By Mathew Brown
The only requirement to sell you a commercial insurance policy in the US is passing a test, typically after two to three days of study. That low bar means there’s no shortage of brokers, but very little competition on thoroughness, and unless you scrutinize yours, you’re likely either underinsured or overpaying.
The industry makes it worse. Commercial insurance is one of the stickiest products there is. People don’t like change, so they stay with the same broker for years, and that breeds complacency.
I’ve seen an electrical contractor doing tract work with a policy that flat out excluded tract work. I’ve seen a landscaper hauling a massive excavator to every job site with a policy that excluded any liability tied to that towed excavator.
And that’s not on them. These are people who have run their businesses for 20 plus years. They didn’t miss something because they weren’t paying attention. They were busy running a business. Nobody ever took the time to sit down and read their policy for them. That’s the job.
That gap sits there quietly until claims time, and that’s when you find out you’ve been paying for a policy that was never built for your business. By then it’s too late to fix.
So here’s the only question that actually matters: when was the last time you reviewed your coverage with someone who didn’t sell you the original policy?
