When something goes wrong and you sustain losses at sea, you depend on your marine insurance coverage to help you recover from those losses and get back to business as usual. However, if you don’t understand your coverage, you could face a nasty surprise when it comes time to file your insurance claims. Delays and denials are possible, and you could end up unable to get the full compensation you need to fully account for your marine losses.
What Ship Owners Can Do to Avoid Surprises and Complications With Marine Insurance Claims
If you can admit that your understanding of your marine coverage is a little lacking, or if it’s been a while since you’ve even thought about your coverage, change your ways today and make it a point to:
- Review coverage regularly. Even if your coverage was adequate at the time you purchased the policy, businesses and circumstances change over time. The best way to make sure your coverage is still the right fit is to plan to review existing coverage on a regular basis and account for changing needs.
- Ask questions when concerns arise. If you’ve recently gone through a “near miss,” or if someone has brought up a question about coverage that you can’t answer, don’t hesitate to pursue the answers while the concern is still fresh in your mind.
- Speak with a policyholder attorney before you give up on a full recovery. If you do run into delays or denials, it may not necessarily be your fault. Insurance companies will attempt to minimize how much they must pay out to policyholders in the event of loss, and an experienced attorney can help make sure that denials or delays are legitimate and unavoidable.
Have questions about your marine insurance? Take the time today to request your free copy of our book, Your Basic Guide to Marine Insurance, which will help you understand what to expect from the claims process and how to move ahead after marine losses.
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