Why your privately held business needs directors and officers insurance

D&O insurance protects your company and its board.

Every corporation relies on the guidance of its board of directors for success. Although lawsuits against larger, publicly traded companies receive the lion’s share of media attention, privately held corporations are also vulnerable to lawsuits by competitors, government agencies, creditors and employees. 

You can protect your hard-earned success by purchasing directors and officers insurance (D&O) coverage for your company. Read more of this post


by Tom Kelly for The Cincinnati Insurance Companies

Prevent Frozen Pipes in Your Home

A plumbing pipe in a friend's condo froze and burst recently, flooding two floors of an eight-story building, and leaving three and a half feet of standing water. Not only were the tenants whose condos were flooded displaced from their homes while repairs were made, their furniture and belongs were ruined.

[Fun fact for renters: your belongings are not covered under your landlord's insurance policy, even in cases of flooding caused by burst pipes. Watch out for a February blog article about renters insurance for tips on how to prevent this.]

We hear horror stories about frozen pipes and the damage they cause from homeowners and renters alike every year when the weather turns wintery. So we decided it would be helpful to share tips on how to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Frozen pipes are one of the most common causes of property damage when temperatures drop. A burst pipe can cost upwards of $5,000 in water damage, according to IBHS research.

Busted water pipes are a much bigger problem than you might imagine. According to State Farm Insurance, more than 250,000 homes are damaged annually by frozen or burst water pipes, ranking second only to hurricanes in terms of damage and repair costs. However, unlike hurricanes, frozen water pipes can be prevented.

Taking preventive measures before cold weather hits, such as keeping temperatures above 32 degrees (the freezing point for water), can prevent pipes from freezing, and the costly damage that goes with them. Most plumbers recommend keeping heat at 55 degrees when temperatures are frosty.

Homeowners - check out the tips and link below for tips on how to repair burst pipes and prevent them from freezing in the first place. Condo and apartment owners - pass this on to your board. Renters  share these tips with your landlord. Here are some simple precautions to follow:

Prevent Frozen Pipes

• Provide a reliable back-up power source to ensure continuous power to the building.
• Insulate all attic penetrations.
• Ensure proper seals on all doors and windows.
• Seal all wall cracks and penetrations, including domestic and fire protection lines, electrical conduit, other utility service line, etc.
• Install insulation and/or heat trace tape with a reliable power source on various wet sprinkler system piping. This includes main lines coming up from underground passing through a wall as well as sprinkler branch lines. 
• Place a monitored automatic excess flow switch on the main incoming domestic water line to provide early detection of a broken pipe or valve when the space is unoccupied.

Source: Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety

For more information on how to prevent frozen pipes, and the pipes most at risk, click here.

  

Take care when naming your life insurance beneficiary

Communicate with your loved ones about your
life insurance beneficiaries and arrangements.

Purchasing a life insurance policy is an important piece of financial planning. Naming a beneficiary, and changing that beneficiary when necessary, is also a key component of insurance planning. 

Keep these tips in mind when naming a life insurance beneficiary:

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by Ann S. Binzer for The Cincinnati Insurance Companies

Your personal umbrella policy: Increased policy limits…and more

Accidents involving common, everyday activities may result in a worst-case scenario. Being held legally liable for injury to another person or damage to their property could exhaust your home or personal auto policy liability limits, and cause financial ruin to your family. A personal umbrella policy works hand in hand with your existing underlying insurance, adding a layer of liability limits to protect you in today’s litigious society.

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by Bill Taylor for The Cincinnati Insurance Companies

Top 10 tricks to protect yourself from cyber crime

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October is normally associated with Halloween and ghosts and goblins, but for the last 10 years it’s been National Cyber Security Awareness month.

As evidenced by the rising number of successful attacks against high-profile targets, cyber crime is on the rise.

With that in mind, here are OpenDNS’ top 10 cyber security tips and tricks to protect yourself.

1. Realize that you are an attractive target to hackers. Don’t ever say “it won’t happen to me.”
2. Practice good password management. Use a strong mix of characters, and don’t use the same password for multiple sites. Don’t share your password with others, don’t write it down, and definitely don’t write it on a sticky note attached to your monitor.
3. Never leave your devices unattended. Take your tablet or phone with you. If you need to leave your computer for any length of time  ̶  no matter how short  ̶  lock it up so no one can use it while you’re gone. If you keep sensitive information on a flash drive or external hard drive, make sure to lock it up as well.
4. Always be careful when clicking on attachments or links in email. If it’s unexpected or suspicious for any reason, don’t click on it. Double check the URL of the website the link takes you to: bad actors will often take advantage of spelling mistakes to direct you to a harmful domain. Think you can spot a phony website? Try the OpenDNS phishing quiz.
5. Sensitive browsing, such as banking or shopping, should be done only on a device that belongs to you, on a network that you trust. Whether it’s a friend’s phone, a public computer or a cafe’s free WiFi  ̶  your data could be copied or stolen.
6. Back up your data regularly, and make sure your anti-virus software is always up to date.
7. Be conscientious of what you plug in to your computer. Malware can be spread through infected flash drives, external hard drives and even smartphones.
8. Watch what you’re sharing on social networks. Criminals can befriend you and easily gain access to a shocking amount of information ̶ where you go to school, where you work, when you’re on vacation  ̶  that could help them gain access to more valuable data.
9. Offline, be wary of social engineering, where someone attempts to gain information from you through manipulation. If someone calls or emails you asking for sensitive information, it’s OK to say no. You can always call the company directly to verify credentials before giving out any information.
10. Be sure to monitor your accounts for any suspicious activity. If you see something unfamiliar, it could be a sign that you’ve been compromised

Cyber security attacks can be scary, but the more safeguards the better. Make cyber security a habit, not just in October. For more information on how to practice cyber security during National Cyber Security Awareness Month and throughout the year, visit Stop.Think.Connect.

Cyber insurance coverage is available to protect you or your business from the financial consequences of cyber crime; contact your local independent insurance agent for information appropriate for your state and situation.

By Helen Kyrios for The Cincinnati Insurance Companies

Backyard hazards: After-school safety strategies

The start of school signals a seasonal change in routine for many families. Children may spend after-school hours at home with an adult or teen caregiver. Sometimes older children are trusted to be alone for an hour or two until a parent arrives. This change in routine offers a good opportunity to re-evaluate the safety and liability exposures right in your own backyard.

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By Misty Fraley

Hotel Charges $127 for 3 Bottles of Water (and other reasons to read the fine print)

Photo Credit: Thrillist.com

Thrillist.com recently ran this article about a hotel charging a customer $127 (or £75 GBP) for 3 bottles of San Pellegrino during a business meeting at their hotel bar.

Apparently the charge was thanks to the hotel's absurdly high per-person minimum charge policy. Although high, the charge wasn't what bothered the patron enough to email the hotel to complain and to tweet about it, adding #ripoff. His real problem was the sneaky hidden charge. He says the server never notified him of the minimum charge:

“I have no issue if they have a minimum charge, but they need to make it clear. It is the lack of transparency that I have a problem with."

This got us to thinking about reading the fine print.

Most people skim through contracts and Terms of Service for apps (we're looking at you, Android), doctors offices, drawing entries, social media profiles, and yes - even insurance policies - without reading the fine print.

We get it - reading the fine print isn't fun, it's not entertaining, and with so much legal jargon thrown in there, sometimes it's downright headache-inducing to understand. However, by skimming these contracts, we open ourselves up to expensive mistakes. Today it might be $127 for a few bottles of sparkling water. Tomorrow, it might be finding out that theft isn't covered under your auto insurance policy.

I wrote a blog post on Auto Insurance: Dirty Secrets In Your Policy when this happened to a friend earlier this year. She'd unfortunately bought car insurance online, and the carrier's quick-quote site had failed to inform her of the fine print detailing this gap.

Purchasing insurance online seems like a fast, convenient way to speed up an otherwise unappealing task. But it begs the question - why is the lowest quote so cheap? You get what you pay for, and insurance is no different.

An independent insurance agent, like a website quote calculator, does the legwork for you - shopping different carriers for the best price. This is where they differ: an agent makes sure you're getting the best coverage for that price. Meaning? You still don't have to read all of the fine print if you don't want to … But someone that you trust has, and will sum it up for you. Because the worst time to find out that you've been paying a monthly premium for a policy that doesn't cover much is when you file a claim.