When I first started doing workers compensation insurance, I had the privilege of writing a lot of landscaping types of risk. I have never been a landscaper, so it was difficult to understand all the aspects of landscaping insurance. For example, are you just mowing yards, are you trimming bushes, are you cleaning the yards, are you replanting the grass or flowers, are you doing edge work? Who knew there would be so much that goes into just one risk?
So, while you ponder on the type of landscaping you do, let me tell you there are plenty of carriers that love writing landscaping insurance. Except tree trimming and that does not classify as landscaping!! So moving on, I find it very interesting that all the types of work my clients have been doing and the challenges I had to write them. So let me walk you through the process of how this is done.
First, we need to talk about exactly what you do. Never be scared to tell an agent what you actually do on a daily basis. If you cut grass, say that. If you trim trees, tell them! I can’t stress how important it is that you tell the agent exactly what you do. The agent and underwriter will do research on your company and we will scroll through every picture and question whether or not you are doing something… so tell us everything!! It is beyond stressful for the client (i.e. you) to have to wait for a carrier to quote your work comp landscaping insurance policy and at the very last minute tell you they found some issues with what you say you do. Especially if you didn’t tell them that you did something. If you have a website that says you do tree trimming, we will know. If your Facebook page has pictures of you climbing ladders to hang plants, we will see them. So tell us exactly what you do. We understand you might have been declined by a lot of other agents, but we are trained to write tough/difficult risks, or we can tell you who to call exactly. We won’t waste your time and we don’t want to waste ours.
Secondly, after you have told us exactly what you do, we will discuss the payroll and employee count. No agent has your actual monthly payroll reporting in front of us, so we need you to be honest. If you pay one of your landscapers $10,000.00 a year, tell us! Honesty is the best policy. If you are starting out as a new company, we will help you figure that out.
Thirdly, this is the best part, we quote your landscaping business. Believe it or not there are a lot of carriers that are competing to write landscapers. You need work comp for a reason, so let us find the best price for you. I get how stressful it is to try to find coverage in your area… but let me take that stress away. I can shop dozens of carriers and I can get you the best coverage for the lowest price.
In the past three months I’ve spoken with 19 landscaping companies. Seven of those companies have become my clients. I’ve used four different carriers to place those policies. That shows how much our insurance carriers are willing to compete against each other for landscaping insurance. Landscaping has so many aspects to it that it is a fun risk to write. Also companies are competing for the general liability and business owners insurance too.