"Eleven Easy Ways to Destroy Your Company", and other insurance news...

Chicago businessman Jay Goltz has a great small-business column in today's New York Times. The title sums it up: "Eleven Easy Ways to Destroy Your Company."

It's a fun read, covering things as mundane as the hazards of underinflated tires and of space heaters plugged into a cheap extension cord. But look at No. 8:

8. Insurance. I asked my insurance broker what the three biggest small-business insurance failings were. His response: 1) understating insurance to value; 2) not having employment-practices insurance; 3) not having business-income replacement coverage to replace lost revenue until the company is up and running again. It is no secret that the insurance companies are in a much bigger hurry to settle a claim when they are paying out money every week to replace that income.

Other news of the day: ING, the Dutch financial services company is divesting itself of its insurance operations, the New York Times reports.

In Congress, imminent health care legislation in the House "is likely to include a new long-term care insurance program to help seniors and disabled people stay out of nursing homes," according to the Associated Press.

And in Washington state, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler's calling for a broader joint underwriting authority law, so that the state could step in when a local insurance market collapses, as it has in the river valley below the Howard Hanson Dam.