GPI 083 – Do not lie to your insurance broker or agent; remember you want your claims paid.

Do not lie to your insurance broker or insurance company agent.  Your firm needs insurance coverage to protect its assets and to conduct business.  Your customers, vendors and your bank will not let you operate without it.  Accidents happen and it is your responsibility to tell your agent/broker as much true information as possible in order for your policy to cover you.  In the event you are falsifying claim information or lying about accidents, you risk having your policy cancelled or potentially being charged with criminal charges.  Forget it.

If your claims are high, you have internal operating problems.  Your organization is out of control and missing internal controls.  Your managers need to take control and address risky safety and operating procedures.  Excessive auto and truck claims insinuate that those bad drivers need either immediate training attention or need to be replaced.  Multiple machine operator injuries mean your company may need to install better safety guards or conduct safety meetings for properly operating company machines.  It also means you have mediocre supervisors not doing their jobs.  Numerous fires and calls to the local fire station insinuate your employees need training, more fire extinguishers, operator training or maybe more rigorous safety measures are needed for handling highly flammable materials.  An older work force may need adequate CPR training among the workforce.  Safety training handling soft materials is not the same as that training needed by those handling, cutting, moving and storing sharp-edged sheet metal or glass sheets.

If you have excessive claims that cause your insurance premiums to be high, you will not get them down by falsifying information to an insurance broker.  You are losing money internally and it is putting pressuring on your profit.  If you improve working conditions, you will improve production.  If you improve production and accidents go down, insurance premiums go down.  If premiums drop, your profits rise.  Lying to your broker is not a great idea and ultimately costs you more money than running a safe organization.