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Sales Opportunity – Farm Specialist

You will become part of an energetic, positive team in a rapidly expanding general insurance brokerage in Prince Albert. This position requires the applicant to possess a high level of expertise in one or more area of agricultural pursuit, preferably grain farming, processing or custom farming operations which may including trucking or manufacturing. This position also requires that the applicant carry or be able to obtain the requisite licensing and have a good driving record. Licensing requirements can be researched on the Insurance Brokers’ Association of Saskatchewan (IBAS) website.

A link to IBAS is available on this webpage under Tools and Resources, Insurance Association Links.

Experience in insurance or related industries are an asset. The applicant can look forward to working within a business model that rewards effort, supports ongoing training and has opportunities for advancement for the right individual.

We are looking for a friendly, outgoing person that possesses strong verbal, written and computer communication skills, can handle duties with a deadline and has a professional approach to selling. Salary will be commensurate with education, skills and ability. Only applicants selected for interview will be contacted. Send your resume to #1, 598 – 15 th Street East, Prince Albert, SK S6V 1G2 or cornerstone.ins@sasktel.net

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When the Smoke Clears, will you pay more? Obviously Firefighting is not free, so who pays and when? For straight insurance talk (no smoke and mirrors) read the article below then contact our office, you’ll find one of our friendly professional brokers to be very helpful. The information below, researched by our staff, should assist you in determining your next step.

Fire Fighting is not Free

A much-neglected exposure to financial loss, that is often overlooked by property owners, municipal officials and even their insurance brokers, is the potential for loss due to the cost of fighting fires. The costs of loss prevention steps necessary during and after the event are also often overlooked. There is an assumption out there that the expenses incurred will somehow be covered by insurance or by the municipality. The actual answer to that concern ranges from “true” through to “sometimes true” to “not at all true”.

Though periodic analysis and reviews of emergency preparedness for you, your family or business are a good idea, there may be no need to call anyone following your investigation. When you live in a place that has a fire department that responds to all fire emergencies and is paid for by the municipality, such as the city of Prince Albert, then you are one of the lucky ones. Fire Fighting Expense (FFE) coverage is intended to assist in situations where additional charges could be assessed to you. Where that potential doesn’t exist there is no need to obtain additional FFE coverage.

When analyzing your exposure to this type of loss there are three levels of variables to be considered. Complicating things further is that there is a myriad of possibilities within each of the three categories of variables.

Does your municipality supply fire fighting and / or related services? How are these services paid for? What equipment is available to fight fires and how much does it cost? How far are you from the nearest fire hall? What barriers (e.g. snowed in or washed out roads) or terrain would they have to cross in order to protect your assets?

Is there a volunteer fire department in your municipality? Do they have “multiple call”, “large fire” or “disaster” agreements in place with neighboring fire departments? What happens when you or a neighbor incur expenses in the event of a fire emergency?

How do insurance companies handle requests for payment of these expenses? More specifically for you, how does your insurance company handle this situation and is your insurance broker well versed in how to determine your exposure and recommend a remedy for your particular situation?

A little research will reveal that each municipality determines its own method of handling these issues. Some have fire departments while others do not. Some have a levy charged along with annual property taxes. While still others have a membership fee which if paid covers some or all of the expenses related to fire emergencies. /Fact: Even though you pay a levy or fee, additional charges could be assessed to you or the responding fire department, which may in turn be passed along to you. Water haulers, food for crews, graders, loaders, equipment from another municipality or for someone to watch for flare- ups following the emergency are examples of other such expenses. /Fact: Two firefighters and a truck cost an average of $500.00 to $650.00 per hour. /  As for insurance companies, there are drastic differences ranging from no coverage, to only specially- added coverage, to limited coverage, to full or partial coverage thrown in due to an enhancement or packaged deal. Adding complexity to our quest to determine how to handle fire emergency related expenses are the variances between and within insurance companies for different types of policies. For instance a “home” policy may have a different FFE allowance limit than a “farm” policy. Fact: Of the many Saskatchewan insurance providers unscientifically researched FFE coverage ranged from nothing to $3,000.00 unless additional coverage is purchased. Some will pay the expenses only to a fire department. Fact: After speaking to a number of municipalities around Prince Albert the most common recommendation is for people to have a minimum of $5,000.00 FFE coverage.

A suggested course of action for you to take would be to realistically assess the situation that each of your assets could face in the event of a fire. Next, do a little research with your town, village, RM or Volunteer Fire Department to determine what assistance is available in the event of an emergency and is it possible that you may be charged for any kind of expenses. The third step is to contact an insurance broker to determine what coverage you have to handle these expenses. When you hear an insurance broker saying that he / she will customize your policy to your needs, this is one of the aspects that they’re talking about. FFE coverage is not expensive and fighting fires is not free, so paying a little in advance could save you a lot down the road.

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“Stand Alone?”

I bought insurance so that I wouldn’t have to stand-alone!

The insurance use of the term “stand-alone” is a little different than the colloquial use of the phrase. In insurance-ese it means “a risk” stands alone on a policy by itself, not you.

Most insurance consumers’ experience is that traditionally brokers have struggled to get as much onto one policy as possible. Often this is still a good approach to avoid coverage gaps, especially when liability premiums savings are involved. Having the whole picture will help your broker avoid those gaps. Sometimes, however, it is not in the insured’s best interest to have everything on one policy.

While it is a very good idea to have all of your insurance requirements handled by one independent broker that can provide all the types of property and liability insurance that you need, some risks (boats, ATV’s, snowmobiles, rental or seasonal homes) tend to have a higher claims frequency rate. A stand-alone policy strategy can protect valuable claims free discounts on assets with higher premiums. Another common advantage is that stand-alone policies often have broader coverage as they are more customized to the object of the insurance.

A stand-alone policy makes sense when the probability of a claim is high on the item to stand-alone, the object of the stand-alone policy is of sufficient value to surpass any minimum premium requirements and the claims free discount in jeopardy X the number of years it would be lost is a significant dollar value to the person paying the premium.

We would be happy to assist you in analyzing your needs to see if this strategy is an advantage for you. Please do contact us to see if we can help.

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