In the attempt to fight this virus, our country has now been in lockdown for three weeks. This has put additional pressures on all of us; be they personal, financial or mental health and wellbeing. At this confusing and stressful time, Paul Graham, Managing Director of H&H Insurance Brokers, is keen to emphasise the importance of making sure that you have the right insurance cover in place for your rural business to give you peace of mind should anything go wrong.
What Coronavirus has shown is that you never know when a crisis will happen. No one expected this and a lot has been made, rightly or wrongly, about the Government’s preparedness. If we turn the principle of preparedness to the world of insurance, it demonstrates how important it is to ensure that you have the right cover in place, should the unexpected happen, as after the event has happened it may just be too late.
Paul acknowledges that many agri-businesses are facing challenges in their own businesses as the economy has slows down, and encourages farmers to seek advice sooner rather than later, whether it is support from the Government website or for more specific insurance or borrowing requirements. It is really is important to remember that the need for insurance with the right cover has not gone away and despite the pandemic we are very much open for business, and there to support clients whether for insurance purposes, or to process a claim on your existing policy or to simply give advice whether insured with us or not.
All that has changed in terms of the service, is that our team is temporarily no longer able to come and see you; they are working remotely, from home offices, kitchen tables and conservatories using other mediums such as telephones, emails and video conferencing.
This is a truly unique situation we find ourselves and it is a difficult one to see an end to anytime soon. However, we can look back and see similar situations, Foot and Mouth being the most pertinent example, there are always opportunities to innovate, diversify and restructure a business that can be taken. If you are considering such opportunities then again, we can help. Paul explains: “In these challenging times, we know that many agricultural businesses have been forced to diversify to survive. This may have had to be done in a hurry with little thought to some of the consequences. If this is the case, I implore these businesses to get in touch to ensure they have the right cover in place.
“If you have had to close your doors on some of your activities, do you still have the cover in place? Equally if you are considering cutting back on your insurance costs at this time to save on costs, it is important to note that cutting corners on insurance will not save you money and if the worst happens could make matters a whole lot worse.”
Areas to consider are:
- Failure to pay for the collection of milk – this is significant income to lose overnight and some polices will pay for the failure of collection
- Livestock under insured, whether it’s the number of stock or the health of the animals
- Property cover – is it insured at the right level based on a true value? Is it unoccupied during the current lockdown?
- Theft of machinery (crime goes up in desperate times), are you covered for all machinery?
- Farm Diversification – you have innovated and diversified to provide new services in the crisis, but are you covered?
Aside of insurance requirements, Paul is also aware that there are concerns out there for farmers over financing at this time and wants to re-assure farm businesses that there is still support out there:
“With the situation as it is, there will be agri-businesses looking to re-finance or purchase plant and machinery. This could be for business-as-usual or as part of a diversification plan. I am therefore pleased to report that as well as specialist insurance cover, we are also working with Mulberry Asset Finance and to assure you that there certainly are options out there to help you with your finance solutions at this time and encourage you to get in touch.”
H&H Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker, who in addition to providing bespoke farm insurance is now working with Mulberry Asset Finance to help agri-businesses to realise their asset borrowing requirements.