An Agent’s Review: Restaurant P+C Insurance

By Thomas Boley

An Upper Northwest restaurant grossing 1.2 million in sales pays $12,462 annually for their business owner’s policy, which covers liability exposure and property-and-contents. The restaurant has also paid $30,000 in the past for a business owner’s policy. Restaurant insurance is hectic, eclectic, and technic… -al. Because insurance is a product you cannot feel, see, or test, it is something that business owners often do not fully understand. Restaurateurs are not alone, there is a real gap in industry-specific technical insurance expertise among agents too.

If Verizon is the insurance, the agent is the cellphone. The piece that is adding value to the operation is the latter. An agent will advise to best manage risk, they will analyze the risks to a restaurant, and they present a restaurant to the insurers. Purchasing insurance is purchasing expertise to manage premiums and coverage, so that when something does occur an insured is properly indemnified.

The two most significant risks restaurants face are fire and trip-and-falls. If an insurer is knowledgeable of the functionality of a fire suppression system or the maintenance of the fire extinguishers and understand the risks of trip-and-falls within restaurants, greater premium management is possible.

There are dozens of insurers out there that are looking to write restaurants. If a restaurant has a good loss history and an agent can speak to a restaurant’s risk control practices, there will be insurers that will offer significant discounts to get that restaurant on their books.

Capital Insurance Partners in Washington DC offers complimentary audits of both insurance policies and restaurant practices.