Negotiate insurance requirements

Clients often ask for very high insurance limits, but for small consulting firms, those limits can usually be negotiated downward. At Thought Leaders, I’ve had clients request coverage limits of five million dollars and even 10 million dollars. Those policies would cost me a small fortune to put in effect. Most times I point out that those limits are excessive given the services we provide are one-day training workshops on general training topics. I’ve found all my clients have been willing to accept lower liability limits, given the nature of our work. That helps me keep my insurance costs down. A good business insurance agent or broker is definitely worth consulting to make sure you’re balancing these risks and costs. When I first started Thought Leaders, I had clients asking for very high insurance limits and I went out and started getting quotes for these policies. Some of these policies were 4,000, 5,000, 10,000 dollars a year. I was pretty worried about the expense. Fortunately, as I was getting quotes, I got a quote from a broker and they asked me why do you need such a high limit? I said, well, my client’s asking for it. He said you don’t need a limit that high. Here’s what the client is worried about, here are the risks, and here is an appropriate policy to cover those risks. Why don’t you take this policy to your client and see if they’ll accept it. They did. This individual saved me a lot of money. It was so worth talking to that broker. While it’s unlikely you’ll ever need to make an insurance claim, you’re best off insuring you have adequate levels of coverage that balance limiting your liability exposure and doing so at an acceptable cost.