Navigating Insurance Complexities with Sean Cohen: From Family Histories to Umbrella Policies

Discover the world of insurance through the eyes of Sean Cohen from S Cohen Insurance, who brings a treasure trove of family history and industry expertise to the conversation. Venture with us as Sean unravels the complexities of shifting from personal to commercial insurance, specifically honing in on the restaurant sector. He proudly champions the role of independent agents and reveals the critical areas where many fall into the trap of underinsurance. As an extra layer of assurance, Sean illuminates the importance of guaranteed replacement costs for homeowners and the often-neglected facets of other structures coverage—all to safeguard your peace of mind.

Beyond the fine print of policies, we take a personal turn and share in the heartwarming family adventures of our guest, from national park explorations to the simple joy of a Topgolf outing. Sean's office team also emerges as the unsung heroes of the insurance world, with Christy, Davey, Jason, and Lori, collectively navigating clients through the insurance labyrinth. We wrap up with an insightful dialogue on the delicate dance between overinsurance and underinsurance, highlighting the protective embrace of umbrella policies. So whether you're a seasoned business owner or just curious about your coverage, listen in for a blend of professional guidance and personal tales that will leave you both informed and entertained.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Murphy.

Speaker 2: 0:12

Thank you, charlie. Yes, I am Mike Murphy, the host of the Good Neighbor Podcast here in Northern Kentucky. We bring in local business owners and influencers so that you can get to know them as humans and not just a logo on a business card. Today I have with me the S Cohen in S Cohen Insurance. Mr Sean Cohen. Sean, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.

Speaker 3: 0:37

Thank you for having me, Mike. It's great to see you. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Well, it's nice to have you here today, and this is a great opportunity for the listeners to get to know a little bit about you and about your business. So tell us, tell us about Escon Insurance.

Speaker 3: 0:53

I love insurance. Who doesn't? You know, it's not something you get to hear. It definitely has its days. But I started the business as the joke goes in insurance nobody in insurance meant to get an insurance. It's very true. I have family in the business. I kind of look back. I kind of have some of my family back there as well my brother's an insurance agent. Lori. My mother-in-law works in the agency, my grandfather down on the bottom over somewhere there had an all-state agency.

Speaker 3: 1:34

My wife's grandfather was an independent insurance agent as well, and so it just runs in the blood. I guess it's a family affair.

Speaker 2: 1:46

Okay, I mean I'm sure you had a choice in the matter, but then again, maybe you didn't, I did. It's kind of your birthright, I guess.

Speaker 3: 1:54

Yeah Well, furthermore, I moved to Cincinnati and there was a guy that knew my brother, Byron Roberts, who runs a sales for one of the insurance carriers I represent, and he kept hounding me hey, you want to come work, you want to come work? And I said he got me on the right day and sure, let's do it.

Speaker 2: 2:15

So how long have you been in the business personally now, 2014.

Speaker 3: 2:19

So that's 10 years now, okay.

Speaker 2: 2:23

Just long enough to start to know what the heck you're doing. Finally, huh.

Speaker 3: 2:26

Always learning, I'm always.

Speaker 2: 2:29

I would imagine there's a lot of changes always happening, and I mean life changes around us, and you know there's just gotta be things that you have to always stay on top of in terms of education.

Speaker 3: 2:41

Yes, I was just reading policy language before we uh, before we had this podcast, and trying to understand what the right coverage is and reading through the builder's risk liability for somebody the home, the auto, the business, the life.

Speaker 2: 3:08

I think I've heard you mention workers' comp, restaurant, brewery are some of the categories I think you've asked me and our B&I pals about in the past. So tell us really what's kind of? Do you have a kind of a bread and butter like um, where you're doing most of your business in a specific category?

Speaker 3: 3:30

So when I started in the industry, I was mainly personal insurance, you know, working for Liberty Mutual, and then, um, you know, so that was auto home and umbrella and that's where a lot of my business was built on. It has morphed into working more commercial lines in the restaurant industry, specifically because I love to eat I mean, who doesn't love to eat? But having the carrier. So when I ask myself, what do I have a niche market for and who do I have carriers to fit the needs of and for the mass? The vast majority of what I'm able to cater to is is restaurants, um contractors and advertising agencies and tech companies, Um, it just seems to be a niche that I fit into. Um, maybe it's because I have the right carriers to be able to fit the needs and the right premiums to be able to better suit the customers in those scenarios.

Speaker 2: 4:34

So I know you're an independent insurance agent. So for people that don't know what that means, what does that mean?

Speaker 3: 4:41

So we are independent. We don't work for one company. We have several different companies that we work with. We don't work for one company. We have several different companies that we work with and, just like I mentioned earlier, making sure that we have the right carriers to fit the needs. Certain carriers want certain types of business and they're more competitive for it a lot of times.

Speaker 3: 4:58

So like there's a video on our website, scoheninsurancecom, that says you know, for the more of the personal lines customer, you know, if you're married with you know two cars and a college degree, you may get a better rate over at this place. Or you may, if you have this thing with a single car and you know you're young, you may get a better rate at this one. So we like to find the right carriers for the right customer to be able to fit their needs and where that, where that goes, and to be able to fit their needs and where that goes, and then also to be able to shop around and work for our customers so that they can spend their time with their families and to do things that they would rather be doing out with friends, spending time at their job, doing what they do best. So we represent several different companies and we shop the rates to find the best policy and premium that we can find for them. Policy and premium that we can find for them.

Speaker 2: 5:45

So there's so much nuance that goes into matching somebody with the proper coverage. People tend to be a little too self-reliant sometimes and they just go out and they just do what's convenient. Having somebody like you run interference for them can help them be in a much better position. So when you're looking at advising people, do you find there's a particular area where maybe they are a bit underinsured?

Speaker 3: 6:18

area where maybe they are a bit underinsured. Oh, you know, the easy answer to that is probably, on just a personal line's homeowner's insurance, having guaranteed replacement costs so that they're guaranteed that they are going to have their home rebuilt is a big, big thing. And then people don't think about the other structures sometimes other structures being anything detached from the home and making sure that those amounts are adequate. So any of the structure coverages are big. Making sure you have guaranteed replacement costs on that. And then, as far as the business goes, being underinsured a lot of times I see income protection If you're shut down, having your full actual loss sustained or having the proper amount of cyber coverage for a data breach, because some people don't realize how much that I think cyber insurance is. Then cyber liability is the new general liability and that is something that people just don't really account for a lot of times as the impact that it might have if, if you are breached in in multiple ways impact that it might have if you are breached in multiple ways.

Speaker 2: 7:21

Yeah, we've got a friend who's in banking and she has talked a lot recently about fraud in the banking industry just having identity stolen, things like that and she mentioned to us actually this morning how it's just happening more and more and more so is that something that you're talking about, that? If you have coverage like that, then you're a little more insulated from something like that when it happens to you.

Speaker 3: 7:46

Yeah, so as a business, you have multiple facets of how that coverage wants to come into play and then how, how it happens. So majority of the cyber breaches are social, social engineering. So somebody acting you know, a fraudster, acting like they are somebody that they're not and getting access to your computer in one way or another, or your information. But there's also your, your customer's information, you know, being able to, to notify customers there has been a data breach and responding to that and then making sure that you can spent years pouring into or your social media page or your customer's information. There's just so many different aspects of it that you you know the cost of it will bankrupt companies and small, medium or large. So having the cyber liability coverage to be able to cover the expense of being able to get that information, cover the response to the customers and then being able to have the coverage for the impact that it has on your business, on the level that it impacts you for doing your day-to-day and how much income that affects you.

Speaker 2: 9:14

Yeah, the type of coverage I guess you hope you never have to use, but if you do, then thank God you have it. A question I've heard people ask you in the past I think this is a pretty common one is if somebody steals my golf clubs out of my car, is that covered? And if so, is it covered under my auto or is it covered under my homeowners?

Speaker 3: 9:33

That's a good question. Which one do you think?

Speaker 2: 9:38

Homeowners.

Speaker 3: 9:40

It is Correct answer. Yeah, that's if you, if you and a lot of renters don't. When they rent they don't, they just do auto insurance and they think the property is covered in their, in their auto. No, it's. You can have it endorsed sometime for personal effects with certain carriers, but most of the time it's covered under your homeowner's insurance and subject to the homeowner's insurance deductible Usually a thousand dollars for a homeowner's policy, typically $500 on average for a renter's insurance policy.

Speaker 2: 10:12

Okay, Renter's insurance, I think, is a big thing right now. I hadn't even thought about that until you mentioned it. I know that with interest rates and the way the mortgage industry is right now, more and more people are renting and so they've got to remember to get that renter's insurance. It's not that expensive and it can really come in handy. There's all sorts of things that could happen and you've got to be covered there. So tell me your family. Man, I know that. Tell us about your family.

Speaker 3: 10:44

Well, I got three little kids. And looking at my beautiful bride, caitlin, and my three lovely kids Elkin, livia and Abigail, who just turned eight yesterday oh, happy birthday. Yeah, she's a rebellious one. She takes after her dad Definitely. She's definitely the one who doesn't want to listen to anything that anybody has to say. She knows it all already.

Speaker 2: 11:15

So what do you guys like to do for fun as a family when you're not working?

Speaker 3: 11:19

You know we love traveling. So the kids are trying to collect all the junior ranger badges. We take them to different national parks all the time. We were trying to do like one a month but we've really slowed down a lot. We love going to the national parks. We love the outdoors a lot. We love going to the national parks, we love the outdoors. I'll take them up to Topgolf and we'll just hit balls every once in a while. Yeah, we're going to Silver Lake and hanging out. They enjoy the pool.

Speaker 2: 11:49

OK, maybe our our next business meeting can be a top golf. I've got a top golf card burning a hole in my wallet right now, so I love it.

Speaker 3: 12:01

I can help you with that.

Speaker 2: 12:02

All right. So when people call your your office there I know you've got staff there that helps you do what you do why don't you give them a shout out who works in your office there?

Speaker 3: 12:14

I'll give them more than a shout out. I'll give them praise and worship because they are everything. I'll start with Christy, because they say she's the rock who holds this place together. Christy is my personal lines account manager. So if you ever need anything with auto home umbrella, she's the one that gets it done, she makes it, she makes the sphere keeps spinning, um.

Speaker 3: 12:38

And then we have davey, who came on to us like seven months, came on with us about seven months ago. Um, he is a cut, he's our. He's right now customer service service agent transitioning to our sales representative. So he's doing that. And then Jason Diffner is my commercial lines account manager. I've known Jason for 14 years and I say he literally wrote the book on commercial insurance because he wrote some coursework for designation classes and it's taught a lot of agents that sell insurance about commercial insurance. He's a great, great asset for us. And then Lori, my mother-in-law, worked part time for us and doing a lot of fill in work and helping me with a lot of administrative work, and she has 23 years of experience in an independent agency, coming from Washington State.

Speaker 2: 13:34

Well, it really is a family affair there. I had no idea Lori was your mother-in-law. Yeah, yeah, so okay, well, that's cool, you know. A couple of times before we wrap up, you have mentioned umbrella policies three or four times during the conversation. Tell us what is an umbrella policy in its simplest form and why do we need an umbrella policy?

Speaker 3: 13:56

I term umbrella policies sometimes lawsuit policies, because they usually come into play if there's a lawsuit. Somebody is suing somebody else. They cover things that a homeowner's insurance policy doesn't. They also can cover things that a business policy doesn't do not either, but they typically will follow after a underlying policy, either an auto or a homeowner's insurance policy. They're also called personal liability policies or catastrophe liability policies and they go over your auto and your homeowner's insurance to cover any excess or things that may not be covered by a policy auto insurance, homeowners insurance, business insurance policy. In case of a lawsuit, majority on the auto and homeowners insurance sides of it that I see come into play are fatality and auto accidents, dog bite claims and then rental properties liability claims, sometimes as well the business side of it. It's usually more of the employment practices If someone has an employee and there's some practices that are damaging another person.

Speaker 3: 15:18

Those are usually where I see those come into play.

Speaker 2: 15:22

Okay. Well, is there such a thing as being overinsured? Have you ever seen that?

Speaker 3: 15:30

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:30

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 15:30

I mean there's definitely times where there may be a coverage that may not be applicable to someone you know. A contractor doing work may not need advertising injury, you know, in that scenario. But sometimes they're just included in a bundle. That's a part of it, uh, and not necessarily added on there. But yes, there's definitely ways that you can be over-insured. Um, there's more ways that people are under-insured, like that contractor not thinking he needs cyber liability. But if I just heard a story a couple of weeks ago where somebody had a larger contractor but they had a supplier that had their system hacked and the supplier went on vacation, the accounting department person went on vacation and their computer was hacked and when they went on vacation then they sent an invoice to the contractor. The contractor paid the invoice but they were paying it to the fraudster and so they were out. I think it was $30,000 or something on an invoice. Oh my God, that's something that. Why would a contractor need a lot of cyber liability? It's not something that's thought of a lot.

Speaker 2: 16:48

So it's worth sitting down with a professional such as yourself to just kind of take a look at the situation you're in in life or business, what's on the horizon for you, what maybe applies now that didn't apply 10 years ago, or vice versa, and just by sitting with you you'll get us covered.

Speaker 3: 17:09

In terms of making sure we're covered, I would like I'd like to think so, and it's a lot of times people will say I'll just send you over my declaration pages. Well, they might've wrote that policy five years ago. I'd rather talk to you about what you have now and figure out how we would like, how we'd be able to cover those things and get you better covered at a better premium and offer you better service as well, so we can, all around, give you better value.

Speaker 2: 17:32

Well, that sounds fair. So if somebody wants to have that conversation with you, how do they reach you?

Speaker 3: 17:37

Well, there's no better way than just pick up the phone. We'd love to talk with you or come down to our office. You can reach us at 859-694-2284. Or you can come down to the office here in Bellevue. We're right off the avenue on Taylor Avenue and Fairfield Avenue. 215, Taylor Avenue, Bellevue, Kentucky.

Speaker 2: 18:00

Perfect. Well, thanks for spending time with us today, Sean. I appreciate you taking time out of your day. You are one of the busiest people I know. I'm sure that while you and I have been talking, you've missed probably 10 phone calls that are backing up in your queue right now. So go get them, big guy.

Speaker 3: 18:20

I silenced them all for you, Mike, and we'll keep on answering the phone for everybody that's calling.

Speaker 2: 18:28

This was time well spent, allowing people to know you a little bit better and know a little more about Esco and insurance. So, that being said, thanks for checking in with us today, everybody, and until next time be good to your neighbors. Bye, bye.

Speaker 1: 18:44

Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Union. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPUnioncom. That's GNPUnioncom, or call us at 859-651-8330.