Glenn Jacobs, CIC, CPIA
Fairview Insurance Agency,
Verona, N.J.

Word for word, Glenn Jacobs has read an awful lot of boring rental contracts over the past three years since he began handling the insurance needsof rental store customers in his New Jersey/New York territory. It’s not that he lacks for better reading material, but it’s a service he provides.

“It’s almost like a loss control type of service,” explains Jacobs. And, after working in the insurance business for more than a quarter of a century, you can certainly bet that Jacobs knows a thing or two about loss control. Now a preferred agent with ARA Insurance Services, Jacobs is executive vice president at Fairview Insurance Agency in Verona, N.J.

Sometimes, he has to admit, the customer’s rental agreements are actually in pretty good shape. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of fine-tuning a contract to offer better protection. But on occasion, Jacobs has found it necessary to recommend the customer completely overhaul a contract or, even, put service agreements into place where none had previously existed.

When his rental store customers request it, Jacobs can share with them sample wording for their contracts and examples of certificates of insurance.

“I try to do more consulting and help educate my customers,” Jacobs says. “Just in talking with them, there are a lot of contracts that people will ask me to review for them. Should they sign it? Should they not sign it? I can take a look.”

Many of Jacobs’ customers rent to those in the construction trade and require certificates of insurance before completing a rental contract. But, aside from that, the agreement may be vague as far as who’s responsible for what, Jacobs explains. “Maybe they’ll say, ‘You must provide me limits of coverage,’ but they haven’t clearly stated what the limit should be,” he says. “So, I might look at that and say, ‘You should ask for $1 million in coverage there.’”

“You’re always trying to shift the liability onto the person renting the piece,” he says.

Likewise when rental stores must deliver equipment to a job site and hire a subcontractor to haul the equipment for them. “I’ll recommend they make sure their trucker has proper insurance,” he explains. “I’ll want to make sure there’s cargo coverage, for example. Again, you want to shift that exposure onto the trucker.”

Because most of the larger stores he works with have the luxury of hiring someone specifically to manage their contracts, it’s often the smaller stores that most need Jacobs’ help in evaluating their contracts for potential problems.

“Some of these guys are used to working on a handshake,” he says of the small “mom and pop” operations. “Unfortunately these days, the small stores are exposed to litigation as much as the larger stores when someone gets injured or they have a product liability claim. That why it’s so important to have contracts that protect the rental store.”