What your insurance actually requires (and why it matters)
The renewal questionnaire has quietly become a technical audit. Firms are answering yes to questions nobody in the building can verify — and finding out at the worst possible moment.
Somewhere in the last few years, the cyber section of your renewal stopped being three questions and became thirty. Most owners hand it to whoever is nearest, tick what looks right, and send it back. That form is a warranty. If a claim is ever made, the answers are what the insurer holds you to.
We have sat with owners who answered yes to a question about a second lock on the door, in good faith, because somebody once mentioned it had been set up. It had been set up for two of the fourteen people who work there.
The questions that trip firms up
- Does everyone use a second step to sign in, or only the partners?
- Are copies of your data kept somewhere separate, and have they been tested?
- Is anything watching your systems outside office hours?
- Do former employees lose access on their last day?
- Do your people get trained on the message that looks almost right?
What to do about it
Before you sign next year’s form, get somebody to check each yes against what is actually in place. Where the honest answer is no, either fix it or answer no — an accurate no costs you a slightly higher premium, and an inaccurate yes can cost you the claim.
We go through the questionnaire line by line with the firms we look after, and we write the answers down so the same work is not repeated next year. If yours is due soon, that is a reasonable week to book a review.