Do you have insureds who sign contracts, guaranteeing that they will provide products or services to their customers for a year or two in the future? Naturally, when they suffer loss or damage to their operations and have their contracts cancelled as a result, they expect that the Business Income coverage that you sold to them will take care of that financial loss. This may or may not happen. So, let’s look at what can happen to your client, and how you can rather easily fix the problem when you sell the coverage. This claim just happened this summer (2018) and we now have a very unhappy insured..

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The much heralded “blue wave” that brought the Democrats control of the US House of Representatives hit Minnesota even harder. Democrats had a huge night in Minnesota on November 8th, winning all the statewide races on the ballot; two US Senate seats, Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State and Auditor. The Democrats also knocked off two incumbent Congressman, Jason Lewis and five termer Erik Paulsen. The Republicans were able to pick-up two open Congressional seats in the 1st and 8th districts to somewhat negate the Democratic Congressional gain.

Perhaps the biggest story of the election was the DFL takeover of the MN House of Representatives. Heading into the election, the Republicans held a 77-57 majority. For the DFL to gain control of the House, they needed to win 11 seats. The wound up winning 18 seats! Not many of my colleagues, even the few that thought the DFL could flip the House, predicted that large of a DFL victory.

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Cyber insurance is in the vanguard of insurance. It is similar to the status of employment practice liability insurance about twenty years ago.

It is good business to offer cyber insurance to your commercial insurance customers. But there is a caveat: the forms are changing. There are about 300 forms in the market now. Be careful about making a representation of expertise. It is important to know the cyber insurance product you are offering to your commercial insurance customer. For example, one can buy a cyber insurance endorsement or a stand-alone policy. As a general rule, most brokers view a stand-alone policy as preferable, but you do have to know the insurance product you are offering your insured.

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Your most valuable business asset may not be the raw materials, cash reserves, or even the technology found within your company. It’s the knowledge of the people on your team. Yet a good number of executives overlook the value of this collective knowledge, commonly called Intellectual Capital

Case in point: Several years ago, I attended a meeting with executives and managers from one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. One of the top executives stood before the large crowd and exclaimed that their most valuable asset was their brand recognition. At that point, I knew this company was heading for trouble

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