Peter Meegan of Mary Anne Meegan Insurance Agency Ltd. suffered the ultimate professional tragedy on September 6, 2012, when he received a text from his daughter telling him his Coquitlam, B.C. brokerage was on fire.
Andrew Tablotney, president of the Insurance Brokers Association of B.C., talked to Meegan and drew lessons from the episode, with the intention of helping brokers prepare for such a crisis. He published his “notes to self” in his column for the December 2012 issue of B.C. Broker.
In order to rise again from the flames, brokers will need information to re-establish the business, Tablotney wrote. If that information is in ashes, reconstructing the business will be that much harder. So backing up information now before the fire starts is critical, Tablotney notes.
For example, when Meegan tried to get his mail re-routed after the fire loss, the post office refused until he could show his current business license, which was reduced to ashes. “Note to self,” Tablotney wrote. “Scan and back up off-site business licence, lease agreements and any other legal documents or contracts that are being stored onsite. Also a list of all contact numbers I might need.”
Note also that you might run into a hassle with the phone company while trying to react to the crisis. For example, when Meegan tried to get his business number transferred to his cell, the phone company refused unless they could speak to the same person who set up the business line 42 years ago.
Keeping credit card statements from your clients up to date is critical, Tablotney noted. “What about the time you will waste calling Visa when some of your customers try and take advantage of the situation and tell you they paid more than they actually did?” he wrote. “Visa won’t tell you who your customers are, just what they paid.”
Depositing monies and updating records as frequently as possibility will help maintain the integrity of the records in case of an emergency, Tablotney recommended.
Meegan was fortunate enough to find new office space close to his previous location, but one thing he didn’t have was furniture, which his customers supplied. “Note to self,” Tablotney observed. “I may not be as lucky as Peter was, so look into cloud storage ASAP so the staff can always work from home until a location is found.”
And what about a broker’s insurance company? Does it have an action plan in place to assist in case of an emergency? Does it have an inventory of the items in your brokerage? Do you have extra-expense coverage?
