Monday, March 24, 2014

Food Contamination Shutdown — Business coverage for restaurants

Most of the time, a case of food poisoning means we won't be getting too far from the bathroom for a while. Uncomfortable, but something we'll recover from.

For a restaurant, it could be mean the end of a business.

I heard an ad on the radio the other day, a Springfield restaurant owner trying to lure customers back after a well-publicized series of health inspection failures.

If you're in the Ozarks, you've probably already heard the ad or the closure, so I won't go into details.

But if you're a restaurant owner, I hope it makes you question, "What if?"

That's the basis of my job as an insurance agent — asking "What if?" then finding a way to plan for it before it happens.

So, What if my restaurant had to shut down because of food poisoning?

Food contamination shutdown and food-borne illness business interruption are two of the coverages that you can include with your Restaurant Business Owners Package with Farmers.

Similar to business income insurance, these two coverages can pay for the loss of income if the health department shuts down your restaurant because of an actual or suspected contamination.

It can also help pay for loss of income because the health department announces that a case of food poisoning was traced back to your restaurant — or another restaurant with the same name.

Obviously, your best line of defense is keeping an eye on your kitchen staff to make sure nothing happens in the first place. But these are two ways Farmers can help you get back to where you belong.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Vacant houses

When it comes to your vacant home, what your insurance agent doesn't know can hurt you.

I had a woman call me yesterday because she just found out that the insurance on her house in Springfield no longer covered much of anything. Why? Because she put it up for sale when she moved to Texas two months ago.

She never realized there was a problem until last month's wind storms blew through the area and her Realtor told her she had some roof damage. So she called her insurance agent, who told her that since the home had been vacant for more than a month, most of her coverage was no longer in force.

Insuring vacant homes are different than homes that are occupied or even just temporarily unoccupied -- There's no one around to see if the air conditioner has been stolen, or a water line breaks, or any number of other problems arise with the home. And liability risks are different as well — you don't usually have to worry about someone sneaking into your home and setting up a meth lab while you're still living there.

So how do I get insurance on a vacant home?

Foremost Insurance is one of the nation's largest insurers of specialty dwellings -- including mobile homes, properties with too many claims for other companies, and yes, vacant homes.

This is one of those life lessons that I'm lucky I didn't have to learn the hard way. When we moved from Texas back to Missouri, I didn't even think about the insurance until after we sold the house. It never even occurred to me that my insurance would no longer cover my home if I wasn't living there.

It's also one of the reasons having an agent and talking to your agent on a regular basis is a good idea.

Make sure to talk to your insurance agent if you're moving out of your home and find out what your vacant home coverage is, then give me a call at (417) 708 9583 and let's see what Foremost and Farmers can offer.