our Toowoomba office and watched dumbfounded as heavy rains, became floods and then became life threatening -

Our office in the CBD, lost power, internet and sewerage and was not usable for a period of 2 weeks

Fortunately we were able to enact our emergency plan and relocate the office to our home kitchen table. Our VOIP phone system only needed internet access and offsite data storage of client files (in Melbourne) meant we were functioning normally from a client perspective the very next morning.

From there we ran our business watching the news, seeing clients and most importantly ringing them and ensuring they were ok and not in need of any distress related help.

 How would you disaster proof your business?

What could happen – A tradesman could have all of their tools stolen.What is the recovery plan? Do you have a list of all the critical items for business functionality say for the event of a fire and is it stored off site? Could it be stored on a smart phone?

A major insurance broker in the Brisbane CBD had client records and servers located in the basement. While this seemed secure, the floods of last year meant clients records were unable to be referred to for a period of over one month – How would your clients handle that ??

Risk disaster management plans like any business plans need to be structured and the best ones are simple.

 Who? What?  Where?  When? Why?

The classic questions that give the answers to just about anything

Analyse your risks in a systematic manner, create solutions and prepare for the worse.

Insurance alone is not always the answer – for example while an insurance company may offer replacement of a broken item, coverage for the 8 week delay for the part coming from Europe is often overlooked –

 Can you afford to not produce your products for an extended time?

If it’s critical and could happen and you cant afford to be without… Insure it!

http://www.webinsure.com.au/insurance/business-insurance/

WebInsure - Business Grade Insurance Advisors

WebInsure - Business Grade Insurance Advisors

Who offers Faith Insurance  ?

There are several players in the Faith Insurance market but our preferred Faith insurer is Ansvar -

“Ansvar Insurance is regarded as one of Australia’s leading insurers of faith organisations, educational facilities, charitable organisations, community groups, heritage buildings and care facilities.”

They have over $120 Million per annum in Premiums – a pretty impressive amount and obviously authorised by APRA and have a licence issued by ASIC -

They Pay Claims

Ansvar have great claims facilities and it was with sadness that we heard they decided to stop offering house insurance in Australia – But we know that the commercial claims division is equally as good and the have a genuine willingness to make a payment happen

Faith Insurance -

By using Ansvar we know that we are guiding our clients to a specialist Faith Insurer whose products and services have been made to meet the challenges of a modern Faith Insurance Programme

They appreciate the specialities

They appreciate the specialities required in a Faith organisation and are well aware of the problems faced dealing with reinstatment and the associated risks providing safe environments -

Insurance for your church, synagogue, mosque, temple and other place of worship

By using the expertise of Ansvar we are able to offer superb coverage to protect almost any place of worship

The Ansvar comprehensive Faith insurance policy has been designed to ensure your place of worship and the people who work directly with you are adequately protected.

Faith Insurance includes

• property damage,
• loss of income following an insured event,
• misappropriation of funds by staff or officials,
• public liability and more.

WebInsure - Business Grade Insurance Advisors

Strata Insurance Tasmania

In Tasmania a major Insurer has apparently left the Strata Insurance in Tasmania market – only recently this state had many options but it is very quickly being depleted -

Our strata Insurance products offer the Tasmanian owner many great options owing to the flexibility that still remains in the market – For how long this is the case we don’t know – for now it appears the best strategy is to support the insurers who are supporting your region -

Following on from the mates helping mates article – another company has announced it is pulling out of the North Queensland Market -

“As you are aware, Australia recently experienced an unprecedented number of natural disasters. These events continue the pattern of significant losses in North Queensland and have resulted in considerable changes in reinsurance conditions. This has resulted in Lumley Insurance reviewing our guidelines for writing business in this region.
While Lumley will continue to offer all of our major product lines, following communication to directly impacted customers, from 15 October, we ceased writing household and landlord cover in postcodes 4737 and above. We have also revised our underwriting guidelines on all other property lines and this will have an impact on current renewals and any new business opportunities in the region.
We’ve also reduced the number of intermediaries that we will be working with in the region and have imposed new business guidelines which include no ‘wholesaling’. If you have business that was written by a Far North Queensland broker through Lumley or WFI in the past, we will not be in a position to transact that business with your brokerage going forward.”

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A major problem is evolving

In Far Northern Australia – A major problem is evolving – Many Insurers are refusing to insure risks in Tropical area’s due to risk factors from Cyclone and Floods – The market is dwindling and for our northern cousins, the risk is that with very few players in the market, the premiums they have to pay will increase and increase -

Several Insurers have bailed out of Southern Queensland after the flooding and some have blanket refusals on postcodes -regardless of the location – floodplain or high hill the risk is being refused -

mates helping mates

The Aussie axiom of mates helping mates could not be further from the truth with these insurers – Is there a way we could reverse the trend ?

If these companies are known to the public would people in Southern States refuse to deal with them ? I think it would be a great start – the insurers who offer covers in flood areas and cyclone areas should be your first port of call when looking for new policies ! Why ? they have better risk management strategies and are willing to be there when it counts – at claims time..

Part of the criteria of assessing an Insurer is the product, the price, the administration and the claims – to the stressed person -not only is the claims process important it is crucial and most importantly is not whether the policy offers coverage but the willingness of the company to ensure that payment is made in the fastest way possible – The attitude of “how can we pay this claim? ” is much more refreshing than “how can we avoid paying this claim?”

list of Insurers

If you would like a list of Insurers who are offering cover in North Queensland and a list of those refusing please subscribe here..

WebInsure - Business Grade Insurance Advisors

Life Insurance – Is it enough ?

When Considering the needs of a partnership or family for life insurance there are many ways to obtain a value for the sum insured – But is Life Insurance alone enough or does the insured require even more ? –

Both partners in a relationship should be consulted in the reckoning for levels of insurance – often the silent partner has a serious concern over a condition known to exist in the family and would prefer to see this covered better by the insurance company

Life Insurance alone is usually not enough to cover the major trauma’s

What are Typical Traumas ?

• Stress Disorders
• Heart Disease
• Cancer
• Brain disorders
• Accidents
• Paraplegia and quadriplegia
• degenerative diseases

While most of these are life threatening; in many cases they are not life ending and as such in the early stages will not trigger a claim under Life Insurance alone

When speaking to your life insurance professional – remember to ask about different scenario’s and how one obtains insurance for them – Diabetes for example mainly will not trigger a claim under a Life Insurance or a Trauma insurance policy but may trigger a claim under income protection

What is the optimum Life Insurance package ?

The best combination seems to be to have Life Cover, with Total and Permanent Disability and Trauma Insurance – backed up with Income Protection

Income Protection ensures that the most critical item – your ability to put food on the table is maintained – Of course there are offsets against proceeds but in the main these policies ensure quality of life in the event of an illness or accident

Cover vs Price

There is an adage that the cost of an insurance policy is never remembered at claim time – Cheap insurance usually means cheap cover – ask your advisor for a comparison of the product against the market and why it is being recommended before commencing with a plan to protect you and your loved ones

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Business partners will often insure the business physical assets but neglect themselves – the most important part of a business

Why Insure Key People ?

Without the entrepreneurial drive, many businesses will quickly fail – the key-people in a business are as valuable an asset as any building. So we must ask why are they not insured ?

Often its just because we are too busy to ask a Life Insurance professional to assess the risks for the business – At WebInsure we have found the process is pretty straight forward but extremely grievous if its implemented incorrectly

Without this being done you may well end up with a partner you don’t want – for example the spouse of a business partner, who unwillingly becomes a partner, following the demise of their spouse.

Without the life cover in place the business has no means of buying them out

When You Set-Up a Key Person Protection Plan

• Document it ! This is very important – Document it !
• Ensure the tax provisions are catered for !
• Make sure the payments of potential proceeds go to the right person in the most tax effective manner !
• Check that the insurance company will allow you to incease the policy without further medicals !
• Question – Is the insurer a major company? Is it likely to be around to pay long term benefits ?
• Definitely involve both the partners and the beneficiaries in the process – they both need to understand what would happen in the event of a tragedy

The Life Insurance advisor is the Project Leader

Your Life Insurance advisor understands the risks of you not being insured – they are best placed to drive the process and set time frames for any other professionals needed in the process – Often the implementation can be log jammed by other professionals not understanding the limitations of insurance companies and the risk you take every day by not being insured

Our consultants are available for meetings anywhere in Australia to help businesses assess the risks –

Partner Protection Insurance

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Business Insurance Advisor Newcastle

WebInsure now has an advisor to help with business insurance enquiries based in Newcastle, New South Wales – Tony Sampson is also an financial advisor with AAA Financial Intelligence –

Tony can be contacted by phone on 0413 102 096 –

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Tony Sampson has specialities in Small Business Insurance including Life and Income Protection –

Look for Tony to help you with your Business Insurance in Newcastle

WebInsure - Business Grade Insurance Advisors

WebInsure Farm Insurance Packages

WebInsure based on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland have released a new packaged cover for Farm Insurance – the product uses several different insurers –

Farm Insurance has suffered with the recent withdrawal of several companies from the farm insurance market and rural insurance prices have steadily increased as a result – The effect of floods and Cyclones has not helped insurers bottom lines and this has again forced prices upwards –

The farm insurance covers available extend from Homesteads to sheds and all manner of farm buildings –

The farm insurance packages have all the features needed to protect your farming assets. Up to 12 different farm insurance covers are combined under farmer insurance packages and these can be;

• Homestead and Contents Insurance
• Farm Property Insurance
• Motor Vehicle Insurance
• Farm Machinery Insurance
• Working Dogs Insurance
• Transit Insurance Stock Insurance
• Public and Products Liability Insurance
• Fences and Haysheds Insurance
• Boat Insurance
• Sickness and Accident Insurance
• Machinery Breakdown Insurance

Specialist covers for machinery breakdown and business interruption caused by these failures are also able to be added and each policy is tailor made to the individual farm operation –

The process steps through stages to ensure the coverage is complete however in some respects the farm business man may opt not to cover all risks as some may be extremely unlikely in a particular location –

What types of Farms can be covered ?

At this stage we haven’t found a farm that can’t be insured but typical farms are;

• Broadacre
• Cotton
• Vineyards
• Diary Farm
• Poultry
• Sheep
• Hobby Farms
• Goat Farms
• Stud Farms
• Aquaculture
• Vegetable Growers
• Orchards
• Small Crops
• Timber Plantations

With this range of protection of farm insurance available, working with you, we are able to personally tailor what we both consider your needs.
We can also offer special farm insurance liability covers for leisure and hobby farms (definition varies) of less than 20 hectares (50 acres) that generate small income.

To enquire online –

WebInsure - Business Grade Insurance Advisors

Our Cotton Insurance covers for 2011 are set with a range of providers – there is much movement in the market and 2011/2012 looks like a year of consolidation in the market for Cotton Insurance – With the 2011 floods and the poor performance of international equity markets many Cotton Insurance operators are looking at changes to their current position on the market – this can only cause price uncertainty and of course opportunity – We look forward to the season with the usual amounts of excitement –

WebInsure - Business Grade Insurance Advisors