Welcome to our practical checklist to help you prepare your business for what is coming next as we adapt to the implications on our lives, both professionally and personally, due to the coronavirus pandemic and resulting crisis. Here we look at insurance.

Use the links below to navigate around the guide which has been split into the following sections:

• Introduction & 5 phases of recovery
• Operations & technology
• Finance & resourcing
• People
• Marketing & communications
• Insurance

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Insurance

Insurance is a vital part of your business continuity planning, risk management and protection.  There are three key insurance areas that you need to consider:

1. Review lockdown;
2. Prepare for renewals early; and
3. Review your business risk assessment.

10-point checklist

Review lockdown

1. In the rapid move to lockdown was any insurance renewal overlooked leaving you unprotected?

2. Did you keep your insurers advised of changes you made to your business activities, workforce, remote working, premises security etc?

3. Review work undertaken at crisis speed for any remedial action necessary. This might protect you from future claims. Has reduced oversight and supervision caused any issues?

4. On return, create and keep a record of process changes implemented in the run-up to lockdown, during remote working and the transition returning to normal working. This information will assist your insurers understanding of how you managed in future renewal discussions.

5. Consider policies where your risk may have reduced or disappeared completely. Are all of these policies necessary for your ongoing business in the short and longer term? Insurers may be willing to consider premium refunds where it can be demonstrated that risk has reduced materially.

Prepare for renewals early

6. Insurance renewals are likely to take longer to finalise. Begin policy renewal discussions with your broker earlier than normal.

Agreeing your insurance needs early with your broker will help them explore more options for you to secure optimal protection for your budget.

7. Review the levels of cover you arrange and ask your broker for a range of options. While you’ll need to keep your legal, regulatory, contractual and other needs for specific levels of cover in mind, can this approach be relaxed to save premiums safely?

8. Ask your broker to advise you on payment options that they and insurers can offer to help your cashflow.

9. If you cannot divert from the day job and are unable to supply the renewal information your broker needs in time, can they negotiate an extension period to take the pressure off.

Review your business risk assessment

10. Consider whether your current insurance protection is adequate:

Cyber – with the increase in online crime, have you arranged cyber insurance?

Management liability protection – this may be worth considering if not already arranged due to an increased risk of employment and other legal disputes.

Professional indemnity – with PII cover typically arranged for ‘any one claim’, multiple claims or claimants from the same original cause risk being treated as one claim i.e. only one policy limit will apply to all – should you be looking to increase cover at a time of increased risk?

With thanks: This section was developed by Gary Horswell of Ntegrity.

Our Experts:

 John Smith-Daye

Paul Short

Graham McNeill

Please call the office on 01376 326266 or email info@lambert-chapman.co.uk to discuss any of these issues in more detail.