Lost baggage, travel delays and disruptions, illness, accident or injury are the most common of claim types. However, there are many other issues that will require extra cover; will you be partaking in a diving trip, going skiing or even sailing?

See our checklist below which outlines some tips to ensure you have adequate travel insurance and DO NOT invalidate your cover:

• Have you purchased the correct policy? Instead of looking at the cost of the cover instead review the content; does it include cover for consequential loss or high-risk sports?
• Have you declared a pre-existing medical condition? Failure to do so may void your policy
• Should you suffer illness or injury, does your cover include medical expenses, repatriation and compensation for missed holiday?
• In the event of theft or burglary you must be able to evidence the loss via a police report, as well as providing proof of ownership
• Insurers will not pay out to those under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or to those fighting as a result of the effects of either. You may be able to claim if you can prove it was an act of self-defence
• Ensure your buildings and contents insurance is up-to-date as you will be leaving your property unattended for the duration of your holiday. Have an accurate inventory of valuable items, as well as considering items stored in sheds and garages.

Our key advice is DO NOT advertise on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter that you will be away as by making personal information available online, such as if you are away from home, may invalidate your cover.

The below case highlights the dangers of putting too much personal information online:

In September 2010 Wisbech magistrates’ court heard that Peter Trower, 22 and Joseph McLennan, 18, monitored Facebook accounts waiting for the “perfect opportunity” to rob a home in the town.

Trower, knew the victims’ daughter and had been to the house before. When he fell out with the family, he hatched a plan for “revenge” and, being a “friend” of theirs on Facebook, had access to their status updates. When the family posted they were going away, the pair ransacked the property and stole computers, jewellery, DVDs and a purse. They were caught red-handed after being spotted by a neighbour. Both admitted burglary.

Detective Chief Inspector Ian Tandy, from Cambridgeshire police, said “I would urge the public to be cautious when using social media, ensuring you know who has access to your personal information and take full advantage of the privacy settings available.”

Use your phone to protect your home
In America, Vince Hunter was able to stop burglars from breaking into his home – by using his iPhone while more than 1,400 miles away from his house. He used a £2.60 application called iCam available from the App Store, which allowed him to monitor his home security system. Motion sensors picked up the movements of two burglars at his home in Dallas, Texas, and alerted him with a text message.

Hunter, who was visiting his parents more than 1,400 miles away, was able to tap into his security system via his iPhone and watch what was happening.

Our advice is to enjoy your holiday, but by taking these simple yet smart steps it will ensure you have the perfect holiday and return!

Contact us
For more information on TravelPlus, Perkins Slade’s comprehensive travel insurance policy, call Carrie-Anne Chatterton on 0121 698 8072 or email c.chatterton@perkins-slade.com or call Debbie Swain on 0121 698 8096 or email d.swain@perkins-slade.com

Perkins Slade is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

With just under four weeks to go we are well under way with preparations for BIBA 2012, 16-17 May, at Manchester Central. Journalist and broadcaster Andrew Marr will be chairing our trade credit seminar, and with an array of credit-themed cocktails available on our stand, you’d be mad to miss out!

BIBA Credit Management and Bonds Scheme, arranged by Perkins Slade, will be at stand E55. Our experienced team will be on hand to present this unique scheme exclusively for brokers.

The BIBA 2012 conference offers the perfect forum to meet with the BIBA Credit Management and Bonds team, come along to stand E55 to learn more about the scheme and join us for a mocktail – or even a cocktail prepared by our professional cocktail mixologist.

On Thursday 17th May, 10.30am, Associate Director and Credit Team Manager, Sally Del Principe, will be participating in the seminar on trade credit insurance. This lively session, chaired by Andrew Marr, will explore and explain how brokers can help their clients to cover their trade credit risks, and where to get that specialist help, whilst creating an additional income stream for themselves. Click here for more information or to register for BIBA 2012.

We look forward to seeing you at the show.

In addition, the financial burden on businesses looks set to increase as cases of workplace stress reach a four-year high, with British workers being the most stressed compared to colleagues in some of the world’s biggest economies. A study of 60,000 workers showed the UK’s stress level has risen by 10% since 2008; high stress levels can decrease productivity and lead to an increase in absences as stressed individuals are tired and particularly susceptible to illness.

With further Government reforms, budget cuts and 18-week waiting lists at hospitals – can you really afford not to consider looking after the health of your staff?

Why do you need Private Medical Insurance (PMI)?
Under health and safety legislation, as an employer, you have a duty of care to protect your employee’s health and manage the risk effectively. If a member of your staff falls ill, PMI enables them to gain access to treatment quickly, bypassing lengthy waiting lists and reducing the time that they are absent from work.

PMI also demonstrates that businesses value their staff which helps to reduce staff turnover and attract high-calibre candidates.

Why use the services of Perkins Slade for your Private Medical Insurance?
As an independent intermediary, we can offer you a tailored solution from all of the largest PMI providers. We have already helped many of our commercial clients to set up schemes designed to meet their employees’ needs. We understand the demands on you as an employer to provide peace of mind and protection to your staff, both in the UK and abroad.

There are varying levels of cover available which can be for the individual or tailored to include their families. The plan covers the cost of private medical specialists, x-rays, drugs, surgery, accommodation and nursing bills in a private hospital or ward in an NHS hospital, and is designed to cover treatment for curable, short-term illness or injury.

If you have staff that regularly travel or live and work abroad, it is essential that an appropriate plan is in place. Perkins Slade offers International PMI cover which is an added reassurance when encountering issues such as foreign medical administration procedures and potential language barriers. It can be very expensive and difficult to access treatment when away from home.

Perkins Slade also offers Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) and cash plans, which include holistic treatments, optical and dental plans, or up to 16 treatments of physiotherapy per year. The EAP further provides counselling for matters such as stress, anxiety, bereavement, depression and even help on quitting smoking.

Sickness and absence statistics

• In 2010/11 around 26.4 million working days were lost in total, 22.1 million due to work-related illness and 4.4 million due to workplace injuries
• On average, each person suffering took around 15 days off work
• The number of working days lost has fallen over the past decade
• Stress, depression or anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders accounted for the majority of days lost
• The average days lost per case for stress, depression or anxiety is 27 days.

For more information on days lost visit: www.hse.gov.uk

Contact
Whether you require advice on setting up a group policy, international PMI cover, individual cover or information about a cash plan, you can be confident that Perkins Slade will maintain the excellent level of service and commitment you have come to expect. We will be able to provide an informed decision on the best product to suit your needs.

Please contact Gaynor Lane on 0121 698 8174 or email g.lane@perkins-slade.com

Perkins Slade is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

‘Coach you’re the Best’ was the first Perkins Slade social media competition, it ran for a total of 18 weeks. The purpose of the competition, and future ones, is to demonstrate to NGBs, coaches and instructors, our commitment to investment and training of future champions.

It is the talented ice-skating stars of tomorrow, like those that looked on as Simon received his prize, who will benefit from the training equipment Simon is planning to purchase with the vouchers.

Pictured L-R: Richard Doubleday, Director of Sport at Perkins Slade, Simon Briggs and Alan Seabrook

Despite being a relatively late entry Simon received tremendous support, finishing the competition with more than 3,600 votes.

Lea Valley Ice Rink was the welcome host of the presentation and NISA President, Alan Seabrook, was also present to congratulate his fellow board member on his win.

Simon has been coaching for almost 20 years and skating from the age of 3. During his career as a skater he won the British Junior Championships in 1989 and represented Great Britain on a number of occasions at International events. Coaching career highlights include training skaters that have reached British championship, junior world, senior European and world championship level.

To see Simon’s full interview please visit our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/PerkinsSlade

Perkins Slade would once again like to congratulate the other 100 coaches that were nominated, from sports including Ultimate Frisbee, Shooting, Rowing, American Football and Gymnastics, to name but a few. The tremendous response we received to this campaign is testimony to the dedication, commitment and inspiration these coaches provide. More than 9,000 people took the opportunity to say “thank you” to their coach for helping them to become better at their sport, win a medal or for just making sport fun.

If you would like to keep up-to-date with future competitions and insurance issues that relate to your sport follow us on Twitter @PerkinsSlade or like our Face Book page /PerkinsSladeInsurance

Perkins Slade is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Last year UK product recall jumped 27%, the second year in a row. This has been driven in part, by increasing regulatory pressure, the influx of cheap goods and through the economic downturn. The rise has created an increased financial burden at a time when businesses are still struggling.

What is driving the increase?
Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP said last year’s increase was driven by a rise in faulty electrical consumer products. RPC partner Stuart White commented, “From natural disasters to political unrest, the last 12 months has seen substantial supply chain disruptions. These will inevitably have put pressure on manufacturers who may well turn to third or fourth tier suppliers to cope with the supply shortage.”

Intense competition has forced a focus on reduced production costs, which has led to sourcing from overseas suppliers, resulting in complex and extended supply chains, posing a greater challenge to quality assurance.

What is the impact?
Product recalls can have substantial cost implications and impact on the reputation of a business. If consumers lose confidence in the brand and the product, loss of sales and the effect on profits can be enormous.

In 2010, Toyota suffered an estimated $2bn (£1.26bn) in extra costs as a result of a global safety recall which affected millions of cars, as it attempted to address safety concerns following the recall of millions of cars with potentially lethal acceleration faults.

Photo source: Ahmad Faizal Yahya / Shutterstock.com

Toyota officials said the projected $2bn cost of the recall includes an estimated ¥70bn to ¥80bn in lost sales. The firm said it had not factored in the potential costs of a new defect reported in its Prius hybrid model that could result in yet another recall.

Toyota’s battle to repair its battered reputation suffered another setback after it admitted it was looking into around 180 complaints about brake problems in its flagship green hybrid.

It had already recalled more than 8million other vehicles worldwide to repair defective accelerator pedals and floor mats. The most recent recall, of 4.45million vehicles, includes 2.3million in the US and 180,000 in the UK.

In some cases some product defects can be fatal. In September 2011, a blaze in which a mother and five of her children died could have been caused by a faulty fridge at the centre of a mass recall. Police said they believed the tragedy was caused by an electrical fault of the fridge, which was later confirmed by the London Fire Brigade’s investigation Team who had identified a link between a faulty switch on the appliances after a series of fires.

Legislative issues
Tightened legislation and better enforcement is driving increased scrutiny of product safety by enforcement authorities. Authorities are now empowered to levy fines and enforce a product recall. The maximum penalty for directors in the UK is imprisonment.

What can you do?
You cannot completely eradicate any chance of a product issue arising. However, by adopting a more robust approach to risk management you can minimise the likelihood of a recall and the potential impact upon your organisation.

Review your current policy, is product recall covered? Key features to look for include: pre-recall, recall and third party recall expenses, post-loss crisis, crisis consultancy, malicious extortion, loss of gross profit and contamination and/or defect cover.

Perkins Slade recommends the following actions:

• Implement a product recall plan and have a crisis plan, should it be required.
• Introduce effective product safety controls, personnel training, auditing of suppliers and rigorous testing processes at all stages of product development, design and production process.
• Ensure contractual controls with suppliers are in place to allow the risk to be passed back if a supplier’s components have caused the problem.
• Limit run sizes to ensure swift identification of the defective products.
• Keep back a sample from each run (to be tested if/when a company is deciding whether a recall is necessary).
• Ensure all production areas (UK/worldwide) have consistent standards of quality and controls, including testing and reporting procedures.

Contact
If you would like to discuss any aspect of product safety and recall insurance or supply chain risk, please call your usual Perkins Slade contact, alternatively telephone 0121 698 8000 or email b.ramos@perkins-slade.com  who is available to advise on the coverage you will need to protect against such eventualities.

For up-to-date product recall information visit: www.tradingstandards.gov.uk

Perkins Slade is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

More than 8000 votes have been received for the 101 coaches that have now been nominated.

• 1st – Ice skating coach – Simon Briggs
• 2nd – Ice skating coach, Gillian Otterson
• 3rd – Ice skating coach, Andrea McCully
• 4th – Shooting coach, Malcolm West
• 5th – Ultimate Frisbee coach, Dan Furnell
• 6th – Rowing coach, James Wilton
• 7th – Rowing coach, Seamus Reynolds
• 8th – American Football coach, Rob Lowe
• 9th – Rowing Coach, Al Horn
• 10th – Gymnastics coach, Andi Revell

Is your sport or your coach in the top 10? If not, click on the drop-down to view the list of coaches and vote now.

Full competition terms and conditions. Permission must be granted by the person being nominated.

We have now received over 8,000 votes. With only 5 days left the top ten coaches and their sports looks like this:

• 1st – Ice skating coach – Simon Briggs
• 2nd – Ice skating coach, Andrea McCully
• 3rd – Ice skating coach, Gillian Otterson
• 4th – Shooting coach, Malcolm West
• 5th – Ultimate Frisbee coach, Dan Furnell
• 6th – Rowing coach, James Wilton
• 7th – Rowing coach, Seamus Reynolds
• 8th – American Football coach, Rob Lowe
• 9th – Gymnastics coach, Andi Revell
• 10th – Rowing coach, Al Horn

It is time to encourage all your team members to vote for your coach and ensure they win this great prize!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive competition updates and read our weekly blog.

Full competition terms and conditions. Permission must be granted by the person being nominated.

Perkins Slade is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

The Scheme launched on the 20^th January 2011 is exclusively for BIBA members. Being a member of the scheme allows access to expert advice on credit risks and provides a range of solutions designed to improve financial security and credit control; establishing disciplines that can help businesses to grow and prosper.

To mark the anniversary and in response to valuable broker feedback the BIBA Credit Management and Bonds Scheme today launch the Broker Support function of the scheme. This valueable development has been designed to assist BIBA Brokers in making it easier to promote the Schemes’ products and services to clients.

For more information on the Scheme please contact us

The success of the Scheme was also recognised at the 2011 UNITAS Annual Conference

Darren Felsenstein, Credit Development Executive at Perkins Slade was runner up in the Annual Achievement Award, from a pool of 9 nominees. Darren was nominated due to his successful introduction of the BIBA Credit Management & Bonds Scheme. Commenting on his award Darren said “It was a real honour to be nominated, and to be runner up is a great success, although it would have been a massive achievement personally and professionally to have won”.

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) @BIBAbroker is the UK ‘s leading general insurance organisation representing the interests of insurance brokers, intermediaries and their customers.

UNITAS Alliance Ltd represents 13 of the largest and highly respected independent regional insurance brokers from across the UK.

Perkins Slade is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Perkins Slade is celebrating the start of 2012 by welcoming Darren Rowe to the company as Managing Director Corporate*. Darren has more than 20 years experience in the insurance industry with senior roles at both PowerPlace and Towergate and will have board responsibility for Perkins Slade’s Corporate and Credit divisions.

The news of Darren Rowe’s appointment follows the announcement of new directorships for Julia Harrop, Mark Ford and Aslam Ismail. Perkins Slade’s new team of Executive Directors for 2012 is therefore now as follows:-

• Nick Tamblyn, Chief Executive
• Richard Doubleday, Managing Director Sport and Recreation
• Darren Rowe, Managing Director Corporate
• Julia Harrop, Client Service Director
• Mark Ford, Broking Director
• Aslam Ismail, Finance and IT Director

As previously announced, Ron Forrest resumes as Chairman following David Slade’s decision to move to a Non-Executive role.

Commenting on the changes, Chief Executive, Nick Tamblyn, said,

“We are delighted to welcome Darren to Perkins Slade, his experience, professionalism and expertise make him a valuable addition to our executive team. He’ll play a key role, along with our new board, in defining and implementing our strategy for business development and client retention, enabling us to take advantage of the market opportunities ahead.”

Darren Rowe added, “I am delighted to be joining such a well established brokerage and taking up this unique opportunity which will enable me to utilise my experience to the full as we build on the success that has been enjoyed by Perkins Slade over the past 40 years.”

Further information

For more information about this press release contact Rachael Sherrey on 0121 698 8132, 07971 408 434 or by email to r.sherrey@perkins-slade.com.

* Subject to FSA approval

At 4pm Thursday 12^th January the leader board looked like this:

671 - Andrea McCully – Ice Skating coach
615 - Gillian Otterson – Ice Skating coach
396 – Dan Furnell – Ultimate Frisbee coach
375 - James Wilton – Rowing coach
230 - Seamus Reynolds – Rowing coach
224 - Rob Lowe – American Football coach
212 – Andi Revell – Gymnastics coach
208 - Lois Miller – Cheer Leading coach
152 – Debbie Saunders – Gymnastics coach
139 – Roxanne Edmonds – Cheer Leading coach

But this could still all change! The competition will run until midnight on 31^st January 2012, so there is still plenty of time to vote.

The ‘Coach, you’re the best’ competition is an opportunity for you to say thank you to that special person who has made you better at your sport, helped you to win a medal or just makes it fun. Check now to see if your coach has been nominated by using the ‘Select a Coach’ drop down on the right. If your coach has been nominated, enter your email address into the field at the top of the page and click the ‘Vote’ button to register your vote, and don’t forget to tell your friends and fellow team members.

Read our full competition terms and conditions. You must have the permission of the person you are nominating.

Perkins Slade is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.