This story appears in the
January 2003 issue of
Entrepreneur.
Subscribe »
An often overlooked part of business insurance policies that
have no reporting provisions is the "coinsurance" clause,
which stipulates what percentage of the total value of your
property must be insured for you to be fully reimbursed for a loss,
even a partial one. If you fail to insure for the required amount,
you may be penalized when you file a claim, says Jerry Milton, an
insurance industry consultant in Orange Beach, Alabama. "In
essence, coinsurance forces you to insure to value," says
Milton. "If you don't, you become coinsured and share in
the loss."
Milton says the standard penalty formula is "had" over
"should" times the loss. What that means, he explains, is
the amount of coverage you had is divided by the amount you should
have had, then multiplied by the amount of the loss to determine
how much the company will pay.
If you're trying to save money by insuring for less than the
actual value, a coinsurance clause can cost you far more than
anything you might save in premiums. A better approach, Milton
says, is to insure for full value with a larger deductible. He
advises knowing whether your policy has a coinsurance requirement,
being careful to meet it, and increasing your coverage if your
property value increases for any reason.
Jacquelyn Lynn is a freelance business writer in Orlando,
Florida.
Contact Source
