Insurance Issues Related to Working From Home.

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Insurance Issues Related to Working from
Home. Due to the Covid-19 Virus, many people are
working from home. I know, I am. Even though our
office is staffed behind a locked front door
entrance with only two visitors allowed at any
one time some of us are working from home. We
have purchased some great software that allows
us to access our office computers from our homes.
However, since my business is adjusting claims
for the benefit of insureds (as opposed to
someone who adjusts claims for the benefit or
insurance companies), I would pose the question
how does all of this working from home impact in
relation to insurance?
As a public adjuster who has been around a long
time, please know I have seen the underbelly of
the insurance industry. I have seen insurers deny
claims because a business was run out of an
insureds home. Particularly painful was an
experience I witnessed when a major insurer
denied a fire claim because the insured, who
would become our client, sewed uniforms for the
Old Tucson Amusement Park which her insurer
considered as operating a business from her
home. It took me a year to get that one resolved
in her favor but sometimes it is more difficult
to do so. I cant tell you of the difficulty I
had with an insureds claim when the insured
hired us when her claim had gone to never-never
land. She had several horses and, yes, she sold
one of those baby horses after it was born. Her
insurance company would not pay the claim
because they said she was operating a horse
business at her home. My arguments didnt amount
to much to this insurer even though they were
right on the law. We
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eventually had to talk to a judge who taught the
insurer a lesson. Yes, we won big on that
one. Of course, you have all heard of the home
marijuana-grower whose house has caught on fire.
Those claims are (nearly) always denied and not
because of an illegal activity (in some states
it is not illegal) but the claim is denied
because the insured is operating a business
out of his or her home. As a result of my
experience, I would recommend a quick email to
your insurance agent just putting him or her on
notice that you will be working from home. Also,
I would be very careful letting someone come
into your home and not just because of fears of
contracting the virus but because it gives the
appearance of running a business out of your
home. There is also another risk to cause
concern Cyber Attacks. Everyone gets email
phishing attacks and unless your like Leon
Panetta who gave the Phishers his login info
so they could get Hillary Clintons emails, you
have probably just erased those phishing emails.
However, the Phishers are becoming more and
more sophisticated in breaking into and
otherwise hacking personal computers which we use
to interface in our offices. Heres the deal if
you are working from home, you, or your
employer, must secure your home internet
connection that connects to your office
computer. Our Brown OHaver office is secure
and is not conducive to anyone hacking in. We
have a VPN (Virtual Private Network) Connection
and a router. Our homes do not so in order to
secure our home computers I contacted our
friendly computer consultant. He came to my home
and installed a new router available from Amazon
for around 70.00. My home connection is now
secure and tomorrow he will go to my assistants
home to install a Router there. It all comes
down to access points, CyberScout Chief
Executive Officer Jennifer Leuer said in a
prepared statement. For every Wi-Fi network that
an employee signs on to, they are creating an
additional access point for hackers to infiltrate
your business systems. Many business insurance
policies address Cyber Security coverage but, if
you can, you dont want to go there. You dont
want to expose yourself or your employees to
another type of risk cyber-attacks. Due to the
exposure of COVID-19, thousands of people in
the U.S. are having to adjust from working around
other people to working within the confines of
their homes. Now they may also be exposing
themselves to another type of risk cyber-
attacks. Protect yourself from the evil-doers
who would hack your system and might even demand
ransom-ware to get your system to come back on
line after they have shut it down.