Does your business lease space to others? Even if your “primary” business is not to do this, are you leasing some extra floor space to another entity? This could be manufacturing space, storage space, or office/retail space. If you are, what is the annual “rents” income from this revenue stream? During the economic downturn many companies did indeed lease excess space to others as their own need for this space had changed. If this lease income is of any consequence, you will need to confirm with your insurance agent that you are properly insuring this exposure included in your Business Income coverage policy.

For approximately 50% of commercial insurance buyers, your renewal date of 1/1 is fast approaching. This year when updating your exposures specifically relating to property insurance please consider the a couple of items that are often overlooked.

With the economy now seemingly coming off of the “bottom” in some markets, business owners are seeing growth. With this growth comes higher sales and payrolls. Insurance policies that are exposure-rated on Sales and Payroll need extra attention and this attention may be needed not just during renewal time.

Business Insurance - Your Weekly Cup of Joe - By Joe Buick

We will get to that at the end of this short blog.

Workers’ Compensation rates continue their ascent over the past 2-3 years. If you are operating in a desirable business with a reasonable loss rate, this could mean an increase of 3-8% annually. If you are in a tougher class, with more losses, this could be more like 8-15% with some cases going higher. These increases are related to at least two factors in this bloggers humble insurance opinion. Firstly, Medical Inflation - as with health insurance, the costs of work comp medical claims are going up faster than most industry experts and underwriters predicted. That leads to the second reason….the soft market. Increased claim costs, along with premiums far under where they should be, results in a perfect storm. This perfect storm is really not perfect for the insurance buyer, in fact it can blow operating budgets out of the water.

Parts of the Midwest have been called the rust belt. This includes the natural fact that many of our manufacturing buildings are outdated. These structures contain building materials that are obsolete, and frankly are very costly to rebuild or reproduce.

Your Weekly Cup of Joe (Buick) - Business Insurance Blogger, Client Executive

If your commercial insurance policy is un-endorsed it probably does not include coverage for damages from an earthquake. Michigan and the surrounding region are not in an earthquake prone area. Sure, from time to time we will feel a tremor, or read about an event that occurred that we may not have felt. Because of this fact, earthquake insurance is generally not a costly option to include with you commercial insurance renewal. Damage from a August 2011 event centered in parts of Virginia were estimated to be $200 million to $300 million on the East Coast, based on estimates from EQECAT, a firm that helps insurers determine catastrophe risks. This includes losses for homes and business. Often times, the damage from a quake is not the total collapse of building variety, but the ground shifting with major foundation damage kind. These can be VERY expensive to repair.

Kapnick Insurance Group - Property and Casualty division is launching a new information stream. Look for TIPS, TOOLS and TRENDING.