The Insurance Family Blog

The California Department of Insurance issued a release yesterday proposing the question whether or not Californians are prepared in the case of wildfire. Steve Poizner, California Insurance Commissioner, advised all local homeowners to proactively prepare for fires and other potential disasters by conducting a home inventory and updating their California home insurance policies.

" Today marks the eve of the one year anniversary of the Station fire, and we learned many lessons from that experience, but none more important than the fact that wildfires can strike and destroy in the blink of an eye, and we have especially seen this happen over and over again in Southern California," said Poizner .

" That's why I want to encourage all homeowners to prepare themselves today for potential wildfires. Waiting for a fire to erupt before conducting a home inventory and reviewing your insurance policy means you could get burned twice - first by the fire then by trying to recover your losses. These are concrete steps all Californians can take today to protect their homes and belongings."

Commissioner Poizner also offered the following tips for conducting a home inventory:

· Using a household digital camera and a Home Inventory Guide from the California Department of Insurance, catalogue your possessions and document their values. Photographs of household goods are especially helpful when an item is difficult to describe on paper, or if a purchase receipt cannot be obtained.

· Label photographs with information about each item.

· If a video recorder is used, commentary about each item should be included.

· A copy of the inventory and supporting documentation, such as receipts and model numbers, should be stored in a safe place, such as a safe-deposit box, work office, or a relative's house.

· These records should also include financial documents such as insurance policies and mortgage information.

Here at Sutherland-Schaffer we are prepared to help you with all your Southern California Fire Insurance needs, and prepare you for such disasters.

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Topics: Home Insurance

Topics: restaurant insurance, California Restaurant Association

Topics: Business Insurance, Home Insurance, Apartment Insurance

After the 14,000-acre Crown fire that broke out last week in Antelope Valley and the devastating Station fire that panicked Los Angeles last year, residents of Glendale and Burbank are warned of potential impending property damages that face La Canada, Flintridge, San Marino, and Los Angeles.

"All we want is to make sure the residents of Glendale and Burbank are prepared to rebuild should there be a fire," said Scott Svonkin, the commission's chairman.

Fire coverage has become an intrinsic crux of California insurance. “Homeowners shouldn’t skimp on their insurance policies,” says commission member Luther Nash. Dwelling fire insurance is often the only thing that keeps a fire from bringing financial ruin to a family.

For more on this story, visit La Canada Online, the county’s Commission on Insurance, or the county Fire Department Website.

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Topics: Home Insurance, Property Insurance, Condominium Insurance

The decent restaurateur knows that his life and reputation are in the hands of what the customer spreads – no man can directly control how the public discusses his restaurant. His lifeblood lies in the words spoken to friends and family, and peer reference is stronger than ever these days. But for the social media-minded, there are new avenues that are in place to discuss one’s favorite venues, whether a Los Angeles restaurant or a San Marino disco club.

Search engines offer a valuable contribution to aiding customers find the restaurants they long for, and now offer a review system to aid in the ranking of such a venue. Even insurance agencies like the good folks at Sutherland-Scherff are utilizing Google Reviews, Bing Reviews, and Yahoo Reviews, and trust me—we’re not the only ones asking customers to become Raving Fans. Take time to visit these sites—is your restaurant listed? Have you been reviewed? Are you addressing any negative feedback you’ve received? Are you thanking customers for their loyalty? No place of business can ignore feedback for long, and the restaurant industry is no different. Digital feedback is just as valid and is now more favored in the customer’s eye than phone calls or written surveys.



We encourage you to keep your restaurant business on the cutting-edge with the best of the tech world at your disposal. We like our clients (past, present, and potential) to be successful business owners, and to that end, we’ve crafted a business partners page to aid in generating inbound traffic to our customers’ businesses. For more information on how to aid in the growth of your business, feel free to call us at 888-424-7044, or visit our Virtual Insurance Office.

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Topics: restaurant insurance

One day a client called me and asked, “Did I ever buy that employee dishonesty coverage you told me about?” Unfortunately I had to tell him no. My client ran a small wholesale business. He just found out that over a few years one employee had stolen about $500,000 from him with the help of his CPA

Such scenarios unfortunately are common among small- and medium-sized businesses. The median loss suffered by businesses with fewer than 100 employees was $200,000, says a 2008 study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). Check tampering and fraudulent billings were the most common small business fraud schemes.

All businesses need to be concerned with employee dishonesty. Because employee dishonesty losses are not typically covered by most property insurance policies, or they include a low limit, most businesses are not covered properly when a loss occurs.

Call Sutherland-Scherff Insurance and we can help you determine the limit that is best for you at a price you can afford.

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Topics: Business Owners Insurance, restaurant insurance, Employee Dishonesty Coverage

Let’s face it, accidents in restaurants happen. Most commonly an employee might slip and fall, but that is why most restaurants require non-slip soles for waiters, waitresses, and the rest of the house. But what about the people who visit your restaurant in stiletto heels or worse, wheel-bottomed Heelys?

Customer slip and fall accidents have been on the rise in many restaurants across the United States. Kurt Leisure, director of risk management for the Cheesecake Factory based in Calabasas, California, believes customer accidents should be more carefully watched by everyone working in the restaurant.

"I think it is important that restaurant companies empower their employees with the idea that a slip-or-fall hazard is everybody's problem, not just the servers' or managers'. But everybody in the front-of-the-house has a stake in it,” says Leisure.

Some tips Leisure has put in place at the Cheesecake Factory restaurants could be useful in others as well.

• Keep collapsible wet floor signs hidden on the restaurant floor behind plants and other fixtures, so if a sudden spill occurs, the sign can be grabbed quickly making customers and other employees aware of the hazard.
• If there is a wet spot or spill and no sign near, have a manager or hostess stand over the spot until a busser is notified and can make the area safe.
• Make a system. Inform your staff any time there is a spill how to go about taking care of it and keeping the customers safe and your co-workers safe.

Employee slips and falls can easily be eliminated says Leisure. "The key is that you've got to have a slip-resistant shoe program , and it has to be rolled out correctly. It's the No. 1 defense against employee injury,” says Leisure as he has reduced the amount of slips and falls by 87% among the chain.”

Cuts, burns, and scrapes are the most common California workers compensation claims reported since they generally cause missed work based on the injury. Perhaps surprisingly, the cause of such happenings are usually related to slipping and falling and trying to catch yourself on the way down.

Making sure your employees are safe is important; keeping your customers safe should be a priority. Having the correct workers compensation plan in your business is important, but having general liability insurance in the case that a customer is injured should be a main concern as well.

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Topics: Business Insurance, restaurant insurance, Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI)

As a restaurant owner, you're gifted with a certain perspective of the world. In the insurance world, I get a unique perspective as well--one that my restaurant clients don't often see. This experience-based vantage point allows me to see unfortunate hidden biases that the restaurant owner may not be privy to. I can also see ways for the restaurant owner to avoid these rate biases.

For instance, if you were to call up the average insurance company underwriter and tell him you wanted to write a package policy for a local BBQ venue, you would notice that the majority of underwriters would shy away from that account. And why is that? Well, barbecue and seafood joints have a history rife with plenty of food-borne illness claims, so the underwriter will more than likely tighten up his rates a bit to protect against the possibility of having to pay out on this kind of claim for you.

And if you're the seafood restaurant or BBQ owner, you will never hear about this conversation or even know it happened. But it does happen, and your rates are higher because of it. So what can you do to protect against this rate bias on your restaurant insurance? You need an 'in'; you need a qualified and well-learned insurance agent that can be your liaison to the insurance company, and that insurance agent had better know his stuff. An insurance agent with the experience of handling hundreds of restaurant clients will have the know-how to work the system and bypass the usual company guff, and he'll also have access to the insurance companies that specialize in restaurant insurance, which is what you want anyway, right?

California Restaurant Insurance Quotes are hard to come by only if you're not looking in the right places. Coverage for Valencia, Pasadena, San Marino, Montrose and all of California are found every day--and Sutherland-Scherff is not a bad place to start your search.

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Topics: Business Insurance, restaurant insurance