Industry: Restaurant

Challenge: Inadequate insurance coverage and high premiums due to poor risk assessment and policy placement by previous agents.

Takeaway: Leveraging industry expertise and strategic carrier relationships, Hotchkiss Insurance reduced premiums and ensured comprehensive coverage, providing substantial savings and true peace of mind for clients.

Insurance is the lifeline that separates success from catastrophe. The choice of your insurance provider and agent can either be your ace in the hole or a one-way ticket to financial despair. In this study, we will discuss two examples where Hotchkiss Insurance agents didn’t just meet expectations; they shattered them.

Consider an eight-location fine dining restaurant chain. This company had an open, high-paying liquor liability claim, and their previous agent was going to place them with an Excess and Surplus Lines (E&S) insurance carrier that quoted a premium over $300,000. Typically, an E&S carrier is used as a last resort when the standard admitted insurance market is unavailable. Once coverage is placed with an E&S carrier, it can be hard to return to a standard market and can limit your options for future coverage. After contacting Hotchkiss, our agent used their industry expertise, resources, and relationships with carriers to keep the client in an admitted insurance market with a $250,000 premium. Over the next year, we helped them save an additional $50,000 in premium costs by implementing new liquor training and developing a new plan for over-serviced guests.

In our second instance, before coming to Hotchkiss, a ten-location sushi restaurant had a false sense of security. Their previous agent quoted them a policy not tailored to their needs, failing to probe deeper into the intricacies of their locations and lease policies. When disaster struck and they went to file a flood claim, they found themselves without flood coverage. Our agents reviewed all the locations' lease agreements and other documentation to ensure the client was fully covered in case of another incident and met all lease requirements, offering the client a true sense of security.

By selecting the right insurance agency, these clients were able to amass substantial savings and have peace of mind that they will be protected against the unpredictable.