Tuesday Morning Insurance Tidbit - Wholesale/Retail/Somewhere In Between

[InsuranceMan]

Happy Tuesday Dear ADI’ers,

     Well, April showers bring May snow storms ☹!  UGH!  Just when I thought winter could not get any longer!  I sit here in the confines of my lair of solitude bundled in warm clothes peering out the window as the snow piles up here in Sheridanopolis and my mind wanders to warm sunny days without big white flakes falling to the ground.  I hope wherever you are reading this from, it is actually Spring, and you are wearing shorts and flipflops, skipping through green meadows full of brightly colored flowers, and enjoying sunlight.

     Enough about me freezing to death (thank goodness for my superpowers and sold weather superhero outfit, otherwise I might freeze to death).  Now, on to today’s “Tidbit”!!!!!  Something that no one else, well ok, maybe like 0.000000000765% of other people in the insurance universe think about is the valuation of your product.  They may ask you to come up with a number, and then that is what they will haphazardly slap down on the application forms which then, scarily, become your insurance policy!  All the while, these subpar insurance folk have no idea where that number came from, nor do they care.  SAD!  Do YOU know where that number came from or how you arrived at it?  Have you ever thought about it, like REALLY thought about it and how you should be valuing your product?  Well … that is where I, InsuranceMan 2.0!!!, are vastly different and much more “supery” then the rest!!!!!!!!!

 

     When it comes to your spirits, should they be valued at Wholesale, Retail, or Somewhere In Between?  What I mean by this is, what are you actually selling them for?  What is the real value of your product, and what would you expect to get back in the case of a claim?  Let’s boil this down, shall we.  Insurance companies, as we have discussed in the past, are only going to give you “replacement cost” of what you had into your product (BOO HISS!!!!!!) if no one tells them different.  This is no bueno!!!!!!  What if you have a few pallets of finished product sitting around that is ready to go out the door and something happens?  Well, ideally those items should be valued at a wholesale/distribution amount.  Keep in mind, insurance carriers are never going to pay out a claim based on a retail sales price, they just aren’t … Unless …

 

     What if you are selling your own product at a retail price out of your distillery gift shop / tasting room?!?!!?!  Well then, those items SHOULD be valued at retail price, so that in the case of the unfortunate, you are made whole on what those products should have been sold for.  Confused yet?!?!  Then we get into the “somewhere in between” portion.  This value can be very difficult and tricky, unless you have an experienced, knowledgeable, downright fantabulous superinsurancehero at the helm!  What are we talking about?  Well, stuff in barrels, product stored in someplace getting some age on it, or put up somewhere to get some coloration and flavor.  Whatever!  The real question is, “What is the value of that stuff?!?!?!?”  Ugh, don’t get me started!!!!!!!!!  Actually, you can, but that will have to take place during a real person-to-superinsurancehero conversation as I will not divulge my secrets here on the forum.  Suffice it to say, products in a state of maturation/aging/gaining coloration/flavor have a whole different value than anything else and it is all based on a “time element” that NO ONE ELSE contemplates, aside from me, InsuranceMan 2.0!!!  This is simply due to the fact that no one else has my super insurance brain power, and I think it has to do with the fact that they simply don’t know or care, to be quite honest.  Well, I do know, and I do care!!!!!!

 

     So, what have we learned today!??!?!  We have learned that unless you are working with someone (that someone being me, InsuranceMan 2.0!!!) that knows what they are doing, you could be under-insured, over-insured, paying too much, or not having correct values for your product.  We have also learned that if this post makes you think, “Geeee … I have never had this conversation with my agent before, I wonder how my product is being valued????”, then it is time to stop sitting there with that contemplative look, index finger up to the side of your head, glazed eyes, staring off into space thinking, and pick up the phone and call me!!!!!!  With me, you will always know how your product is being valued, what the difference is in how it is valued, and we will review the value of any maturing spirits as often as is necessary because I do know, and I do care.  Seriously, isn’t it time you stopped messing with the rest and started working with the best!?!?!?!?!

 

Until Next Time My Friends …

 

Stay Vigilant!!!!!!

Aaron Linden

a.k.a. InsuranceMan 2.0!!!

307-752-5961

InsuranceMan2.0@yahoo.com