Contingency Planning: a "Living Document"

According to a recent study by "American Agent and Broker" 50% of companies have a distaster recovery plan in place, but more than 60% of these companies have not revised the plan or conducted mock drills in the past 12 months.

From my perspective as a risk consultant and broker, the more time a company spends on preparing and planning for recovery the less time they actually spend in the recovery stage. Most insurance buyers know that commercial insurance is a form of catastrophic coverage, but fail to realize is that "insurance" will not address the claim proactively. Taking a proactive approach to a catastrophe will help mitigate the loss and keep the business going through a loss. A proactive approach would include the following:

1. Develop a committee to revise and/or create your company's Contingency Plan. Include your insurance broker on the committee.

2. Conduct a Mock Drill

3. Revise

4. Create a plan for the committee to meet on a semi-regular basis.

Generally, companies that are uprepared suffer two fates from a catastrophe: either they lose income or go out of business.

Enclosed is a guide to Contingency Planning.