In 2019 There Are Several Ways to Save When You Shop Insurance

As most small business owners know, every dime matters when you own and operate a small business. Before making any major changes or making and major purchases, it is important to speak with every advisor possible to determine how these decision will impact your insurance premium. Savvy business owners weigh their options and move forward with the largest amount of information possible. This decision making process should be no different when it comes to purchasing shop insurance.  Here are five tried and true tips to help you save on commercial insurance and five tips you should try in 2019.

5 Tried and True Tips to Shop Insurance

Partner with an Independent Agent

It is always best to partner with an independent agent when it is time to Shop Insurance. The services done by an independent agent can be done by yourself or someone at your business, but depending upon the experience of yourself or your key employees, you are not going to be able to do it as efficiently as an independent agent can. This is especially true when it comes to the amount of time a business would have to spend acquiring quotes from multiple carriers and the knowledge an insider like an independent agent has within the insurance industry. An independent agent knows which carriers are hungry to quote a particular industry, which carriers are looking to quote a certain policy, and which carriers have better servicing when a claim occurs. This allows your key employees to spend more time running the business and allows the independent agent to shop insurance so you don’t have to.

Shop Around Your Policy

Once you have chosen an independent agent with whom you trust, it is important to have them shop your policy around to as many carriers as possible. This creates competition for your coverage and gives you options. It is not a good idea to switch carriers each year and it is not wise to make your decision on a carrier based solely on price. The margins insurance carriers make on policies are tight. If one carrier offers a price dramatically lower than all others there is more than likely a reason for it. An independent agent can help you determine which offer is the best, but it is important to first shop your policy around.

Understand your Experience Mod

The Experience Modification Rating of a business is the one factor businesses have control over that can impact what the pay for commercial insurance. Especially what the business pays for workers compensation insurance coverage. Underwriters at Insurance Carriers use the experience modification rating to determine if they are gong to offer a business coverage and what they are going to charge each business for premium. Keeping this rating low is important.

Safety Programs

Implementing an effective Safety Program is the primary way a business can keep their experience modification rating low. When effective a safety program can keep the number of insurance claims low and it can limit the severity of insurance claims when they do occur. A safety program does not have to be extremely time consuming. It can be as little as an hour meeting once a month or even a 15 minute huddle a few times a week.  No matter what type of program a business deems is best for their business, a safety program is the best way to lower the experience modification rating.

Return to Work Program

A Return to Work Program should be a part of any safety program. A return to work program helps inured employees get back to work faster and make them more likely to eventually return to full-time permanent work. Humans are creatures of habit and the longer an injured employee stays off the job, the longer they have to develop habits not associated with work. A return to work program can help your business retain these employees and limit the damage to your businesses experience modification rating.

5 Insurance Tips to Use in 2019

Consider Updating Equipment

If your business has certain types of equipment you depend upon; it may be wise to talk with your independent agent about all of the equipment your business owns and operates. Your independent agent should be able to help you determine which types of equipment are causing your premium to rise or fall. They may be able to help you determine when it is time to either limit the amount of equipment you own, upgrade the equipment you have or to sell outdated equipment.

Consider a Different Kind of Bundle

Bundling policies is always a good way to get additional discounts on insurance premium. If you are a small business owner; consider not only bundling all of your business and personal policies with one carrier, but try to leverage the policies of your employees as well. If you have a staff that needs health insurance coverage, it might be worth your while to get all of their policies added to your bundle.  When you ad in dental, vision, life, and supplemental income coverage; this can amount to a lot of premium. This is the type of situation an insurance agent loves. If an agent has the opportunity to sell multiple policies while dealing with only one person, they are much more likely to dig deep for all of the credits, debits, and discounts they have available.

Change your payment method

The payment method preferred will vary from carrier to carrier.  You may be able to reap substantial savings by paying your premium in full, paying quarterly, or by making a larger payment up front. Some carriers will give you a small discount for setting up payments through an electronic funds transfer. It is important to communicate to your agent, that you want them asking for any and all discounts offered. Insurance agents interact with customers from all walks of life. Not all of these customers value price as much as other customers. If you are a customer who does want to use every option possible to maximize savings, than communicate this preference to your agent.

Explore Every Type of Discount

There are a number of types of discounts insurance carriers offer.  Here is a list of discounts a business might be able to benefit from:

• Claims Free
• Safety Discounts
• Bundling Discounts
• Group Discounts
• Loyalty Discounts
• Paperless

Each insurance carrier is different. Some will allow you to ad on multiple discounts. Some will only allow you to take advantage of one or a select few. If you’re not sure about what discounts an insurance carrier provides, ask to speak with a representative who can explain the different policy combinations and available deals. Your independent agent should be able to find any and all discounts to meet your needs, but it is important to express to them this is a priority for you as a business owner.

Make your Workplace Ergonomically Friendly  

Ergonomically friendly working places are a long-term investment, but if executed properly they can help your business save immensely. Having an ergonomically friendly work station for each of your employees is a difficult situation. Each employee has their own unique needs. Some may be very tall while others may be very short. Some may be large while others may have a physical disability. Working with these employees to take care of their needs on the front end can eliminate a lot of costly insurance claims down the road by preventing repetitive use injuries. This will contribute to your staff being more productive and will lower what you pay for insurance because you will be filing less insurance claims.