To Save Money On Contractor Insurance, Know and Manage Your Claims

To Save Money On Contractor Insurance, Know and Manage Your Claims
Claims really cost contractors money. It is no surprise
that claims work against you, when it comes to getting
renewal pricing. When you have a loss, you likely will end
up paying for it in increased insurance costs later. Your
goal is to keep claims as low as possible when they do
happen. Keep on the initiative for suppressing and
preventing claims.

When a claim is filed, the claim adjuster books an estimate
of the total claim. This is a guess as to what the total
loss will be. It is often called a reserve. This guess is
usually wrong, and when it is too high, it costs you money
when you get renewal premium quotations.

When a claim is paid and closed, it is over. You can have
no influence over it's effect, other than to write up a
good explanation of what happened, and what you did to make
sure it never happens again. Include such letters in your
bid specs, as they can help underwriters justify giving you
a break.

When a claim is open (still not closed), pay attention to
it's progress. Stay connected with your ongoing open
claims. Know what has happened and what is going to happen
next. Know how much your reserves are and why. Is the
claim getting bogged down somewhere? Often, people aren't
doing their jobs on a timely basis. Keep in touch with the
claims adjuster, and keep asking what must happen for the
claim to close. Keep asking what the claim is reserved at,
and what can be done to lower the reserves. This king of
attentiveness can save you a lot of money.

To find out what is happening with your claims, the first
step is to get your loss runs. Ask the insurance company
for them, or your broker. If you have active claims, get
your loss runs updated at least every 90 days. When you
look at them, you are looking for the open claims,
especially those with large reserves. Ask your broker to
explain them to you. See if the reserves make sense to
you. You and your broker can argue the reserves, and many
times get them to go down.

Sometimes you will see a claim on the loss runs you do not
recognize. It is entirely possible the claim doesn't
belong to you. A clerical error loaded someone else's
claim onto your loss runs. Catching that can really save
you a lot of money.

Know and understand your claims and loss runs, and you will
save a great deal of money on contractors insurance over
the years. Demand regular updates on your claims reports,
and study them when you get them. Ignoring an open claim
can be very costly.

----------------------------------------------------
Get help from the author of The Buyers Guide To Business
Insurance (1993), and founder of Insurance Cost Reduction
Services. Over $20 million in measurable savings delivered
by helping buyers negotiate with their brokers. Here's
where to get free support and direct help:
http://www.contractorinsurancetoohigh.com
and http://www.icrs.biz
Phone 800-760-1867
email: donbury@icrs.biz