Videos
-
Loss Runs Explained! What are they? Why Are they Needed?
What is a "currently valued" loss run? Why are they needed? How do you obtain them? -
What Does Workers Compensation Insurance Cover?
Workers compensation insurance protects your employees from the financial impact of an injury sustained during their employment. Work comp covers the injured employees’ medical expenses incurred as a result of the injury or illness. Work comp will also replace the employees lost pay while they are out of work or if they become partially or permanently disabled for an extended period of time. -
6 Characteristics for Choosing the Right Insurance Agent for your Business
How do you choose the best insurance broker for your business? Insurance is one of the most expensive business items and it can be the most devastating if it's not done correctly. This video list 6 qualities or characteristics to look for when choosing which insurance agent to bring into your organization. -
Commercial Auto Coverage for the Security Guard Industry
There are insurance carriers that specialize in providing coverage for the guard industries vehicles or fleet of vehicles. Most of these insurance carriers required they have an additional line of coverage along with the auto. These carriers will not write the coverage for the auto alone. This is an important factor when deciding which insurance carrier you will choose on the GL or WC. -
Patrol Vehicle Insurance - after Market Add On
Applying a vehicle wrap to your security guard patrol vehicle is a great way to promote your business and brand your company. But, is the wrap covered by your commercial auto insurance company if it is damaged or if the vehicle is stolen?
Branding your patrol vehicle with a wrap is an after-market accessory. You need to make your insurance broker aware of any aftermarket add on to a patrol vehicle, especially when the add-on exceeds a certain dollar value.
You can increase the replacement cost of the vehicle to include the wrap and other equipment added after the purchase. This way the additional money spent on the patrol vehicle will not be lost if damaged or stolen. If the aftermarket add on is not disclosed, any claim made to the auto insurance carrier can be denied because it wasn’t accounted for on the policy. In that case, you are on the hook for paying out of pocket.
It is always best to make a quick call to your trusted insurance broker with any questions you may have. The old saying "Better safe than sorry" always applies when it comes to insurance. -
General Liability Application for Newly Formed Security Guard Company
Thoroughly completing the supplemental application can be difficult for a new start up security guard company. The application must be completed even if you do not currently have contracts, employees or current payroll. In this video I will walk you through the application and explain the information that the carrier is looking for from a newly formed guard company. I will also explain how to estimate armed security guard and unarmed security guard hours and payroll. -
Liability Audit: Will you get returned premium if you over-estimate figures?
Security Guard Industry General Liability Policy Audit: Does the insurance carrier return premium if you over-estimate the annual exposure?
So one of the major misconceptions I hear from security guard owners that purchased their liability coverage is they didn't understand at the beginning of the policy term that the policy is going to be auditable. They usually understand that, but they don't understand that the policy isn't going to be in their favor if they over project their estimated payroll, guard hours billed, whatever figure used to rate the policy.
So I want you to understand that when you're purchasing a liability policy for your guard company, you need to ask the carrier broker, whoever you're dealing with directly, is the policy auditable and will it
audit in your favor if you overestimate? So for example, at the beginning of the year you're asked to look into that crystal ball and you're going to project out for the full term or for the full year, what your payroll is going to be, guard hours billed.
Those are the most common ways to rate a policy. So you're going to project, let's just say I use a round number of 50,000. You're going to use 50,000 guard hours billed or payroll. At the end of that policy
term, what the carrier is going to do is they're going to audit the policy to see where your actual figures were.
So if you estimated 50 and it was actually 70, you're going to need an additional bill for that premium to account for that additional exposure that wasn't accounted for at the beginning of the policy term. So that bill is going to be due within anywhere from usually 30 days, depending on the carrier. Now what you need to do is bind a policy that audits in both directions. Like I said, the majority of the policies do not audit downward. So what you need to do is check to see if it does, it goes in your direction. So what I usually get is or hear from insurance companies, or I'm sorry, from security guard companies is "We estimated 50,000. We lost a couple of contracts, unfortunately. We weren't able to replace those contracts and our actual guard hours billed was 30,000." You're not going to get money back, in most instances. The carrier is not going to be sending you money back for premium used for exposure that wasn't accumulated during the policy term.
So that's a key point. When purchasing a policy, understand what you're going to get at the end of that policy because you want those numbers to be as correct as possible, but it's hard to predict the future. So you do want to purchase a policy that goes both directions.
Hopefully you found this information helpful. Always feel free to reach out if you'd like more information on this or any other questions you have. You can reach out to me at (949) 421-3524 is my
office, or you can always shoot me an email at cmount@guardproins.com. Look forward to hearing from
you. -
ACA Compliant Health Plans for security guard companies
GuardPro Insurance offers ACA compliant health plans for security guard companies nationwide. -
What's Needed for A New Security Guard Business Insurance Submission
http://guardproins.com/new-companies/
So you're new in business and you need general liability coverage as soon as possible. We come across newly formed companies every single day that run into the exact same situation. Which isn't a problem, we can get it done for you. But the problem that I always run into is getting the information I need to give you the best possible quote.
Frankly, the more information you provide me, the better chances you have of getting the best possible quote from the carriers that I have available to me.
So what is that information?
I'm going to send you an application, it's a very thorough application. I would tell you it's made for every type of guard company out there.
Since you're new in business, you're not going to be able to answer a lot of the questions that are going to be on there. But I'll tell you the questions you can answer, then you answer them as complete and thorough as possible. Go through the whole thing. On page 4 of that application, is an underwriting page. It's going to ask you "Estimated guard hours billed."
Now I can understand you might not even have any contracts, so how are you supposed to estimate the guard hours billed?
I would tell you just to give me a low ball of what your business plan is. Worst case scenario, where you'd be broken out between armed and unarmed. If it's 1000 guard hours billed, put that - and that's fine.
As you go through the 12th question is, "Estimated annual payroll broken out by types of contract."
Again, if you don't have any contracts I would tell you the exact same thing. Who's the first phone call you make once you're licensed and insured? What type of contract? Is it an apartment complex, is it an office complex, industrial? Whatever that is - put your payroll, estimated payroll in there - broken out between armed and unarmed.
But the main thing is to be as thorough as possible. Giving as much information as you possibly can on that application, and that's going to give me something to start working with.
Besides the application, the other information I would need is a resume of all the owners.
Since you're new in business, the carrier wants to make sure that you're properly qualified and have an understanding of the industry. And that resume can be comprised of law enforcement experience or security guard experience. Either or would be fine. The more experience you have, obviously the better.
So those 2 pieces of information are usually a great starting point.
In addition to that - if you have a sample contract already, forward that to me as well. Anything additional - post orders, if you have a contract that you're waiting to sign until you get the liability covered - forward me that contract and I can make sure that the wording is good enough or the indemnity language is good - Properly protecting yourself and hopefully the insurance carrier.
So I guess the main point is, give me as much information as you possibly can. I can always go through, sort the information and decide what would make a complete submission to my carrier. If you have any additional information or questions for me, give me a call at 949-421-3524.
Thanks, look forward to hearing from you. -
GuardPro Testimonials
http://guardproins.com/
Over the years we've had the opportunity to work with a lot of great security companies and have met an abundance of great people along the way...
Whether a startup or an established business, we look forward to serving the security guard industry for years to come. -
Assault and Battery Insurance Coverage for Security Companies
http://guardproins.com/
Assault and battery is one of the largest exposures for any security guard company. Are you covered? Craig from GuardProIns.com explains more.
“One of the largest exposures a security guard company has when it comes to claims, is assault and battery. So, what you want to do is when you’re reviewing your general liability policy or a quote for your general liability policy, is to look for that coverage. Make sure that that policy has an endorsement for assault and battery, and then you want to look at the policy form to see what it actually covers.
That being said, you also want to know what the limit is. If it’s the full-policy limit, great. If there is a sub-limit associated with it, you need to know that before you buy that policy. Like I said, my years of experience, the largest group of claims that I see come across are for assault and battery, so you want to make sure that you’re properly protected when you’re buying that policy.
If you have any other questions, always feel free to reach out to me and I can go into more depth.
Thank you.” -
Game Day
Craig's a man who wears many hats... especially on game day.
BSGIns.com