In an environment as competitive as insurance, it's hard tobelieve a certain major coverage is routinely overlooked,especially when it addresses a critical need of nearly everycommercial client. Strange, but true. Consider the followingscenario.

You visit friends in another town. They offer to take you totheir favorite place for "killer" chicken wings. In the greattradition of all legendary eating establishments serving up wings,barbeque, fried catfish and such, the joint is likely to be locatedeither in a shack out in the sticks or tucked into an empty bay ina semi-vacant warehouse-someplace that obviously does not appear onthe health department inspector's maps. Invariably, the d?cor ismid-Depression era. Janitorial services, if any, are minimal, asthe owner evidently assumes dirt and grime will simply waft out thedoor on the generous mists of cooking grease that envelop allsurfaces. Flames will shoot from the broiler, smoke will billowfrom the fryers, and you'll need no menu since every available fooditem will be represented by a stain clearly visible on the cook'sonce-white uniform shirt and apron. The atmosphere will be raucous,the help efficient, the food divine, and the line of customerslong.

So, in the instant you first attack your order of nuclear wings,the thought foremost on your mind, of course, will be, "Whichinsurance coverage does the owner need most?"

There is only one correct answer.

Oh, sure, arguments can be made for other possibilities. Forexample, some may suggest workers compensation, but only those sounfamiliar with such businesses as to actually assume there areemployees. In reality, the staff usually consists of the owner'sfamily members, independent contractors whose entire careers with aparticular eatery may consist of the night you are there, andvarious friends of the family's teenagers (uncompensated except forall the food and drink they can skim).

If you're thinking about property coverage, it must have beenawhile since you spoke with your underwriters. Let's think thisthrough for a moment. A dining establishment is located in themiddle of nowhere or in a questionable part of town. Constructionquality is minimal. Maintenance and housekeeping are borderline tononexistent. Eating utensils and serving dishes are plastic. Woodtables. Paper napkins. Deep-fat fryers. Open-flame cooking. Apatina of grease covers everything. Can you imagine any propertyunderwriter hesitating to leap on this type of risk? If not, quitreading now. Either you've picked up this magazine in error at thelibrary, or you are a banker still researching ways to tap into theproperty-casualty insurance motherlode. (Hint to banker: Give itup. Somebody lied.) Adjusting any property claims for such abusiness is quite challenging, since damage from a fire orcatastrophic event will be considered an upgrade to the premisesrather than a loss.

Liability coverage may be closer to the target, although if everthere were a strong defensive argument based on assumed risk, itwould be the wing/ barbeque/catfish place. Patrons testifying incourt can hardly deny they were aware of the risks presented bywide variances in food preparation techniques or the presence ofvarious signs of insect life. And any establishment that usesenough poison to kill off all the inherent insects can't convinceme that none of those chemicals made its way into my food! Ifreaked out a friend some years ago when I found a large roach inmy iced tea (at an "upscale" eating establishment) and told himthere was no need to worry since the bug was still alive. If thatbig fella had been dead, I'd have left in a heartbeat. Also, truebelievers know a floor coated with cooking grease presents not aslip-and-fall hazard, but rather a chance to finally realize thedream of recreating James Brown's greatest dance moves.

Enough hints. Do you see the "key coverage" answer yet?

Business income. Or as grizzled veterans originally learned thenomenclature, "time element" or "business interruption." Yet,according to industry statistics and a recent IRMI Insight (a freee-mail newsletter from the Insurance Risk Management Institute,www.irmi.com), one could say (apologies to Shakespeare), "Thiscoverage by any other name still would not be written." Agents'amazing lack of awareness of business income coverage is souniversal that one shudders to think how bleak the scenario wouldbe if the popular BOP policy didn't include it as part of thepackage.

Even more astonishing is the way ignorance of the coverage haspersisted in recent years, even as courses on risk management andconsultative selling have gained in popularity. Theoretically,thousands of producers now believe the key to making propercoverage recommendations is to see problems from an insured'svantage point. All the courses assert that to simply sell aprospect what we wish to offer, instead of first discovering his orher true needs, borders on malpractice. So all over America newlyenlightened agents are getting in touch with their innerconsultants and building holistic coverage programs based on thepriorities of their clients. But, at least in terms of businessincome sales, a lot of agents' inner consultants are holisticallyout to lunch.

That wing guy hopes to get rich, or at least to earn enoughmoney to avoid having to go back to a real job. And when you lookat his investment in location (minimal), equipment (ditto) andstaff training (zilch), then see the long lines of salivatingpatrons, do you doubt he is realizing his dream? A similar dreamdrives millions of otherwise sane people to daily rise and plungeonce again into the world of alternating boredom and chaos we callbusiness ownership. Given this, it seems reasonable to assume theNo. 1 coverage written for businesses should be the one createdspecifically to respond to loss of the thing business ownerstreasure most. And if that thing is income, then what coveragemight that be? To paraphrase the Church Lady from "Saturday NightLive": "Hmmm...could it be business income coverage?" There is nodoubt business owners need coverage for the loss they can leastafford to bear. New locations can be found, but for many types ofbusinesses, once income is lost, it's gone forever. So what couldpossibly be the reason few, if any, agents sell the coverage? Couldit be...Satan?!?

Although some evidence strongly suggests demonic possession incertain carrier decisions and forms language, in the case ofbusiness income coverage, it may be plain old ignorance andoversight.
Regardless of the reasons, it is time to redress this grievousoversight, minimize the potential E&O exposure, maximize yourproduction and rectify this wrong! And in honor of this month ofValentines, I leave you with a greeting card message that businessowners may wish to send their agents:

Roses are red;
Bees make honey.
If you had a clue,
You'd cover my money.