I’ve been in this industry long enough to know that the businesses that get caught out at claim time aren’t usually the ones that didn’t care about their insurance. They’re the ones that bought a good policy, renewed it faithfully every year, and assumed that was enough. And right now, more than at almost any point in my career, the gap between that snapshot and reality is growing faster than most businesses realise.
We’re seeing it across the board. Construction and material costs have not returned to pre-2020 levels, despite what some renewal quotes might imply. If your building’s sum insured was set three or four years ago and hasn’t been properly reviewed, there’s a strong chance it no longer covers the cost to rebuild. We’re regularly talking to businesses whose declared values are below where they should be. That’s not a minor discrepancy. At claim time, it can be the difference between getting back on your feet and not.
The same is true for business interruption cover. We’ve seen indemnity periods that made sense when supply chains were predictable and labour was readily available, but which simply don’t reflect how long it would realistically take to recover from a serious loss today. If you’ve also changed your product mix, taken on larger contracts, or grown your turnover since you last reviewed your figures, the gross profit sum insured may be out of date too.
What I’m also seeing, perhaps less obviously, is the number of businesses whose risk has changed not because they’ve grown, but because of how they’ve adapted. Taking on new premises. Outsourcing something they used to do in-house. Relying more heavily on a single supplier or a single piece of technology. These decisions are often made quickly, for entirely good reasons, and the insurance conversation happens later, if at all.
I’m not saying this to alarm anyone. I’m saying it because it’s what I see from the inside, and because in most cases it’s a straightforward fix if you catch it before a claim rather than during one.
A protection review with your Account Executive isn’t complicated. It’s a conversation about what’s changed, what that means for your exposure, and whether your current cover still does the job. For most of our clients, that conversation takes less time than they expect and gives them far more confidence than they had going in.
If your business looks different today from how it looked at your last renewal, please don’t wait until next year to find out whether your insurance has kept pace.
Book a protection review with your Account Executive.