Many business owners feel as though insurance is an unaffordable expense or a luxury for bigger and more established companies. Fortunately, with the right insurance company, business insurance solutions can be cost effective. Continue reading
Umbrella liability insurance for small businesses is also known as excess liability insurance (or commercial umbrella insurance). This type of insurance is designed to protect businesses from suffering major losses. These losses go beyond what general liability and business auto policies cover. At Hortica Insurance & Employee Benefits, this type of insurance is available in increments of $1,000,000. Continue reading
In the workplace, five types of injuries attribute to 72 percent of the nation’s direct workers compensation costs: overexertion (by lifting, pushing, pulling or holding excessive weight), falling on the same level, falling to a lower level, bodily reaction (from sitting or standing) and being struck by an object. These five types of injuries – across all industries – amounted to over $35 billion in workers compensation costs in 2009. Continue reading
Theft is an all-too common problem within the landscaping industry. No matter how secure you feel your property and equipment are, determined thieves will find a way to steal what is of value to you. While it is critical to go through all the motions of physically protecting your landscape and equipment from theft, ensuring that your property is protected with landscape insurance is equally – if not more – important. Continue reading
After a Washington State resident, 24-year-old Maria Federici, was blinded and disfigured from a piece of furniture that flew off the back of a moving vehicle and sliced through her windshield, someone took action. The Washington State Legislature enacted “Maria’s Law” in 2005 to criminalize the failure to properly secure loads into vehicles. As a result, a driver who causes injury or death due to an unsecure load may be charged with a gross misdemeanor and be sentenced up to one year in prison. This legislation is meant to hold offenders personally accountable for another person’s injury or death. Continue reading
Although the terms and concepts may seem similar in theory, employee benefits and workers compensation are largely different. Both are essential for businesses of any kind.
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
Employee benefits are “perks” provided by an employer that is an addition to employees’ salaried income. A few common employee benefits include: paid vacation days, personal leave, fringe benefits (bonuses not tied to performance, tuition assistance, etc.), retirement benefits and health/disability/life insurance among others.
Whether your business operates as a garden center, greenhouse, nursery, floral shop – or if you’re a horticultural business on-the-move – offering employee benefits will position your business to be competitive in the job market.
Employee benefits help companies retain employees in addition to enhancing the relationship between employer and employee. It is important to note that employee benefits packages will vary by business. Thus, it is in the best interest of any employer to take the time to sit down with an insurance company and consider all options.
WORKERS COMPENSATION
By definition, workers compensation is a system of insurance – that by law – requires an employer to pay or provide insurance to supplement lost wages and/or medical expenses of an employee who has been injured in the workplace.
Workers compensation was designed to help employees maintain their basic rights of protection without the need for litigation. Workers compensation for employees is required by all states in the U.S. but will vary by state. In the past, a workers compensation plan was voluntary for businesses. However, several companies still felt it was necessary to instill a policy to protect their business from lawsuits that could potentially hurt them financially. Most of today’s businesses (per written law) are in compliance with state regulations of workers compensation laws.
Your business may already be covered with greenhouse insurance, nursery insurance and/or garden center insurance, but is your company in compliance with workers compensation laws?
For more information on employee benefits and workers compensation, our professionals at Hortica Insurance & Employee Benefits have the tools and guidance to help keep you informed. Contact us today!
In July of 2011, it was recorded that our global economy experienced extreme catastrophic losses amounting to approximately $265 billion. Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March of 2011 alone accounted for $210 billion in losses and 15,500 lives.
Photo courtesy of National Geographic
Photo courtesy of CNBC.com
Photo courtesy of the Global Risk Forum
The unprecedented temperatures, deadly earthquakes and billion-dollar hurricanes have put our global economy into devastating turmoil. Beyond the tsunamis and hurricanes, the smaller-scaled storms, such as fires and floods, have accumulated over $25 billion in losses. According to the 2011 Half Year Review of Natural Catastrophe, financial losses and the number of disasters occurring are continuing to climb each year. Continue reading
The beauty of today’s technology is we can turn to the Internet for almost anything – even filing an insurance claim. If you have greenhouse insurance, garden center insurance or an insurance policy for any type of horticultural business through Hortica Insurance & Employee Benefits, you can file a claim without picking up the phone. Regardless of your insurance company, the process can be handled online. Hopefully, you have Internet access nearby because nothing can hinder the ability to properly investigate and manage a claim more than passing time. If an accident or destruction hits your horticultural business, consider these five simple steps to filing a property insurance claim:
Contact your insurance company or agent immediately.
Carefully document your loss.
Protect your property from further damage
Work with your claims adjustor.
Settle your claim.
The filing of any claim – albeit frustrating and undesirable – should be the simplest part of the entire process. If the claim is reported promptly, your business should be up and running in full operation sooner than later.
It’s easy – and more common than not – to have a false sense of security for ourselves and for our businesses. However, it’s difficult to predict destructive accidents or natural disasters that can diminish that security. So in the event that your horticultural business is hit by something catastrophic, we – at Hortica Insurance & Employee Benefits – want to help position you and your company to be able to cope in the event of a catastrophic loss.
Exploring Your Business Insurance Options
Insurance is the true cornerstone to minimizing financial risks. General protection and business interruption insurance are two critical components to consider when organizing your business insurance plan to protect your company from disaster.
The most crucial assets to insure with general protection include: buildings, greenhouses and equipment. Neglecting to insure any permanently installed equipment that sits inside your building (i.e. boilers, coolers and generators) may leave your business underinsured. Fortunately, this is a great opportunity to meet with your insurance agent – or one of ours – for a property survey. A property survey will provide precise building dimensions, location of structures and estimated values. If you have reconstructed your building(s), greenhouses or reconfigured any equipment, then it’s a great time to contact your agent to schedule a property survey.
Next to general protection, business interruption insurance is imperative to have built into your insurance plan. Designed to provide financial protection (income) to replace lost profits, the focus of this coverage is on gross earnings. There are more intricate details that fit into the scope of purchasing and having business interruption insurance, such as accurately projecting business sales, reviewing sales trends and establishing exposure by deducting the cost of goods sold and selling expenses.
The manner in which a business interruption claim is handled, and the efforts made by the damaged business, will profoundly impact how quickly and effectively that business can recover. Immediately after a catastrophic loss, it is likely that expenses will climb and revenue will plummet. To prepare for this type of financial discomfort, meet with your insurance agent – or we can help you find one – to discuss potential plans to protect your business for the future.
Knowing that 2011 has been one of the costliest years for natural disasters, our economy has entered 2012 with the goal of recovering and making a strong comeback. Make it your New Year’s resolution to keep your business and your employees protected from the worst. Let Hortica Insurance & Employee Benefits walk you through the doors to safety.
It is safe to say that most people understand the hardships and frustrations of language barriers. Insurance jargon can feel like a completely different language at times. It’s important to us at Hortica Insurance & Employee Benefits that our past, present and potential clients – and any insured or soon to be insured person – can speak our language. The good news? We love to teach!
There are a slew of insurance terms – a dictionary in fact – that are often tossed around. Knowing and understanding these terms will help make you and your business better consumers. Whether your business is a garden center, retail or wholesale floral shop, greenhouse, nursery or any other horticultural business; we are confident that you and your business will stand on a stronger foundation by understanding the insurance language.
With that in mind, below are some of the more important – and most common – terms with their corresponding definitions. For more terms and types of insurance services, be sure to visit our website. It makes all the difference in the world when we can speak the same language!
Actual Cash Value – Cost of replacing damaged or destroyed property with comparable new property, minus depreciation and obsolescence.
Coinsurance – In property insurance, requires the policyholder to carry insurance equal to a specified percentage of the value of property to receive full payment on a loss.
Collision Insurance – Covers physical damage to the insured’s automobile (other than that covered under comprehensive insurance) resulting from contact with another inanimate object.
Comprehensive Insurance – Auto insurance coverage providing protection in the event of physical damage (other than collision) or theft of the insured car. For example, fire damage or a cracked windshield would be covered under the comprehensive section.
Deductible – Amount of loss that the insured pays before the insurance kicks in.
General Liability Insurance – Insurance designed to protect business owners and operators from a wide variety of liability exposures. Exposures could include liability arising from accidents resulting from the insured’s premises or operations, products sold by the insured, operations completed by the insured, and contractual liability.
Insurance Adjuster – A representative of the insurer who seeks to determine the extent of the insurer’s liability for loss when a claim is submitted.
Named Perils – Perils specifically covered on insured property.
Personal Lines – Insurance for individuals and families, such as private-passenger auto and homeowners insurance.
Premium – The price of insurance protection for a specified risk for a specified period of time.
Replacement Cost – The dollar amount needed to replace damaged personal property or dwelling property without deducting for depreciation but limited by the maximum dollar amount shown on the declarations page of the policy.
Umbrella Policy – Coverage for losses above the limit of an underlying policy or policies such as commercial liability and auto insurance.
(All terms referenced from ambest.com, Glossary of Insurance Terms)