To help share the burden of business management, agency owners will happily speak to advisors and mentors. But they often won’t think twice about brokers – despite the fact that they can offer a unique insight into your risk exposure.

It’s these insights that keep you from overstepping your cover or paying for unnecessary premiums. To prove it, RiskBox’s resident expert Sam Johnson has broken down the benefits of buddying up to your broker…

Communication is key

Traditional insurance providers only speak to you at renewal. And for some, renewal is automatic. This means that you might not speak to your insurers for years, even though you could dramatically change as a business during this time. To make matters worse, these changes could inadvertently impact the nature of your cover.

For example, throughout the coronavirus pandemic, many organisations moved to working from home. This has meant they’ve no use for their office space or even the amount of staff they employ. As a result, they may be paying for premiums that are no longer relevant.

In contrast, if you’ve grown substantially and now have more staff than when you initially took insurance out, you may not be covered in the event of a claim. Partnering with an insurance broker prevents this. We ensure your cover scales with you. By staying in the loop of your opportunities and threats, we’re able to offer real-time support and tell you what cover you actually need.

Contracts can cost you

We know how clients can be. Some want you to sign contracts on their terms instead of following your standard statement of work process. Trouble is, client Ts & Cs are a risk magnet. Unknown contract stipulations can expose you to all kinds of breaches to your current cover. Fall out with your client, and you could find yourself struggling to recuperate the losses.

For example, say you’re a web design agency and you sign a contract with a client that demands a certain delivery date. The client keeps asking for amendments that you hadn’t predicted and unfortunately the delivery date is pushed back. All of a sudden, the client doesn’t want to pay, and you’re faced with a difficult situation.

You either take the financial hit or suffer reputational damage by attempting to claw the money back. But not when you have a broker by your side. We can review the insurance terms within your contracts to make sure that they’re reasonable and that you can easily comply with them. If the relationship sours, we get insurers in early so you’re less likely to find yourself out of pocket (they may fill the gap in any amounts owed) or in a long, drawn-out legal process with your client.

This is especially useful when you’re working with international clients. US client contracts, for instance, can mean you’re now beholden to the US court of law in the event of a breach.

Keep clear of pitfalls

A close relationship between you and your broker keeps you from tripping over jargon. Let’s face it, insurance is dense. As a result, some providers will sell you cover that you don’t need without you even realising. That’s not the case when you work with us. We only recommend what’s relevant, as well as suggest ways to scale it up.

We also offer support when clients require you to take out cover for a project or campaign that you’re supporting them with. In these instances, we help you to benchmark your exposure and reduce the level of cover your client has requested.

We do this by negotiating on your behalf and leveraging our expertise to address their concerns.

Finally, a closely partnered broker will keep their eye on any legislation changes and trends to see how they impact you from a risk protection perspective. We know you aren’t going to purchase every available cover initially, which is why we try to alert you to any threats you may face as you grow.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash