Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Fri, May 11, 2012 @ 09:17 AM
Specialty insurance programs offer protection to individuals and businesses from financial losses. Specifically, specialty insurance programs are designed to cover unique or expensive items, events outside the standard insurance policy scope or special circumstances associated with different types of businesses. There are many types of specialty insurance programs that range from yacht insurance to technology professional liability insurance.
When evaluating a specialty insurance program, one important thing to consider is the breadth of the coverage available in the program. For example, when considering technology professional liability insurance, you should verify that the program includes first dollar defense.
Specialty insurance programs can also be more in-depth than certain general policies and can be industry-specific due to their unique exposures. A real estate professional liability program may address issues like mold exposures that would not affect other professions (e.g. accountants). Likewise, an accountant professional liability program will address specific exposures related to accounting, like IRS-related penalties.
To learn more about Stuckey and Company’s specialty insurance programs, please visit our website at http://www.stuckey.com.
Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Fri, May 04, 2012 @ 02:30 PM
Stuckey & Company was featured in the May issue of Best's Review. The article provided a history of the company as well as an overview of the current business, including our specialty products HarborGuard and SafetyTek. ______________________________________________________________________________________
Water Lines
by Dennis Gorski
Inland marina coverage launched Stucky & Co. 20 years ago and continues to produce for the firm.
For specialty-risk broker Stuckey & Co., what's old is new again, thanks to a hardening market in marina and boat dealer insurance.
The Lake Saint Louis, Mo.-based firm sees the sector turning around after last years' string of severe-weather losses. The rebound has blown new wind into the sails of the program upon which Stuckey was founded 20 years ago when it dealt exclusively with the marina and marine dealers' market.
Known as HarborGuard since 1994, the program is a suite of products under Stuckey's commercial general liability offering. It's available in 46 states -- only Alaska, Hawaii, Florida and New Hampshire aren't included -- and protects "inland" marinas against both floating and onshore risks.
"In the marina market, there's probably $500 million of premium written, and we hold probably 1% of that," according to Jerry Lovin, general manager and chief underwriter for HarborGuard.
Read the rest of the Best's Review article here.
Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Mon, Apr 30, 2012 @ 01:33 PM
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Bind MPL and You Could Win an iPhone 4S or the new iPad
At Stuckey & Company, we know that our success depends on working with the best producers. To encourage you to grow your relationship with Stuckey & Company, we are rewarding and recognizing those of you who grow your business with Stuckey & Company.
Details on the MPL Incentive Program
Purpose
Eligibility
Timing
Rules
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Every agent or broker gets one entry per signed bind agreements
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Winners will be chosen in a random drawing on May 15, 2012, and notified via email that day.
Prizes
New Commissionable Product: Mobile Rhino!
Stuckey & Company is in the final stages of funding for a new product we are really excited to offer, Mobile Rhino. Mobile Rhino combines mobile device coverage, ID theft remediation and personal privacy monitoring in a downloadable app through the app store.
Mobile Rhino is a specialty insurance program designed as an answer to the growing need to protect our mobile lives: From the favorite device we hold in our hand, to iPads in Education to the mobile payment systems and cloud services that are working their way onto our device.
This will be the first program of it’s kind that is available as a commissionable product to licensed agents. Once you become a partner, we will send you cards printed with your personal code to track each and every sale so you can get all the commissions you deserve.
Visit www.mobile-rhino.com to learn more or help us get started by pledging at IndieGogo.
We Have a Winner!
Congratulations to Tina Goodrich from ISU-Mainstreet for winning the $500 Grand Prize in the Stuckey & Company March Madness contest.
St. Louis Business Journal Covers Mobile Rhino
Stuckey Expands Insurance Coverage to Mobile Devices
By Evan Binns
Stuckey and Co., a Lake St. Louis commercial and personal insurance provider, is looking to boost its annual premiums written to $40 million with the launch of a new product line for mobile devices.
In June, Stuckey and Co. plans to launch Mobile Rhino, an insurance program that covers iPhones and iPads from damage or loss, as well as protecting device owners from identity theft and e-commerce transaction theft. The company plans to launch insurance coverage for Android and BlackBerry smartphones later this year. The insurance program is available via a downloadable application for mobile devices.
Read the rest of the article here.
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Top Tips
Did you know?
1. Stuckey and Company can write over 350 different classes of professional liability, including technology, A&E, lawyers, medical, management and miscellaneous risks!
2. Errors and omissions is also known as professional liability insurance (PLI) or professional indemnity insurance (PII).
3. Starting a credit card payment page can significantly increase your SafetyTek binds. Learn more here.
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"I wanted to thank you for all that you have done for me. I definitely would not be the agent I am today without your help and expertise."
-- Personal Lines Agent, California
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Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Mon, Apr 30, 2012 @ 09:04 AM
According to TheFreeDictionary.com, errors and omissions is short-hand for malpractice insurance (also known as Professional liability insurance (PLI) or professional indemnity insurance (PII)) gives physicians, attorneys, architects, accountants and other professionals coverage for claims by patients and clients for alleged professional errors and omissions which amount to negligence.
Basically, anyone that performs or renders a good or service to another person or business needs errors and omissions insurance. There are many types of policies that have expansions to include errors and omissions insurance as part of a larger package. However, as a general rule, errors and omissions insurance is mono-line product for almost every class of business. Stuckey and Company offers SafetyTek, an errors and omissions product specifically tailored for technology professionals. For other professionals, Stuckey’s miscellaneous professional liability and commercial lines divisions can handle more than 350 different classes of business, ranging from accountants to wedding planners.
To learn more about the basics of errors and omissions insurance, visit the professional liability insurance Wikipedia page!
Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Fri, Apr 20, 2012 @ 11:02 AM
Lots of companies know that they need technology insurance but many are confused about the types of policies available from different technology insurance companies. So, what do these companies really need to know about insurance and technology?
As an insurance agent, your job is to direct clients to the right insurance product for their needs. To do that, you need to educate your clients about each type of product, from specialty insurance products to standard BOP and workers comp products. For technology insurance, this is especially important since insurance and technology have only become truly tied together in the last 20 years.
Below are basic definitions of the two main types of technology insurance products available today.
1. Technology professional liability insurance (also known as tech insurance, IT insurance, information technology insurance, technology business insurance, technology errors & omissions, technology liability, and many, many more): As you can see from the list, there are many different names used for technology professional liability insurance. This problem only adds to your client's confusion. In general, when an underwriter uses the term, tech insurance, they are referring to professional liability insurance for IT/technology professionals. This type of insurance encompasses the errors and omissions committed during a job or protects a company from charges of professional negligence or failure to perform their professional duties (either actual or alleged).
2. Cyber liability insurance (also known as cyber insurance, data breach insurance, network security insurance, network insurance and privacy insurance, hacker insurance, data loss insurance): Cyber liability insurance is designed to protects companies from the risks associated with doing business using the Internet, e-business, network security and data breach. For all intents and purposes, it protects a company from unwanted or unintended cyber activity, from a hacker stealing sensitive data to an employee unwittingly passing a virus on to a client.
We like to simplify the difference by saying that technology professional liability insurance is specifically for any company doing business in the technology industry and cyber liability insurance is for every other company. For more information on technology professional liability insurance products, please contact Maggie about SafetyTek and for more information about cyber liability insurance, please contact Chris.
Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Fri, Apr 13, 2012 @ 04:05 PM
Did you know that specialty personal insurance lines of business tend to be the most profitable of all personal lines policies? Did you know that you can increase your retention by 9% when you cross sell additional personal insurance policies? The more lines of business an insured places with you, the better chance you have to retain that customer for years to come. Yearly reviews of your insured’s needs are crucial to retention. Each year, the insured may purchase something they did not even think of placing insurance on through you: a motorcycle, a boat, a piece of fine art or a valuable piece of jewelry that may not be insured properly. Cross selling can help you close coverage gaps for customers and make sure they are adequately protected; not to mention customers can see significant savings and discounts when they combine multiple policies.
One of our carries, Safeco, calls this process “relationship marketing” and provides tools on their website to help you. You can order generic note cards that say “Happy Birthday”, “Thank You”, “Happy New Year”, etc. Here is a brief glimpse of the HOW IT WORKS section:
How it works
- Safeco provides you with an automated cross-sell campaign to target and cross-sell your monoline auto and home policyholders.
- You can choose to mail your entire book of business, self-select which policyholders you want to target or mail to the same policyholders you did in the prior campaign.
- Then select the letter or postcard you want to mail and Safeco will complete the mailing on your behalf.
- We also provide you with call scripts and follow-up letters to help with your conversion process.
- Safeco now provides you with an automated umbrella cross-sell campaign.
- Safeco now offers an automated Motorcycle, Watercraft or RV cross-sell campaign.
- To initiate your cross-sell campaign, simply click on the link below
Safeco also offers an Insurance Checkup form for you to use. Contact Shelli at shelli@stuckey.com to learn about ways the other carriers can help you properly cover all your insureds!
Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Wed, Apr 11, 2012 @ 10:48 AM
Many people confuse cyber liability insurance and technology professional liability insurance. Learn more about the difference!
First, let's define technology professional liability. Technology professionals comprise organizations that develop and implement technology for both consumers and businesses. For example, a technology professional could be a software developer, a microchip designer or an IT consultant. Technology professional liability is designed to cover specifically the errors & omissions of these types of organizations only.
Cyber liability, on the other hand, is liability coverage designed for all businesses and specifically focuses on covering those businesses from cyber risks, including data breach, first and third party risks associated with e-business, the Internet, etc.
To learn more about our SafetyTek technology professional liability coverage, you can email Maggie Hammett or visit the SafetyTek information page.
START QUOTING NOW! For applications and forms, click here.
Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Tue, Apr 10, 2012 @ 12:41 PM
Now Offer Your Small Business Customers This Specialized Coverage
What is data breach? According to GAO, "data breach generally refers to an organization’s unauthorized or unintentional exposure, disclosure, or loss of sensitive personal information, which can include personally identifiable information (PII) such as Social Security numbers (SSN) or financial information such as credit card numbers"
Today, more and more businesses are storing and electronically sending sensitive data about their customers and employees. In addition, there are more and more regulations requiring businesses to advise customers and employees if personal information has been revealed. That makes data breach a serious issue for small businesses, where the majority of breaches have been reported.
Data breach can occur as simply as an employee losing a laptop. Depending on the amount of PII on the laptop, a small accident can cost a business more than $20,000 in data breach alone. Just last week, Zappos announced that personal information for close to 24 million customers might have been compromised by a hacker. Imagine the cost of the same breach to a small business!
Find out more about helping protect your small business clients from data breach exposure and other cyber liablity risks.
Contact Kyle Dallavis to learn more.
Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Fri, Apr 06, 2012 @ 03:27 PM
It is easy to say ‘everyone needs it’ from a marketing standpoint, but this is one of those coverage types where that statement is true. It is 2012. Business is done electronically. Data is stored (or at least routed/transferred) in almost every type of transaction. Third party payment processors are utilized. Medical providers are switching to electronic records. People run companies from smartphones and laptops and tablets. Certainly some companies have MORE exposure that others, but one simple data breach (not necessarily a hack where data is stolen, but a simple breach) can bankrupt a small company because of the state-by-state notification laws. The expenses from this alone can be astronomical.
EVERY company should have a cyber liability insurance policy as part of their business plan. A good coverage will address not only the cost of notification expenses, but PR campaigns to help the company in the face of a crisis event, many types of breaches.
The one thing we often see with this coverage is small companies with an ‘it won’t happen to me’ mentality. This is the most dangerous attitude a small business owner can have. To give you some perspective, let’s look at Sony. We are all familiar with the Sony PlayStation network interruption that took place about a year ago. Sony is a global technology company that spends billions annually on protecting itself from digital danger, and they still suffered one of the largest data intrusions in history. If someone can do this to Sony, a corporate giant that has an inordinate amount of security resource available, what COULD they do to a small business?
Here’s an even scarier situation. Most people envision data breaches being perpetrated by an evil computer hacker but what about the people around you? Here is an example: a business owner calls the exterminator because he saw a nasty cockroach in the kitchen. The exterminator shows up on Tuesday as scheduled but, little does the business owner know, in his van is a small device (that can be purchased at RadioShack) to hack into the company’s network. He comes to the lobby, identifies himself as the exterminator, and does his job. Now he has FULL access to the facility. Someone with technical knowledge can be hack into a company’s network in a matter of minutes and the owner just let him in! He wasn’t the big bad computer guy. He was the smiling hero; there to rid the kitchen of infestation but, boom, the company just got hacked.
Now, that scenario is rare but it happens and many times, even though a network is hacked, there may not be any actual criminal activity that comes from it. Unfortunately, though, it can happen and your client can be held responsible. Each state has their own notification laws that can require varying degrees of action. On average, it is estimated that a single data breach can cost a company as much as $250 per PII (personally identifiable information). The point is that cyber liability exposure is everywhere, but it isn’t always the Hollywood villain that is sitting in a dark basement with 20 computers that companies need to be worried about. Just ask your clients to examine their exposure… how ‘secure’ are their buildings? Just ask the exterminator; he probably can answer better than anyone else… scared?
Posted by Elizabeth Sedlock on Fri, Mar 30, 2012 @ 10:34 AM
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Bind SafetyTek and You Could Win an iPhone 4S or the new iPad
At Stuckey & Company, we know that our success depends on working with the best producers. To encourage you to grow your relationship with Stuckey & Company, we are rewarding and recognizing those of you who grow your business with Stuckey & Company.
Details on the SafetyTek Incentive Program
Purpose
Eligibility
Timing
Rules
-
Every agent or broker gets one entry per signed bind agreements
-
Winners will be chosen in a random drawing on May 15, 2012, and notified via email that day.
Prizes
Now is the time to consider marketing BikePRO
Spring is in the air and people's mind inevitably turn to outdoor activities. According to the Bicycle Dealers Association, the market is estimated at $6 billion, with 44% of the total dollars going to the 4,200 specialty bike shops across the country. That is a BIG market opportunity for you as an agent.
If you want to expand your business into bike shops or you already have clients that require specific coverage for their bike shops, whether it is in regards to sales, rentals or repairs…we can assist.
Here is a general overview of the our BikePRO program:
Bicycle Dealerships Including:
• Used Bicycle Sales
• Bicycle Rental
• Bicycle Repair
Coverages:
• Commercial General Liability
• Umbrella
• Property and Inventory
• Business Auto
• Workers Compensation
• Voluntary Parting (Test Drive)
• Credit Card Fraud
Specialty Coverage Includes:
• Voluntary Parting for Test Drives
• Insurance for Rental Operations
• Group Rides Coverage
• Used Bike Sales
Is Cyber Insurance the Same as Technology Professional Liability?
Many people confuse cyber liability insurance and technology professional liability insurance. Learn more about the difference!
First, let's define technology professional liability. Technology professionals comprise organizations that develop and implement technology for both consumers and businesses. For example, a technology professional could be a software developer, a microchip designer or an IT consultant. Technology professional liability is designed to cover specifically the errors & omissions of these types of organizations only.
Cyber liability, on the other hand, is liability coverage designed for all businesses and specifically focuses on covering those businesses from cyber risks, including data breach, first and third party risks associated with e-business, the Internet, etc.
To learn more about our SafetyTek coverage, you can email Maggie Hammett or visit the SafetyTek information page.
START QUOTING NOW! For applications and forms, click here.
What Are Marketing Risks?
With the economy slowly getting back on track, many companies (large and small) are turning to marketing and advertising firms to maximize their profits. If you have spoken to any marketing consultants recently, it is my bet that they approached you because one of their clients was requiring them to carry some sort of insurance – and they require it for a reason – we ALL make mistakes.
Consider the risk a client takes by hiring a marketing firm or a consultant. The slightest error could lead to a lawsuit or a devastating financials loss so carrying professional liability insurance for this reason just makes sense! The client has protection and so does the insured – just consider that one instance of legal defense could cripple their firm – but not if they have the proper coverage.
That’s where Stuckey & Company comes in. We can tailor policy limits anywhere from $100,000 to $10,000,000 from excellent A+ rated carriers with a wide array of deductible options to suit your client best. Qualified risks can even see premiums BELOW $1000 annually.
DON’T FORGET : Oftentimes a client that requires professional liability will require other coverage lines (with good reason). We have several carriers who can consider a while line of coverage from GL, to professional liability, worker’s compensation, etc.
DID YOU KNOW?? : In some states, if you are injured, your client must cover you with its own worker’s compensation policy!! This could cause their rates to go up, so often times you may be required to carry this coverage as well as the client is simply protecting their own interests.
For more information or specific applications in various states, please contact Chris Boylan.
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Top Tips
Did you know?
1. Stuckey offers our agents FREE quoting systems (we pay the fees so you don't have to!): EZLynx for Personal Lines, EZConnect for Commercial Lines and our proprietary SafetyTek Quoting System.
2. Electronic media liability is defined as indemnity for electronic publishing, dissemination, releasing gathering, transmission, production, web casting or other distribution of Electronic Content on the internet, on behalf of the insured or by the insured for others.
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"I have to say: you are one of the best underwriters I am working with today. Thank you for the quick responses to my quotes and questions."
-- Vicki Boser, InsuranceTekm Inc.
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