Restaurant Insurance – UL 300 System Part 2

In part one of this two part series we discussed ways to identify if your current system is a UL 300 system or not.  If you have discovered that you are using an older system, then what should you do about it?  Well our advice is to replace your old system with a new one that is UL 300 approved.

Before we get to the replacement question, here is a list of situations where most local governments will require the use of a UL 300 system.

Use of vegetable based oils in frying.

Any addition or change or any appliance from the original installation.

Any change to the hood or duct system.

The suppression system can no longer be maintained as required for 6 month maintenance due to the lack of available replacement parts or the servicing company refusing to service the out of date unit.

In addition, it is important to note that all dry chemical units are non-compliant as are the following wet chemical units unless modifications have been made:

Ansul R-102, all sizes 1988- 1995,

Ansul Steel tanks (red in color), all sizes 1988 – 2001,

Kidde Aqua Blue, all sizes 1988 – 1995,

Range Guard, all sizes 1977 – 1995.

Many of these UL 300 wet units can be upgraded, but the difference in cost between a new one and a retrofitted one is rarely more than 15% so most restaurants opt for the new system.

One last note about changing your system:  If you do so, please remove any dry chemical fire extinguisher from the kitchen area as their interaction with the UL 300 liquid agents will serve to spread the fire rather than extinguish it.  NFPA 10 requires that only K rate fire extinguishers be kept in your kitchen area.

In part 1 of this blog I mentioned that you there are ways to have someone else pay for the cost of replacing your old, noncompliant system with a newer UL 300 system.  So how does that work?  It’s simple really.  There are many insurance companies out there that understand the value of the UL 300 system and as such will provide huge discounts for restaurants utilizing this newer system.  We have seen these discounts more than pay for the upgrade of systems in our work.  If your agent isn’t currently giving you the full discounts for your UL 300 system, you should choose an insurance company that values this safety feature and is willing to cut your insurance costs because you have it installed.

Clinard Insurance Group, Inc., is an independent insurance agency, located in Winston Salem, NC.  We specialize in helping all kinds of restaurants all across NC and SC.  If you need help with your restaurant insurance questions, or if you would like to see how much money you can save with our specialized restaurant insurance programs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.  We have several specialized insurance programs for the different types of restaurants out there so we should be able to find a solution that best suits your needs.  Our special programs include our fine dining insurance package, our casual dining insurance package, our fast food insurance package, our bar and grill insurance package and our special insurance program for caterers.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – UL 300 System And Your Restaurant – Part 1

Older fire suppression systems for restaurants may no longer be enough to extinguish restaurant fires today.  That is because of new cooking media and newer cooking methodologies that can generate higher temperatures and lower flash points.   This 2 part series will look at the new UL300 standards and help you understand what you have now and what you may want in the future.

So what is UL300?  UL 300 is the standard for testing of fire extinguishing systems for protection of restaurant cooking areas.  Underwriters Laboratories, Inc, referred to as UL, is an independent, not for profit product safety testing and certification organization.  How do you know if your current system is UL 300?  According to Underwriters Laboratories, the only way to know is to check that the model number on your fire suppression system is UL 300 compliant.  If so, then you must verify that all components have been installed as specified by the manufacturer’s manual.

The best place to start is to look for the UL300 label on the systems extinguishing chemical tank.  Another indicator is the type of discharge nozzle located over each cooking surface.  All UL 300 compliant systems use a wet extinguishing agent.  Discharge nozzles for the older, dry chemical systems are fairly large, usually around 2 inches in diameter.  Wet system nozzles are narrow, typically ¾ inch to 1 inch in diameter and are typically covered with red, orange or yellow plastic caps to keep them clean.

You may have to ask the fire protection company that is offering the ongoing service and inspections on your system.  You can identify them by finding the service record tag.  This tag is normally attached to the manual pull box for the system.

Here are some red flag indicators that your system is not UL 300 compliant:

Installed prior to 11/21/1994.

No UL label on the cylinder.

Dry chemical extinguishing media.

Dry chemical discharge nozzles – large size – 2 inches in diameter

System uses water spray to protect appliances.

System uses a single nozzle to protect multiple appliances or multiple cooking surfaces.

So what if your current system is not UL 300 compliant?  In that case I would recommend that you replace it with a UL 300 system.  In part 2 of this 2 part series I will show you how to go about that and how to get someone else to pay for it.

Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC, is an insurance agency that specializes in insuring restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina.  If you have a restaurant in NC or SC and would like our help answering your restaurant insurance questions, please call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.   We know that not every restaurant is the same, so we have developed 5 specialized restaurant programs to meet your specific needs.  We have a fine dining restaurant insurance plan, a casual dining restaurant insurance plan, a fast food restaurant insurance plan, a bar and grill and tavern insurance plan and a special insurance program for caterers.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Part 10 Liquor Liability

This is the final installment of our 10 part series on buying restaurant insurance for NC and SC restaurants.  This installment covers the often overlooked but almost always needed protection for liquor liability.  Now if your restaurant doesn’t sell any alcohol, then you will not need to purchase this protection.  But if you do sell alcohol, then this is a coverage that you can’t afford to do without.  Skipping this protection could force you to sell your restaurant and lose most of what you have worked for all of your life.  Yeah, it’s that important.

Liquor liability protects your restaurant against 3^rd party claims for those injured by an inebriated person who consumed some or all of their alcohol at your restaurant prior to the loss.  The loss most often comes in the form of a car accident.  Hold on you say, you would never serve someone who is drunk, or let a drunk leave your bar with his car keys in hand.   But the liability issue doesn’t work that way.  Here’s a real world example.  One of our clients had a claim several years ago that cost their insurance company over $750,000 and that was less than 1/3 of the total damages.  You see, they had served a customer a couple of drinks with dinner.  This customer left their restaurant about 8:30 pm and then visited two bars before finally killing another person in an auto accident around 2 am.  This customer was not drunk when he left our client’s restaurant, but because they had served him alcohol, our client was dragged into the lawsuit and forced to defend themselves and ultimately forced to share in the damages.

Hopefully now I have your attention and you understand how important it is to have this protection.  Now let’s talk about buying this coverage.  There are two ways liquor liability insurance is sold.  One is as a standalone policy and the other is ad an add on to your businessowners or package policy for your restaurant.  Stand alone policies are generally more expensive and are most often used for true bars and night clubs as opposed to restaurants.  If you own a restaurant and your liquor liability is a standalone policy, then this should be an immediate red flag that you need to evaluate your current policy and your insurance agent as you may not be using a true restaurant insurance specialist. 

Rates for liquor liability vary widely from one insurance company to the next and also from one program to the next offered by the same company.  There are several factors that can drive your liquor liability rate.  First of all is the ratio of alcohol sales to food sales.  Get this ratio above 30% and you are going to start falling out of the most preferred rate plans.  Get above 50% and you may find yourself kicked out of the businessowners add on coverage and be forced to purchase a standalone liquor liability policy.   Another factor is the type of alcohol that you sell in your establishment.  If you sell only beer and wine and no hard liquor, then you should have a reduced rate.  If you are selling no hard liquor at all, then you need to check with your agent to be sure that he or she knows this and that this is reflected in your rate.  Past claims will also play a big part in what rate you pay and whether or not you are able to add this protection to your businessowners policy or if you have to purchase a standalone policy.  The last factor that can impact your rate is the type of safety training and safety programs that you are running in your restaurant to help prevent a liquor liability claim from happening.

One last tip that should be mentioned relates to bar and grill and tavern type restaurants.  Often these types of restaurants are discriminated against in their liquor liability rate and get classified as night clubs.  This is often unfair and you should know that there are a few programs out there that recognize this and have special rates for bar and grill type establishments that don’t treat them as night clubs.  For more information on the bar and grill liquor liability issue, please read my blog on this topic by clicking here.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping restaurant owners with their insurance needs.  We understand the importance of using an insurance specialist for your industry and we work hard to fill that need for our clients.  Our specialty with restaurant owners is so broad that we can usually help you with every type of policy that you buy for your business and for your family, including your family  auto insurance, your home insurance and  your life insurance and retirement planning.   We also understand that not all restaurants have the same insurance needs and as such we have developed 5 different restaurant insurance programs so that you aren’t subsidizing add on coverages that you don’t need.  We have a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food restaurant insurance program, a bar and grill and taveren insurance program and a special insurance program for catering companies.  If we can help you with your restaurant insurance in either North Carolina or South Carolina, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantStore.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found in their entirety at www.RetaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Part 9 EPLI

This is part 9 of our 10 part series on how to insure your restaurant.  This section deals with an insurance policy that is not well understood and even less often purchased.  This is the EPLI insurance policy and EPLI stands for Employment Practices Liability Insurance.  This is a coverage that every restaurant owner with employees should consider purchasing.

EPLI coverage nicely fills some gaps in coverage that your business owners policy or your commercial package policy leaves.  Specifically these have to do with some intentional actions that you take with your employees for which you may later be found liable and owe for damages.  The most common types of EPLI claims are for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and discrimination.  Now you might say to yourself that you don’t need this coverage because you would never do any of those things.  But what you must consider is that you might be accused of doing one of these acts.  And if so, then you will have to defend yourself and the defense is not a cheap process.  So even if you didn’t want to purchase the insurance for the judgment because you think you would never commit one of these acts, consider that you might want to purchase the insurance to pay for your attorney to defend you.

EPLI can be purchased as a separate policy, or in some cases can be added to your existing package or businessowners policy.  If you purchase it as an add on, be sure that you understand if the protection has a sublimit of coverage that is lower than your general liability limit and also check in to be sure that defense costs are included.  Last of all, if defense is included, be sure to find out if that is unlimited and outside of the policy limit, or if defense costs are counted against your total liability limit.  

There is one more thing to consider.  Most EPLI policies are claims made based policies, whereas your general liability protection is usually occurrence based.  With a claims made policy, you need to report the claim within the policy period so if the claim rears its head after you have cancelled the policy, then you will find yourself without coverage.  To protect yourself from this situation, you should laundry list your potential claims at the end of each policy term and submit that list to your insurance carrier.

EPLI protection may seem like a real specialty coverage for just a few but the truth is, with the layoffs that many restaurant owners have had to resort to in the past few years, this is a must have protection.  At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we want all of our clients to be informed insurance consumers.  We encourage you to call us and ask questions regarding this or any other blog article that we have posted.  We specialize in helping restaurant owners buy insurance for their restaurants and we understand that not all restaurants are the same.  We don’t want your insurance policy to a square peg jammed into a round hole, so we have created 5 different restaurant insurance programs to help you better select the one that meets your needs.  We have a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food restaurant insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a special insurance program for caterers.  If you need help with your restaurant insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Part 8 The Umbrella Policy

This is part 8 of our 10 part series on insuring your restaurant.  This article deals with a policy that is only purchased by about 20% of restaurant owners.  That is the commercial umbrella policy.

The commercial umbrella policy is a liability policy that adds an extra layer of protection over and above your underlying liability policies, such as your general liability insurance, your workers compensation insurance and your commercial auto insurance.  This policy provides a quick, convenient and usually inexpensive way to increase your overall liability protection on all of your underlying policies at once. 

The commercial umbrella policy will have underlying limits requirements for your above mentioned underlying liability policies.  In some cases it is cheaper to raise the underlying limits of your other policies and in other cases it is cheaper to keep them low and add the umbrella policy.  You should take the time to go over this in detail with your agent so that you can make the choice that is best for your restaurant.  Once your policy is issued, always check to make sure that all of your underlying policies are listed on the declarations page of your umbrella policy so that you know it is adding additional liability protection to all of your policies.

Most every commercial umbrella policy will have a self insured retention listed on the declarations page of the policy.  This self insured retention acts like a deductible but it is a bit trickier than the deductibles that you are used to.  Policy forms vary, so check with your agent to see if the self insured retention applies to all claims that are filed against your policy, or just to those where the umbrella policy provides the first dollar of protection.  That is possible because of the wording of the umbrella policies, in some cases there may be additional protection provided by the umbrella policy that is not provided by any of the underlying policies.

One last thing to take a look at is whether defense dollars (money paid to attorneys to defend your case) are included in the total policy limit or are outside the limit and therefore unlimited unless noted otherwise.  This could dramatically change the outcome for you if most of your claim was defense costs to fight the claim.

The commercial umbrella policy is a unique policy that is not used often by most restaurant owners.  But every restaurant owner should take a close look at the umbrella policy to see if it provides protection or benefits that they need to be properly insured.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC we make it a part of our job to help insurance consumers out there become informed consumers.  We specialize in insuring restaurants and we have programs to help our restaurant owners with every policy they purchase on their restaurant and for their personal needs.  We are truly a one stop shop.  We have created special niche programs for 5 different types of restaurants.  We have a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food restaurant insurance program, a tavern and bar and grill insurance program and a special program for caterers insurance.  If we can help you with your restaurant insurance needs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source data for this article can be found in articles at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Part 7 – Workers Compensation Insurance

Workers compensation insurance is an integral part to any NC restaurant insurance program.  But, due to the relatively low cost of this protection for restaurant owners, it is often overlooked.  This 7^th part in our 10 part series takes a closer look at workers compensation and highlights several key elements of this policy that a restaurant owner needs to understand in order to best protect his business, his workers and his cash flow.

First of all, this discussion will be directed to and focused on North Carolina workers compensation insurance for restaurants.  Some of what you may learn here will apply in other states but for the sake of this discussion, we are focusing on NC rules and regulations.

The first question that a restaurant owner might ask would be if he or she even needs to buy work comp insurance for their restaurant.  The answer is an unqualified yes.   But here are the rules.  In NC, you are only required to purchase work comp insurance on your business if you have 3 or more employees.  Also, you can choose to include or exclude corporate officers and owners.  But here’s the catch.  Not being required to purchase the policy is not the same thing as avoiding the exposure.  If you don’t purchase the policy, you will still be required to pay all claims.  Without the policy you are just deciding to pay all the claims yourself out of your own pocket.  This is almost universally a bad idea.

The insurance policy itself is a statutory based policy.  This means that the policy follows the NC work comp statutes which spell out what is covered and to what extent.  The workers compensation rules and rates in NC are controlled by the NC Rate Bureau.  The claims process is handled by the NC Industrial Commission. 

Your actual workers compensation costs will be based on your payroll.  Each classification of worker will have its own rate.  To get your policy started you will estimate what your payroll will be for the year for each different classification that applies to your restaurant.  At the end of the policy year, the insurance company will perform an audit of your payroll and an adjustment to the final premium will be made.  If you had overestimated your payroll then you would be due a refund and if you had underestimated it, you will owe an additional premium.  Under estimating is risky and can leave you with a bad cash flow situation that I call the audit trap.  To understand the audit trap better, read my blog here.

Another aspect of your workers compensation policy to consider is that over time, most workers compensation policies are experience rated.  This is done when the NC Rate Bureau assigns you an experience modification factor.  This factor modifies your rate either up or down, depending on your past loss experience.  This is a strong incentive for you to manage your risks and minimize your claims.  To learn more about how this works, visit my blog on this by clicking here.

One more point that I would make to restaurant owners who are setting up their workers compensation insurance is that they take the time to consider using a mono line workers compensation company for this policy.  Recently we have seen a rise in these companies which write only workers compensation insurance.   Often their expertise and specialization allows them to provide better back to work programs as well as more effective loss control programs.  They are also more likely to offer a pay as you go program for your billing.

While workers compensation insurance will rarely be the biggest ticket item in a restaurant owner’s insurance program, there are several areas in this policy where the restaurant owner can reduce risk and save money by using the right company and the right agent.  At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC we specialize in helping restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina.  And since not every restaurant is the same and we don’t think you should have to pay for prepackaged coverages you don’t need or miss out on the coverages you do need, so we have created 5 different restaurant insurance programs for our NC and SC clients.  We have a fine dining insurance program, a casual dining insurance program, a fast food insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a special insurance program for caterers.  If we can help you with your insurance needs, please feel free to visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com or call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles which can be found on line at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Part 6 – Business Auto Insurance

This is the 6^th part in a 10 part series on how to insure your restaurant.  This article deals with auto insurance for your business and discusses a few of the pitfalls that restaurant owners need to wary of when setting up their restaurant insurance program.

Business Auto insurance is an easy one to overlook when you are setting up your restaurant and planning your insurance needs.  Often the restaurant owner will tell me that he doesn’t have any cars in the company name, so why worry about business auto insurance.  This seems reasonable on the surface.  But the problem is that you don’t have to own any vehicles to get yourself into a world of hurt with an auto loss for your business.

Here’s the problem.  At some point in time, and probably more often than you may at first imagine, someone, be it you or an employee of yours, is going to be out there running errands on behalf of the business.  Let’s say your employee is taking a deposit to the bank and runs a red light and severely injures a mother and two children.  Now, assume the costs of the injuries from this accident run in excess of $500,000.  Well, you didn’t cause the accident so why should you worry?  The problem will stem from the fact that it is unlikely that your employee who caused the accident will have high enough insurance limits on his or her personal auto policy to cover these losses.  And since the errand was run on behalf of your restaurant, your corporation or partnership or LLC or whatever entity owns your restaurant can be held liable for the excess losses that are not covered by your employee’s personal auto insurance policy.  And in this case, if your employee has only $100,000 of auto insurance bodily injury protection and no real assets to speak of, then your business is now the deep pocket in this event and that puts you on the hot seat.

So what do you do about this?  The solution is wonderfully simple and also inexpensive.  What you need is a business auto insurance coverage called nonowned auto coverage.  If you do have a business auto policy because you have vehicles titled in the company name, then you can add this coverage to that policy.  The cost is usually under $100 per year.  While you are at it, you may as well add hired auto coverage as well since the cost of this coverage is also very low.  In fact you may already have this coverage.  To find out, take out your business auto policy and check the symbol showing beside the liability section.  If you see a symbol 1, or a symbol 9, then you already have nonowned coverage.     If you don’t have a business auto policy already, then most restaurant business owners policies will allow you to add both hired and nonowned auto insurance to that policy.  If neither of these is possible, then you can simply purchase a standalone hired and nonowned auto policy, usually for under $250 per year.

There is also a second problem that occurs very often with restaurant owners.  Often I see that the restaurant owner chooses to re-title all of the family cars in the name of the restaurant.  While this is often a good tax strategy, it leaves the restaurant owner vulnerable to a coverage gap that I call the DOC trap.  Basically this is a situation where all of the insurance protection is written in the name of the corporation or LLC and the individual family members don’t have a personal auto insurance policy with their names listed on the policy as named insureds.  If you find yourself in this situation, and then you have an at fault accident, then the protected entity is the owner of the car, in this case the corporation.  After the insurance company pays the claim on behalf of the corporation, they then own the claim as it were.  This means that the insurance company has the right to subrogate this claim against you, the individual.  With no personal auto policy in your name anywhere, you have nowhere to turn for your protection and now you are forced to pay this clam out of your pocket.  The solution to this problem is to add DOC or (Drives Other Car) coverage to your commercial auto policy in the name of the restaurant.  This endorsement will name each person who needs the coverage extended to them.  The cost generally runs under $200 per person per year but without it you are out there riding without a spare so to speak.   To learn more details about the DOC trap, visit my blog here.

There are so many different things that a restaurant owner has to worry about, just to keep the doors open.  The last thing you need is a policy with holes in it that you only find out about after a loss.  Take the proactive step of finding an agent who specializes in writing NC restaurant insurance.  It’s just not worth the risk to do otherwise.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance needs.  We understand your business and we speak your language.  That’s because I have owned 4 different restaurants myself in the past.  We understand that not all restaurants are the same on they don’t all need the same coverages.  To help prevent you from buying a package of coverages that includes things you don’t need, or one that leaves out important coverages you do need, we have developed 5 different restaurant insurance programs.  We have a fine dining insurance program, a special insurance program for casual dining restaurants, one for fast food restaurants, a unique bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a caterers insurance program.  If we can help you with your restaurant questions, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article can be found in articles located at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance Basics Part 4 of 10 – Spoilage Coverage

This 4^th part in a 10 part series deals with spoilage coverage and what you need to know when purchasing it.  As you will see, there are a couple pitfalls here that you will want to avoid.

Spoilage protection is coverage that almost every restaurant owner should consider purchasing.  Of course, like all insurance coverages, you should consider the need and weigh that against the costs, but in most cases spoilage protection is fairly inexpensive and could be a real help if you lose your cooler, especially if it goes out at a time when it is full of prepped work for a large function.  But as I mentioned, there are a few pitfalls to avoid when purchasing this coverage.

Spoilage protection is coverage that is typically added to your businessowners policy.  And while that is a great convenience, it leads to our first pitfall – coverage limits.  Take a few minutes to calculate your worst case scenario with a loss of the use of your cooler and make sure you know how much money you stand to lose if this happens at the absolute worst time.  Now, make sure that you have at least that much spoilage coverage on your policy.  You see, with add on coverages like this, often times the insurance company that designed the program simply has a flat amount of protection, say $5000 or $10,000 worth that comes with the spoilage coverage.  But it is very important that you take the time to evaluate what you need here and then make sure that you can add that amount of spoilage coverage to your policy.

So what is the other pitfall?  Well, this one is a bit more insidious and will take more research on your part.  You should take a moment to read over the policy wording on your spoilage coverage to understand what requirements are being put on you in order for the protection to trigger in the event of a claim.  Many of these spoilage endorsement forms require that you have a refrigeration maintenance agreement in place and that your refrigeration units are inspected at defined regular intervals.  Failure to do so could make this coverage void so you see how important it is to know what you are dealing with in this area.

All of this points out just how important it is for you, as a restaurant owner, to purchase your insurance from an agent that specializes in restaurant insurance.  There are just too many small print items that can come back to bite you.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, restaurants are our specialty.   We insure many different types of restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina.  We know that there are many different kinds of restaurants, each very different from the other and each with widely different needs in terms of risk management, marketing and protection.  This is why we have created 5 uniquely different restaurant insurance programs.  We have a fine dining insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food insurance program,  a bar and grill and tavern insurance programand a special insurance program for caterers.  If we can help you with your insurance needs or simply answer a question for you, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this blog can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Business Income Insurance for Restaurants

Running your restaurant business involves risk of course and you can look around you and see the things you need to insure in case of a large loss like  a fire.  Dishes, equipment, furniture, supplies, all of these seem obvious.  But there are also some hidden, less obvious things for which you should insure.  This article will help you understand one of the tools for covering these hidden assets and liabilities – The Business Income Insurance Form.

These days, most restaurant owners have a package policy called a businessowners insurance policy  as the centerpiece of their insurance program.  This policy can cover the building, your contents, any improvements and betterments that you have made to the building as well as more esoteric items like employee theft and employment practices liability insurance.  One of the coverages that is often included in this packaged policy is Business Income Insurance.

Business Income insurance coverage is triggered when you have a covered loss that is large enough to close down your operations for some period of time.  During this time of shut down, you will have ongoing expenses that will continue even though you are not bringing in revenue.  This can vary from rent to monthly fees on equipment leases and marketing products as well the profits that you lose by being out of business.  In addition, there are also extra expenses that you will incur in order to try and expedite the process of getting back into business more quickly.   These can be temporary rental of a new location, overnight shipping costs etc. 

Sadly,  few restaurant owners take the time to understand before a loss is how this built in Business Income coverage will affect their employees.   Policies vary of course but the most common language in North Carolina business owners policies for restaurants will allow you to continue to pay for employee payroll as long as you can put these people to work in some capacity, even if that is helping you get back in business quicker.  If keeping your employees available to you after you have been out of business for 4 or 5 months is important, then you should tailor your Business Income protection to make sure that ongoing payroll expense is included.  In some cases this may mean that the businessowners policy is not the right form and you may need a true commercial package policy that will allow a more customized business income plan.

Last of all, I would be remiss in this discuss if I didn’t mention to you the importance of putting together a disaster plan before the disaster strikes.  Take the time to think about what types of things could put you out of business temporarily and how you would deal with that particular situation from a non insurance standpoint.  Take the time review what is available to you in terms of disaster recovery plans and do a bit of pre-disaster study of some of the companies out there that specialize in restaurant disaster recovery and restoration programs.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping restaurants across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance programs.  We go a step further with our Partners Page which helps our clients find new customers from our customer base.  We understand that not all restaurants are the same and they don’t all need a one size fits all insurance plan.  For that reason we have established 5 different restaurant insurance programs; the fine dining insurance program, the casual dining restaurant insurance program, the fast food insurance program, the bar and grill insurance program and a specialized program for caterers.   If we can help you with your NC or your SC restaurant insurance needs, please visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com or call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Employee Theft, The Silent Profit Killer

As the owner of a restaurant you have many things to worry about.  Where are the clients coming from? Am I putting out the best product I can? Does my targeted demographic fit my marketing plan? Where do I find quality employees? And on and on it goes. But I find that very few restaurant owners take the time to study carefully how to prevent and protect their business from employee theft.

Employee theft takes on many faces, from free meals while the boss isn’t looking to taking home food for family members and giving out free food to friends.  These are annoying and a drain on profits, but each restaurant owner has the responsibility to make sure that each employee understands the rules and the guidelines and that these rules are followed without exception.  There are many resources to help you prevent employee theft and spot employee theft and I will tackle this in more detail in a future blog.  This blog is about setting up a last line of defense that will protect your restaurant from destruction should you have a serious and determined thief on your payroll.

Most restaurant insurance programs have an option to include a minimum amount of protection on the businessowners policy for employee dishonesty coverage.  This is an excellent way to build in last resort protection for your restaurant.  But don’t just gloss over this add on coverage.  Take the time to think carefully about what you stand to lose and how you would deal with it.  In most cases, you can purchase high limits of coverage here.  My insurance agency was attacked in the late 1990’s by one of our employees who made away with over $10,000 before we caught here.  I have a neighbor who lost $300,000 over a very short time frame when one of his employees found a quick and easy way to steal from him and his partners.  The point here is that if you might need higher limits, be willing to buy them.  At the very least, think carefully  through the process.

Another thing to consider with employee dishonesty coverage on your restaurant insurance policy is that in most cases the company will not pay off unless you prosecute the thief.  For some employers this is a hard thing to instigate so don’t buy the coverage if you aren’t going to be able to go through what you have to do to make the claim legitimate.  Also, your deductible will also apply but bear in mind that in most cases if the insurance company decides to prosecute and if they are able to collect any money from your employee, then your deductible will be reimbursed first.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping restaurant owners all across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance needs.  It doesn’t matter if your restaurant is in a metropolitan area like Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte or Greensboro, or if you are located in a small town like Kernersville or Oxford NC, we have the knowledge and the tools to help you keep your restaurant insurance costs low.  And we go a step further by implementing our Partners Program to help drive new customers to your establishment to help you grow your top line revenue as well.  In addition, we know that not all restaurants are the same so we have developed specialized programs for the different types of restaurants out there.  We have a Fine Dining Restaurant insurance program,  a Casual Dining Restaurant insurance program,  a Fast Food Restaurant insurance program, a Bar and Grill insurance program,  and a Caterer insurance program.  For more help with your NC or your SC restaurant, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.