Stuart Lee is a rarity: an insurance agent who understands the out of home business and writes policies nationwide.  Stuart is an OAAA member who works for Bassler Insurance in Illinois.  Insider interviewed Stuart last week.  You can contact Stuart at slee@basslerins.com or 312-533-9547 

Stuart, how did you get involved in the out of home business? 

It was about 10 years ago I started handling OOH company insurance. One of my A+ national carriers was working with me on a very competitive basis with great pricing and coverage. Through my contacts in the OOH industry I connected with a small Billboard Operators Association in the heartland. We signed on as an insurance vendor put a nice little banner on their website and the calls and e-mails started to roll in. It became clear that billboard operators were having a very difficult time getting a quality standard insurance carrier to write their coverage at competitive rates.  

What kinds of insurance policies can your company write for the out of home business?

I handle all lines of coverage…property, liability, auto, umbrella, equipment floaters, workers compensation and benefits.  We also insure digital billboards.

Do you write policies nationwide? 

Yes. Through our home office in downtown Chicago we are licensed in all 50 States. Our affiliate, The Rockwood Company, is the oldest insurance agency in the City of Chicago and one of the largest. Through them we have access to many of the leading insurance carriers in the marketplace.

Tell us about the Carrier that writes the policies.

Our primary insurance carrier, Cincinnati Insurance Company is among the nation’s top 25 casulty insurer groups, based on 2015 net written premiums.  Cincinnati Insurance is a Fortune 500 company and is A+ superior rated by AM Best and Company

What mistakes do you see out of home companies make when they look for insurance? 

• Virtually 100% of the insurance carriers in the marketplace exclude Personal & Advertising Injury Coverage on OOH company’s General Liability policies. Which means that if one of their advertisers has a Personal & Advertising Injury law suit, the billboard owner will most likely be named in the suit and have no coverage to protect them.   The way to solve this gap is to include in their contract with all advertisers an insurance clause that requires them to add the billboard operator as an Additional Insured with respect to their General Liability coverage. This is called Risk Transfer.  For no additional fee we assist all of our clients in shoring up their Risk Transfer gaps.

• Many OOH companies will use sub-contractors to do work for them without a solid contract and without any Risk Transfer in place. You should never ever hire a sub-contractor without confirming that they have at least Liability and Workers’ Comp insurance and without having the proper Risk Transfer in place. Many OOH companies think since the sub or independent contractor is on a 1099 they don’t need to worry about them having the property insurance. NOT!!! By not requiring and verifying insurance for their subs, they are opening themselves up to huge risks.   I had an OOH client in Georgia tell me that her lawyer told her she did not need Work Comp coverage for her 1099 sales reps. I didn’t agree with her lawyer so I invested quite a bit of time hunting down the guru at the State of Georgia Work Comp Bureau and when I finally found him,  he informed me that her lawyer was indeed wrong. This guru had decades of experience with these issues and made it quite clear that the Judge would not be taking her lawyers side and if one her 1099s were to get injured on the job, she could be fined thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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