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Thank you Rich for pointing that out.
We have a similar current policy from the same provider that’s active until 12/20/2019. 130 scanned pages of the finest boilerplate.
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You can’t actually expect anything else, can you?
@Mike_Fedyk
You are off base here. Rich meant the copy shared, not that we are without coverage. See Erik’s posted immediately after and just before yours.
We have coverage.
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I never doubted we have current coverage. What was a surprise is that anyone would expect the actual current policy to be updated on a wall of a shop.
With that said, thank you Rich for posting a picture of the document from the wall.
The Hartford Reports: More Than 40 Percent Of Small Businesses Will Experience A Claim In The Next 10 Years
“An unexpected event happens more often than many small business owners realize,” said Stephanie Bush, senior vice president of Small Commercial insurance at The Hartford. “It is important that a small business owner work with a local independent agent to find the right coverage to protect them at various stages of their business and minimize the impact of a potential claim.”
Based on the claims data, The Hartford recommends small business owners follow these tips:
We have a better chance of getting a claim the longer we are open. Perhaps we need to have a plan for when it does happen instead of preparing to close.
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DMS isn’t a typical small business and the common claims in that article mostly don’t apply to DMS. That pretty much sums up why insurance is a hard thing for makerspaces. Insurance companies don’t understand it that well or they’re not interested at all because of perceived (or actual) risk.
I think of insuring DMS a lot like insuring an exotic car rental business. Sure, you can do it, but if you ever file a claim they won’t renew your policy and not many other insurance companies will offer a policy for that kind of business. The risk is too high, nobody would pay the premiums it would take to make worthwhile, people are either capable of running it without incident or they’re not and that’s the great filler for the exotic car rental business. Replace exotic car rental with makerspace.
Another thing to keep in mind is the dollar value. DMS would never make a claim for tens of thousands of dollars like the examples in that article. We have that cash on hand. We don’t need the policy for that. We need the policy for the $1M or $2M scenario. Hopefully we never have to test my theory.
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Also don’t plan for an insurance policy to save you in the case of catastrophe. If someone can win a $2M judgement they can likely win $3M. Maybe their claim lines up right with the limits of coverage, but seems unlikely when there’s money in the bank and valuable assets in the space.
Only safe practices plus luck will serve. DMS has already been quite lucky that the lady whose face got burned by hot wax was so benevolent.
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Made me recall the time my wife called me from a brake shop, we exchanged pleasantries, then she said “Hang on,” then I heard her ask the guy behind the counter, “Well, with all those exceptions, who does get to pay $99 per axle? Hang on my husband wants to speak to you.”
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You mean, they don’t ?
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