Insurance can be a tricky subject for contractors. It is something that, in truth, everyone has to deal with, but no one wants to. For some contractors, it can be a topic of frustration. Occasionally, this comes from a lack of communication on the agent’s end and an overall misunderstanding of the contractor’s scope of work. In other instances, a contractor may have had a loss not be covered by their insurance provider. This then creates poor feelings towards the insurance agency and distrust. Throughout this article, I will be discussing ways to avoid these frustrations, as well as make sure that you are properly covered.
Our course
We offer online courses that help fulfill contractor education requirements. Our company helps contractors from all around the country to get educated in their industry. We continue to update our courses and expand to other states. This year alone, we uploaded courses for the states of Oregon and Utah. Having said this, you can know of a surety that you are being taught up-to-date and accurate information. The topics covered in our courses range from construction laws to insurance exclusions. These are all important for you as a contractor to learn to help grow your business.
After completion of our pre-licensing course, you may ask yourself, “What’s next?” The answer, you must start looking to get insurance put into place. You will need proof of insurance to move forward with getting your contractor’s license. You can do this by getting quotes for insurance coverage. Now before you go out looking for quotes, we suggest that you read the rest of this post.
We specialize in doing things efficiently and correctly. With over 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, we pride ourselves on keeping our clients’ best interests at heart. Included in this, we ensure that our clients are properly covered for their respective scope of work. In short, we make sure that they don’t have “Fake Insurance”.
What is “Fake Insurance?”
We define “Fake Insurance” as insurance that doesn’t properly cover you for your scope of work. It is an issue that has plagued the construction industry for many years, but most recently in the past 5 years. We feel that it isn’t talked about enough, and we wanted to start the conversation. So many contractors are trusting their insurance agents to know what they are selling. Or, they are just buying “Fake Insurance” directly online. Unfortunately, many agents simply don’t understand all of the coverage exclusions in policies. They also definitely don’t take the time to help their clients understand it. They just sell a policy without taking the time to read through it to ensure that there aren’t any exclusions in the policy that relate directly to the contractor’s scope of work and would thereby negate coverage.
Real-life example
A perfect example of this is a roofer that we came across who had attended our course. After reviewing his policy, we discovered an outright roofing exclusion. It was insane! Here was a roofer, who had zero coverage for any roofing work. He was basically throwing money away every month. Most importantly, he was paying for a product that wasn’t even doing what it was designed to do, and he was not alone. We wish this was the first time that we had seen this, but similar issues have been seen in roughly 60% of the policies of contractors who have taken our course. This cannot and should not be acceptable in both the insurance and the construction industries.
So, what next?
If many of these insurance agents are selling insurance policies that have bad exclusions in them, “How can I make sure that my company will be protected in the case of a claim?” Simply put, we can help. We have helped thousands of contractors review through their insurance policies to look for these harmful coverage exclusions. After completion of any of our courses, we offer a no-cost review to ensure that you are being covered for your scope of work. This is our way of saying “thank you” for choosing our company for your source of contractor education.
And if you didn’t take our course, please still reach out to our offices so that we can put together some options for you and your company. Surprisingly, there are more contractors out there than one would imagine with these issues. We are happy to help anyone who has been referred to us or if you stumbled across this article.
What if I don’t already have coverage, but I want to make sure that I don’t get “Fake Insurance?”
If you are looking to get coverage, our parent company, Summit Risk Management and Insurance will be able to help. On their website, there is the “Contractor Quick Quote” tab that will take you to a quick questionnaire. Once filled out and submitted, one of their agents will reach out to you with quotes for coverage that don’t have the harmful coverage exclusions that were discussed.
In conclusion,
We hope you found this post helpful and insightful. Construction is a great industry to be in. Contractors like you help to build our society’s infrastructure and are a valuable part of our nation’s economy. Truthfully, we just want to make sure that you are properly protecting the business that you worked so hard to build. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to our office via the “Contact” tab.
Don’t wait until after you have a claim to find out you have “Fake Insurance!”
One reply on “Fake Insurance: How Do I Know If I Have It”
[…] For obvious reasons, it’s hard to trust an insurance agent who sold you a crappy policy. And the sad reality is that most insurance agents don’t fully understand what they are selling. They don’t take the time to read through the entire policy that is being sold, which usually results in trouble later down the line for you. To combat this, we have partnered with Summit Risk Management and Insurance. With over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, they are a trusted source for getting insurance that doesn’t have harmful coverage exclusions. Unlike other companies, they take the time needed to make sure that you don’t have “Fake Insurance.” […]