Insurance “Saved the Day” Stories

Often insurance articles are full of the “problems.” From coverage gaps to price volatility, typically issues with insurance gets the most attention. I’ve certainly written my share of pitfalls to be aware of and worked to educate clients on how to avoid errors.

However, by focusing on what is lacking we do a disservice to the benefits of insurance and how it saves people when they need it the most. And isn’t that the reason we are all buying it anyway? When used properly, insurance serves to keep people from going into the worst of times and often enables policy holders to recover their life investments. It is my great pleasure to share several real-life stories of my clients buying the right insurance and being forever grateful afterwards. These insurance policies saved their businesses in the face of unexpected situations.

Client Where Insurance Successfully Defended the Frivolous Lawsuit

The number one response I usually hear from individuals is that they don’t really need insurance because they are very careful in their business. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that lawsuits happen continuously to individuals in every type of business. It doesn’t matter if you are a hairdresser or a welder. One can do everything right, just as one of my clients did, but it didn’t stop a bogus multimillion-dollar lawsuit over an alleged injury. His insurance policy came to the rescue, not to pay the bogus claim, but to hire the attorneys to fight the claim. Simple allegations take money to fight and many clients are pleasantly surprised when their insurance policies reap the rewards of an entire legal team to fight frivolous lawsuits. Had it not been for his policy, he would have been out $20,000+ just in legal bills, and who knows how much more had the case gone to trial.

Client Where Insurance Successfully Saved his Business From a Drunk Person

Any way you slice it, bars are a tough business. Hours are challenging. Margins can be thin. Dealing with drunk people can be hard. But, a huge additional challenge is the liability a bar faces after a person leaves their business. Many dram shop laws place the liability of a drunk person’s actions on the bar that let them leave inebriated. Enter my client who had a successful bar that tried to take care of its patrons, calling cabs when necessary and cutting off individuals when they had too much to drink. But, it only took one to slip through. A drunk patron left and ended up seriously injuring someone with his car. The lawsuits came quickly, but without any question or reservation, the bar’s insurance policy stepped in, fought the battle on behalf of my client, and paid out the settlement. Were it not for the insurance, my client would have been out of business. It was only his policy that saved his business and life savings. The insurance did exactly what it was supposed to do.

Client Where Insurance Fixed his Building

I have an optometrist client who owns his own building in a nice neighborhood. We often think of office-based professionals as having a low risk profile that don’t tend to have claims.   But, sometimes insurance is needed for a risk you can’t even have imagined. A random person lost control of his car on the street in front of the building, jumped the curb and hit the side of his building causing substantial damage. My client was minding his own business when it happened, consulting with a patient, completely unaware of the damage happening right outside. Many individuals think insurance protects against acts of nature (fire, hail, windstorms, etc.), but in reality insurance protects buildings (and homes) from much more than that, including the careless actions of other people. Some might point out that the building owner should have just sued the auto driver to get the money back; however, the driver didn’t have enough insurance to cover the damage and definitely didn’t have enough personal assets to go after. It was the optometrist’s own insurance that ultimately fixed his building and let him continue his business.

Client where Insurance Protected him from a Worker that Stuck a Screwdriver into a Transformer

One of my multiple contractor clients was doing what seemed like a simple job. But, you can’t always protect yourself from people doing silly things. For reasons unknown (and now we’ll never know), an employee put a screwdriver into a powered electrical transformer. Unfortunately, it immediately electrocuted him and he passed away. The workers compensation carrier stepped in without missing a beat, providing immediate payments to the family, but more importantly defending my client. The deceased’s family attempted to sue and extract additional payments from my client. Fortunately, workers compensation comes with specific lawsuit protections and the carrier was able to protect the contractor. It was an unfortunate story, but had the insurance not been in place, the contractor could have been put of business forever, based on the actions of someone else.

The entire point of insurance is that one can’t foresee unexpected outcomes. We never know if a crazy person is going to sue us, or if a random car is going to jump a curb, or if one of our patrons will do something inappropriate after he leaves our business. In all these cases, all real life examples, insurance policies came through and kept the owner whole. It allowed the business to continue operating in ways that would never have been possible without the coverage. The unknown and uncontrollable are exactly why we say having the right insurance policy in place can give you peace of mind, and sometimes a whole lot more.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/insurance-saved-day-stories-shane-lipson/