Our Apprentices Gain Their First Professional Qualifications

We are delighted to confirm that both Matt Garratt and James Grindley have successfully achieved their first professional qualifications within 12 months of entering the industry.

As part of their Apprenticeships they have both achieved the Cert CII title following 12 months intensive learning and three external examinations. Whilst their daily learning continues, this is a huge positive step in their professional careers.

Well done to them both.

Why do you need Cyber Liability Insurance for your business?

cyber-protection1-300x227Data breaches happen all the time, so it’s important for your business to manage the risks related to a data breach and reduce the significant cost that is the result from it. The simple answer to this problem is to get insurance.

Your business and standard property insurance doesn’t cover certain important data, which includes all of your customer information and their contact details alongside employee security numbers. This information is perfect for a cyber-hacker, but Cyber Liability Insurance will cover these things for you.

Imagine not being able to take orders or collect any payments due to your system being down – Cyber Liability insurance covers this, too. This insurance will cover loss of profits due to a system fail that is caused by any virus or an attack.

Some people believe that cyber insurance is only suitable for large corporations, but it is also beneficial for small businesses.  Most hack attacks actually target businesses with less than 250 employees.

Here are a few reasons why you should consider investing:

  • It probably covers more than you think
    Many policies offer “first party” coverage, meaning they will pay you for things like business interruption and the cost of notifying customers of a breach as a result of a cyber-attack. Without this insurance, you could be held liable and face severe penalties.

 

  • You are protected if your cloud provider messes up
    If your website is hosted or stored in the cloud, you’re still legally responsible. You can’t fully control the way in which a cloud provider handles your data, but this insurance policy can protect you if your cloud provider makes any mistakes.

 

  • Social media sites expose information with little control
    Your business site and your employees activity on social media can trigger liability if your business is responsible for the sites. Defamatory statements, leaked information and copyright infringement can all be covered with a Cyber Liability Insurance policy. Losing the trust of your customers can be much more damaging than the financial loss you will incur to repair the effects of the breach.

 

Cyber liability insurance has been available for around 10 years. However, it’s rarely purchased. The data and information of your business is probably worth much more to you than the equipment on which it is stored.

If you’d like some more information on a Cyber Liability Insurance policy we can provide for you, please contact us today for a chat.

We’re focused on your needs

your-needs-image1-300x253Here are Garratts Insurance Brokers, relationships are at the heart of everything we do. Whilst providing insurance options and solutions for companies are a daily routine to us, we appreciate that to any business the topic can be extremely confusing.

We blend deep professional expertise and extensive industry knowledge. With a friendly, accessible approach to meeting our clients’ very specific insurance needs.

We keep our pricing competitive whilst using our longstanding relationships with major insurance companies to ensure that the covers we arrange effectively remove our client’s risk.

We will provide you with detail on available covers but then discuss which are most appropriate within the company’s budget.

If the worst should happen, you need peace of mind that comes from knowing your cover is watertight and your claim is being managed by hands-on professionals.

Our way of working has been tried and tested over 135 years of doing business as a family run firm. While we value our heritage and fully engaged with the dynamics of the modern business world.

We’re currently helping many businesses in many sectors – and I am, absolutely certain we can deliver significant benefits to yours.

Are you unwittingly risking the reputation and future of your business?

Management Liability (D&O)

There are a number of issues that could be threatening your daily busiEmail-pic-150x133ness operations at this very moment and ignoring them could have a major impact on your professional life.
We are a team of highly-trained experts based in the local area, who specialise in helping business owners avoid common crisis situations. We are here to help you resolve and avoid workplace
problems quickly, efficiently and discreetly.
Don’t just hope it doesn’t happen to you, protect yourself against it instead. Our policy is backed by AXA, a global insurance heavyweight, and our experienced staff-members are just a phone
call away. It’s never been simpler to ensure that your business runs smoothly without any expensive hiccups along the way.

The insured can use their own solicitor for EPL claims but using Brabners would save them the £3,750 excess! Brabners also operate the free legal advice helpline – where else can you get free advice from such a well respected firm of solicitors?

 

When might you need us?

If any claims are brought against any of your current, former or future directors or employees, you may need to find the legal costs for any court proceedings, awards or settlements. You may also need to cover the costs of an official investigation. Not having insurance in place for this very costly exercise may prove to be very damaging to your business finances. Some businesses never recover! Our policy will cover you for both of these situations and provide you with peace of mind. Your business will be protected against an enormous and avoidable expense.

Another scenario in which you’re covered is if your business suffers a loss due to employee dishonesty or third party fraud. Don’t let someone else bring down the business you’ve worked so hard for through their criminal activities. We don’t cover third party fraud as standard.

Events which would lead to you being extremely pleased that you gave us a call:

  • If anything goes wrong with a pension scheme, trust fund, employee benefit scheme or public offering that was endorsed or encouraged by your company. This does not include defined benefit schemes automatically and we don’t cover public offerings as standard
  • If an employee is killed at work due to lapsed health and safety measures
  • If an employee makes an employment practise claim
  • A former, retired employee decides to put in a claim against you
  • One of your directors is mishandling trade secrets or dangerous goods
  • There is an unwanted legal issue surrounding not just your main business, but all your subsidiary companies too (our policy automatically provides cover for all your subsidiary companies)
  • Should any claims arise in the month following a management buyout (you’ll still be covered by our policy)
  • If your company is inadvertently involved with pollution and inefficient harmful waste management

Don’t let any of these scenarios happen to you. Give our team a call instead – 01772 555576

Garratts Sponsorship of the 2013 Preston Tringe Festival

Preparations are well under way for the 5th Preston Tringe and Garratts are delighted to be a ‘Silver Sponsor’ continuing our relationship with the festival for another year. The festival will run from 14th to 28th September.

In 2009 the festival had 24 acts who performed for a total audience of 770. This has risen steadily and last year, 47 acts put on 90 shows to a total audience of 1750. This year, the not for profit event, will include new shows including award winning playwrights and comedians.

The highlight for us promises to be the ‘torch relay’. Sean Keefe, having performed at the Edinurgh Fringe Festival will pedal his cycle (Trigger) with the ‘torch’ from Edinburgh, setting off on Monday 2 September. Supported by his ground crew (Dad in a camper van), Sean will drop in at pubs and clubs along the way, playing his music and spreading the message of the Preston Tringe, arriving at the Longlands Hotel near Carnforth in Lancashire on Thursday 5 September,

Upon reaching Tewitfield at the north end of the Lancaster Canal, Sean will then pedal with Tringe performers over the next 3 days south to Ashton Basin in Preston using his trusty pedalo (Silver), kindly provided by UCLan, performing in canal-side pubs along the way. In association with the Canal and Rivers Trust, we believe this is the first time the 42 mile navigation of the canal has been attempted by pedalo.

We are delighted to support the festival and hope everyone joins in the fun and has a great two weeks.

The launch of our new website!

In 2012, we were awarded the prestigious status of Chartered Insurance Broker.

This award is not given to any old broker; it’s given to those brokers that have shown and demonstrated they have the skills, knowledge, attention to detail, and professionalism to be one of the few broker to achieve the minimum standards set by the Chartered Insurance Institute.

As a result of  our dedication to the profession of insurance, we were given the opportunity by AXA Insurance to promote our Chartered Status by having a new website designed.

We are really proud of our new website; as it forms part of our strategy of continued professionalism and business growth.

It will certainly become a hub of exciting and relevant information; and in due course we will tell you more about this.

Here’s some information on our Chartered Insurance Broker status.

In the mean time, lets enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts!