When most people think of insurance the first thing that comes to mind is protection for their house, or their car, or maybe their contents. In other words they think of the physical losses that they might incur. This is understandable, as those are the things people can get their hands on, but it certainly isn’t where insurance ends. Many people will also be aware of health insurance, or life insurance and other related types of protection which are extremely valuable as well, even though the thought of physical loss might not be quite so apparent. By far, the most under-rated, under-insured, and ignored in general, type of insurance protection is Business Interruption. This is partly because the cover only applies to businesses, but also because it is a risk that people can’t see and in many cases haven’t even considered.

So what, exactly, IS Business Interruption Insurance? When a loss occurs for whatever reason, the profitability and activity of a business will inevitably reduce, or in some cases (like a fire or flood for example) their processes might stop completely. Most people think that getting contents replaced or a building reconstructed is enough, but what they don’t realise is that there are additional costs which aren’t going to wait while the business gets up and running again. Wages is a big one. How are you going to pay your staff if you haven’t got an income? And if you can’t pay them, how long do you expect them to hang around for? If they go somewhere else, how are you going to get your business up and running without having to re-hire and re-train your staff? This is just the beginning of where Business Interruption begins to help, but hopefully just this thought alone will get companies thinking about the various other scenarios which might affect their business. Because when the physical loss is fixed, the background costs linger; and it’s Business Interruption Insurance which steps in to save the day.