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Today, I’m going to take on a question that I’m asked alot from doctors, mostly from people who are sick and tired of paying outrageous insurance premiums to protect themselves from the inevitable lawsuits we have in the United States. Well, the question is, “Rob, if you do great asset protection for me, can I just get rid of my insurance”?
“I’m sick of paying $100,000 a year of insurance company for a policy that I’m not even sure is going to protect me if I’m sued. So, make me poor, protect everything”. Well guys, it doesn’t work that way. What I’m here to tell you is that asset protection planning is very important. It’s as important as any of your business planning, but it is not an alternative or a substitute for insurance.
Insurance is good because it provides you a defense. That’s what I like about insurance. Insurance provides you with a defense and that’s oftentimes the worst part about being sued. It’s a horrible process. There’s no such thing as a good lawsuit as you’ll soon learn. It’s even worse if you don’t have somebody paying your legal fees. So, take this home with you, rule number seven:
Asset protection planning is not a substitute for insurance. Get your insurance. Get high deductibles if you want and don’t count on your insurance to always protect you. Insurance companies are great at putting loopholes and ways for them to get out of honoring the handshake contract you at least think you have, and they’re getting worse as money gets tighter. Don’t look at asset protection as something you can do and then forget about insurance. It doesn’t work that way.
I once had all the baby doctors, all the obstetricians and gynecologists in one city up in Oregon fly me in. I protected all seven of them. It wasn’t that big of a city. We all got together. Each one of them is well-protected.
Each one of them is essentially judgment proof. Each one of them still maintains errors and omissions insurance because each of them is going to get sued; because as you know-at least as they know, if you’re delivering babies, you become almost equivalent of a guarantor of a perfect birth. It’s the same in many other fields. So, get your insurance because it provides you a defense.