Evaluating Your Insurance Partner

Evaluating Your Insurance Partner

As your nursery business grows, your insurance needs will inevitably change, and so too does what you need from your broker. Choosing the right partner to handle your insurance is an important commercial decision, and one that can have a direct impact on your business. In this article we look at some key considerations that growing businesses should keep in mind. 

We spoke to Pippa Cripps, Team Leader, about what she thinks larger nursery businesses need in an insurance broker. 

Specialist knowledge and experience 

Childcare comes with unique risks. As your business grows, the nature of those risks will change; the likelihood of certain incidents will naturally increase with your size, but so too will your ability and options to mitigate those risks. 

A broker that has specialist expertise in the market you operate in can ensure that you are offered a policy that is designed to cover the risks you need it to. Ultimately this will help to ensure you receive real value for your premium.  

Pippa said: “At Morton Michel we specialise in the childcare sector and work with our insurer to provide a policy that can be tailored to meet individual nursery business's needs. Both our underwriters and our clients trust our knowledge and expertise.” 

Service capabilities 

With a larger business, the likelihood is that you will need more contact with your insurance partner than in a smaller setting. In a sector as dynamic as childcare, you may need to make changes quickly to stay ahead of the curve, but you will still need to keep your insurers informed to ensure you have the right cover in place.  

Your broker should give you the confidence that if you need to make a change quickly, they will be ready to get to work, so that maintaining your cover does not become a blocker to your business plans. Furthermore, in the event of making a claim, you need to know your insurer is committed to providing the expertise, service, technical knowledge and guidance to resolving it quickly so you can continue to work to your goals. 

Pippa said: “For our larger clients, we appoint a dedicated Account Executive to be their personal contact. This means if something needs to be updated on your policy, they can ensure this happens and in the event of a claim you can be assured our insurer will work closely with you to quickly and efficiently deliver the best outcome your coverage provides.”

Fair negotiations 

Increased size comes with increased complexity and your insurance broker’s attitude should be able to adapt to this. Your broker should have enough flexibility to adjust to your requirements, rather than always adopting a one-size fits all approach.  Of course, agreeing a price is part of this, but there are other considerations too. This might include ensuring there are fair exit clauses, as well as relationship management processes, to keep everything running smoothly. It could also mean including additional business support services that deliver immediate benefits.  

Pippa said: “We understand our clients are running businesses and looking for the most commercially sound deal. We always engage with an open mind and are prepared to make adjustments to our terms where appropriate. However, with a non-advised policy it is important to the client understands that the ultimate decision as to what they need is down to them.”