Keven Moore on Insurance: Accidents
happen, but are learning experiences

Imagine the horror in coach Nick Saben’s eyes as he watched his 2011 Allstate BCS National Championship crystal trophy shatter into pieces when a player’s father tripped and knocked it over while it sat outside his office on a display table.

Accidents happen, right? Well in my line of work, we believe all accidents are preventable and each accident is a learning opportunity to prevent re-occurrence. We call that a Zero Accident Culture. And as I tell my kids and/or clients, accidents are only a mistake if you don’t learn from your mistake, and the bigger question is ….What are you going to do to prevent it from re-occurring?

As a safety professional my first question would be…“why on earth would you have a trip hazard located directly in front of the crystal Holy Grail of all of college football?” Heck, any junior Safety/Risk Manager intern should have seen that a mile away, regardless from whatever University they received their education. Then the second question would be….What on earth were you thinking of?

News reports estimate that the crystal trophy was worth $30,000 and the first thing somebody in the University of Alabama’s risk management’s office probably said was “Thank God for our insurance policy,” because if he/she was a competent risk manager the trophy would have been scheduled to their existing policy upon their return from Miami in January.

But, how do you ever replace something like that? You do not, so they should have taken greater care of something of such value. After all this was not the first time this has ever happened. Back in 2008 a college recruit who did not even commit to or play for Florida dropped the 2006 BCS trophy outside Urban Meyer’s office. So you would think that by now somebody within the SEC is discussing the possibility of a safety seminar on just “How To Properly Protect Your BCS Trophy.”

Have you ever had one of those “OH NO” moments, then later learned that you forgot to add something to your existing insurance policy? I doubt that any of you will have a BCS Championship trophy displayed in your home, but I am sure you have something of value that you may have forgoten to add to your policy.

We are add all vehicles to our policies because the law requires it, but what about that gun collection, baseball card collection, that expensive engagement ring, or an heirloom you just may have inherited?

You should check to see if that item exceeded your policy limits and look to have it scheduled on your existing policy. Now note that you may not have enough coverage and you may need to add a separate policy to cover that loss exposure. When doing so you will have options and may want to consider a replacement policy to allow you to purchase a duplicate item. Or otherwise you may want to purchase an actual cash value policy for that item which pays you the monetary cash value based on its appraisal. The other option would be to select a value at policy which is more for those one of a kind items and allows you to value something at a higher dollar amount that the appraised value.

Losses, accidents, and thefts happen to more people than you may realize and if you own your own business, handle your company’s insurance needs or handle your family’s insurance you should check in with your insurance agent at least annually to review any possible additions or changes to your policy.

Now from what I hear about Alabama football fans (if they are like us University of Kentucky basketball fans), all they would have to do is sweep up the broken trophy pieces and sell them off to the alumni and fans. I’m sure they could have recouped the original value. But you will not have that option.

So make sure to inventory your assets on a regular basis and call your Insurance agent periodically to review your ever-changing insurance needs.

Keven Moore is director of Risk Management Services for Roeding Insurance (www.roedinginsurance.com). He has a bachelor’s degree from University of Kentucky, a master’s from Eastern Kentucky University and 25-plus years of experience in the safety and insurance profession. He lives in Lexington with his family and works out of both the Lexington and Northern Kentucky offices. Keven can be reached at kmoore@roeding.com.