Don’t Let a Disruption Cause a Catastrophe
At the core, a disruption to business is just that, a disruption to what is supposed to be happening. It’s far too easy to be distracted by excuses to make a continuity plan, or believe that a business may be too small to benefit from one.The facts are simple: established and practiced plans reduce the amount of time a business is closed, improves communication during a disruption, and reduces overall losses (that’s right, it costs less).
Get Started With a Plan
There are many places to start, but we recommend starting at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. There is an easy to use toolkit created for the smallest to largest businesses. While some of your customers may desire a customized or specialized plan, getting started is the first step. The tool is free to use, has online and mobile options, and takes a common-sense approach to planning. There are also good resources available via ready.gov, including a seasonal preparedness calendar.
The approach breaks the planning process down to eight basic steps. The first, of course, is to understand risks. That understanding goes to steps two and three, identifying the critical operations and making sure you have a profile of each of your organization’s employees. From there, the plan builds to include suppliers, vendors, key customers, and key contacts. This fourth step may involve more input from the team, depending on the complexity of the organization. The fifth step is identifying critical information technology, followed by knowing how and where to source financial assets and processes in the event of a disruption. Step seven is to test and update the plan, which is important to ensuring elements addressed are inclusive. Finally, knowing where to go for additional help can make the basic plan more robust.
Help Your FI Customers Create a Comprehensive Continuity Plan
These basic steps may seem simple, and they are, but they are critical to successfully working through an interruption. Continuity planning is important to help avoid market share loss, ensure brand protection and execute communication with internal and external stakeholders. Emphasizing these benefits to your customers is a good way to help them identify the need to focus on continuity planning. It’s also a natural discussion when approaching appropriate levels of coverage for business income and extra expense. Having knowledge about the business continuity process in place at a Financial Institution can help to identify potential exposures, estimate downtime based on those exposures, and establish limits in accordance with these projections.
Make Sure Your Financial Institution Clients Have the Right Coverage to Support Their Continuity Plan
Contact any one of the FI insurance experts below for help in making sure your FI customers have the right coverage from a strong, stable company!
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VP Sales and Distribution
Jon Martin 410-372-6325
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Midwest Region
Contact: Jon Martin 410-372-6325
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Northeast Region
Jeanne Shrum 207-415-4587
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West Region
Scott Harris 512-800-5393
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Mid-Atlantic/South Regions
Dave Cassel 443-987-8619
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Northwest Region
Pete Verretto 206-802-3076
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Products and services are provided by one or more insurance company subsidiaries of W. R. Berkley Corporation. Not all products and services are available in every jurisdiction, and the precise coverage afforded by any insurer is subject to the actual terms and conditions of the policies as issued. Certain coverages may be provided through surplus lines insurance company subsidiaries of W. R. Berkley Corporation through licensed surplus lines brokers. Surplus lines insurers do not generally participate in state guaranty funds and insureds are therefore not protected by such funds.
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