A claim is not really won at the claim. It is won at placement, by somebody who walked the site, argued about the sum insured and read the warranties out loud.
This is the half of the job that never shows. Nobody thanks an advisor for a sum insured that turned out to be right, because the only evidence is a claim that settled without an argument and a business that never found out how close it came.
Rakshit Financial Services is an advisor first. The desk exists because running claims taught us what breaks them, and what breaks them is almost always a decision taken at placement by somebody who was not thinking about a loss.
So the two halves feed each other. Every claim we run tells us what to ask at the next placement, and every placement we get right is a claim that never becomes one of the nine.
None of these is exotic. All of them are skipped when a renewal is a phone call and last year’s schedule.
Sum insured on the right basis is the single largest decision on a commercial policy, and it is usually copied forward from last year. Reinstatement value moves with steel, cement, machinery prices and the rupee. Book value does not, and the average clause does not care which one you used.
The question that settles itIf the whole shed burned tonight, would this figure rebuild it at today's prices?
A textile unit before the season and after it are two different risks. A sum insured set on the quiet month is short in the busy one, which is also the month a loss costs most. Declaration policies exist for exactly this and most units are not on one.
The question that settles itWhat is the highest value of stock on the floor in a normal year, and does the cover reach it?
Fabric at a job worker, plant at a customer's site, goods in a third-party godown, tools in a van, machinery hired in. Each one sits outside the standard cover unless it has been arranged, and each is the property most often forgotten when the schedule is written.
The question that settles itList everything you own that is somewhere else right now. Is any of it named on the policy?
A warranty about guards, alarms, hot work, storage heights or electrical inspection is only worth taking if the operation can live with it every day for a year. A condition accepted at placement to hold the premium down is a refusal waiting for a loss.
The question that settles itRead every warranty aloud to the person who runs the shift. Do they wince?
Business interruption is bought on an indemnity period, and the period is routinely set at twelve months because that is the default. Rebuilding a shed, re-importing a machine with a long lead time and getting a licence reinstated do not fit inside twelve months.
The question that settles itIf the main machine were destroyed today, how many months until you are back at full output? Now add the lead time you forgot.
Contract labour, a sub-contractor's crew, a visiting engineer, a driver who is not on your muster roll. Cover for people who are not directly employed is a specific extension, and the question of whose employee somebody was gets asked for the first time after they are hurt.
The question that settles itWho was on site last Tuesday, and which of them appears on a policy?
The test that catches what a checklist does not: take a realistic loss for this business, walk it through this wording clause by clause, and write down what it pays. Do it before the policy is bought, while there is still time to change the answer.
The question that settles itName the loss you are most afraid of. What does this policy pay, and who says so?
The test that catches what a checklist does notTake the loss you are most afraid of. Walk it through the wording you are about to buy, clause by clause, and write down what it pays. Do it while there is still time to change the answer.
This is what you have already bought, whether or not anybody called it risk analysis. And if a claim comes, running it is included and there is nothing further to agree.
We will still take the claim. And when the renewal comes round, the seven questions above are the conversation worth having with whoever you decide to place it through, including us.
These are placement questions, not claims questions, and the answers get written into a policy instead of into a file. Rakshit Financial Services is the advisory side of the same desk, and it is where that part of the work is done. rakshitinsurance.com
Not sure the cover would answer the loss you are actually exposed to? Report a loss or call 92514 56334.