When it comes to variety and extremes of risk, the construction business is up there among the industries that need to take extra care about securing the right insurance cover. Failure to do this can be disastrous if incidents occur beyond the scope of an inadequate policy. This fact can make life challenging for construction brokers, especially where higher risk trades are concerned.

There can be few industries with roles so diverse that they range from groundworker to steeplejack, from fabricator to demolition contractor and from skip-hire operative to roofer. All of these personnel are exposed to hazards specific to their job. In addition, height, depth, heat and location all pose different risks to different trades.

As with so many things in business life, it’s a matter of horses for courses. So, in the world of insurance, it makes sense to work closely with experts when a specific type of insurance is involved. We like to think that is how we at Focus have developed such a close working relationship – very much a two-way street – with our partner brokers when it comes to construction underwriting.

We know that they appreciate the way we listen to them about their client needs and how they themselves like to do business. Our acclaimed contractors combined and commercial combined policies are shaped around their feedback and help to make us the one-stop shop for construction and other business sectors. A message we had been getting of late was that extension to wider high-risk liability would be very welcome.

We listened, we considered and we acted. The result was the new Focus HR110 high-risk liability product. We didn’t rush. Both product and providers needed to be right. We made sure of that by developing great product features whilst selecting quality insurers including Liberty Mutual and Novae. We even ran a pilot to ensure excellent underwriting and servicing before launching HR110 fully through our limited agency base of brokers.

Focus HR110 caters for most high-risk contracting trades, including those already mentioned and others such as diamond drillers, lift engineers, red-zone rail workers, waste management personnel and welders. It is, we feel, a classic example of responding to market needs by receiving our valued brokers’ views and taking notice of them. As we all know, businesses that fail to listen may also fail to satisfy.

As always we underwrite and manage policy documentation ‘in house’ so we can control and maintain the excellent levels of service you now expect of us.

I am surprised how easy it is for some brokers to accept the standard products offered by many of the non-specialist insurers, including many of the composites.

When it comes to construction insurance, specialist understanding of the sector is essential from both a broker and insurer perspective. Too often I see instances where a policy is sold to an unsuspecting customer that completely misses the point regarding the client’s nature of work. It may be a policy which limits the height their personnel may work to or the types of properties they work upon, ignoring the fact that, albeit infrequently, this restriction may be entirely inappropriate.

The SME construction client is not an insurance expert and in their busy commercial world they should be sold a policy that covers all of their likely activities – I believe that insurance clauses and limits are unlikely to be uppermost in their minds when tendering for work. The dangers of failing to specialise and fully understand the issues affecting an industry sector are great for every element of the supply chain.

As a specialist construction underwriter, we see it as our duty to offer some of the widest cover available, based on a sound understanding of the client trade. We can cover most trades and offer variable cover limits, with single contract and specialist plant hire cover available, plus flexible excesses and competitive premium finance plans. Find out more at http://www.focus-insurance.com/car110_contractors_all_risks.htm

We also work closely with a number of partner insurers making sure that our brokers have access to cover for all of their client construction liability, works and property needs. There are many good specialist construction brokers in the market and we are proud to work with many of them.

Specialism is so important in an area that requires an in-depth understanding of customer needs. I believe it is the specialists who will make it through the tough times ahead.

Peter Faulkner
Managing Director

There’s always something new happening at Focus so we’ve decided to keep you up to date by having our own blog. We’ll be bringing you news and views from the construction and insurance industries as well as our own opinions on all things we think will be of interest to you.