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Tell tale sign in a contract

This is an awareness message for everyone.  I stress the point of being licensed as a specialist all the time, however the responsibility of being licensed as a company has regulatiuons as well as requirements in order to be a properly licensed entity.  The one I want to stress upon today is the insurance requirement.

When I started BPI I was only required to have a Bond to have my company licensed in Maryland.  Due to the fact that I was a new company I was green on how to investigate as well as find a good insurance company to cover my requirements.  I visited a local insurance company and the owner was excited about having me as a potential new client, however as we started discussing the type of security I was going to be performing we hit a brick wall.  He had no grasp of Executive protection and every corner he turned in his research fell upon the uniformed security angle.

He eventually obtained a grasp of what EP is and found a company in Texas that specialized in EP insurance and the like.  He submitted all the pertinent paperwork however later that day he reluctantly told me that I was not approved.  He told me in so many words, “No one is going to insure you.”  I didn’t like that sound and immediately got on my grind and found a company in College Park, Maryland.  When I went to the office the insurance representative, Loretta Fuller, was very congenial and worked some magic, whereby in an hour I was insured.  To this day I am still a client.  I get calls and emails often from guys in the industry looking for an insurance company and I send them her way.

When a company is draftingcontract to a client it SHOULD have a section that articulates your insurance coverage.  For me, when a contract is void of this section, it is a red flag.  This is a sign of fidelity that shows you client that you are legitimate.  Moreoever, I will supply my clients with an insurance certificate that has their company name as the certificate holder.  That certificate covers you with that client for business for as long as the policy is valid.  Each renewal year Loretta sends out insurance certrificates to each previous policy year certificate holder.

The other factor every security company owner should know and do is this. When you provide protection services within a venue like a hotel, convention center etc, it is standard procedure that you provide the venue manager or security manager with an insurance certificate that will cover the both of you. 

The bottom line is this: you can not operate legally as a protection company without having your governing body’s required insurance policy.  If you are doing so, you are not legal and are not covering yourselves nor the people who work for you and more importantly, the client.  That is a law suit waiting to happen as well as sanctions by your state’s governing authority.

For the specialists who are embarking on work from company to company, you need to ask if the company you are working for is insured.  Civil litigation is not where you want to fall upon.

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