About: ria

Wait a minute.  Did your eyes deceive you?  An insurance company claiming to save you money on your insurance?  How unique!  This is either a clever twist on a very old theme, or the author is running out of ideas.  The RWC Insurance Advantage offers a range of insurance products, but our bread & butter is general liability.  In most states we offer this coverage two ways:  occurrence or claims-made.  What’s the difference?  Most businesses…

I’ll be up front about this.  You might want to save this blog for some night when you’re having trouble falling asleep.  However, if you’ve received a premium audit of your general liability (GL) policy and you’re being charged premium for things you don’t do, you may want to stay awake and keep reading. As a general contractor, most of your GL premium is based on your “total cost” to build your homes.  For the…

The RWC Insurance Advantage (RIA) is proud to announce the addition of Risk Exchange to our growing list of insurance partners. Risk Exchange handles Worker’s Compensation Coverage for us in a number of states.* This is a big deal for RIA. As you are probably only too aware, finding worker’s comp when you are a general contractor can be challenging. If you’ve ever wondered why that is, maybe a story will help to explain: A…

Membership has its privileges?  Yeah, right! you may be thinking.   Advertising one-liners like that used to be called bromides.  Bromide:  A trite and unoriginal idea or remark, typically intended to soothe or placate.  Frankly, we want your business.  Like our competitors, we want to distinguish ourselves in your mind so that you will want to do business with us.  Doesn’t everyone do the same?  And yet, most people are suspicious of statements, or bromides, like the…

In last month’s blog we talked about one of the main kinds of losses covered by general liability insurance: premises / operations, or coverage for “trips and falls” by members of the public. We saw how these claims aren’t always reported when they happen. In fact, the claimant may not even know they are hurt for days. This is one reason why it is vital to have an established incident reporting procedure and to make…

Its Summer.  You’ve been taking advantage of the good weather to complete several single family homes you started late in the Spring.  Progress has been rapid.  In fact, you’re ahead of schedule.  Then, you get a call from one of your jobsites.  A woman tripped over a piece of scrap lumber and fell on the sidewalk in front of one of your nearly finished houses.  None of your crew saw it happen since they were…

Hypothetical situation. Let's say you've been contracted to build a custom home by someone who was referred to you by a satisfied customer. This individual owns the land and is financing the project out his own pocket. You are the general contractor with complete authority over the entire project. The single family home you're building is a typical design and requires nothing out of the ordinary. Construction proceeds without a hitch. Then, with the house about…

Last year we posted a blog called BEWARE OF THE SUBCONTRACTOR GAP.  We said “The RWC Insurance Advantage does not exclude claims arising out of the work done for you by your subcontractors. If your current General Liability company won’t cover the work your subs do for you, what do they cover?”*    This is so important it is worth revisiting.  First, why do some insurance companies not want to insure the work done for you by your subs? …

When it rains, it pours. Apart from being a very old expression, its also a glass-is-half-empty kind of thought; something a little on the negative side. Now consider the net worth of your business. If your general liability limit is the standard $1 million for each occurrence, is that enough to protect all your business assets? Let’s say you build a custom home worth close to $3 million. The electrical contractor you’ve worked with for…

Did you know your general liability policy is auditable? Are you aware what that means? When we quote a price for your coverage, we use your estimates of your total cost of construction plus your payroll for any work you might have your own employees doing for you. These figures are really your best guess for the next 12 months. Many things can happen to increase, or decrease your costs and / or payroll including…