Should a restaurant group have one renewal date?
Usually, yes. When every store renews on a different date, the group never goes to market as one account, every separate policy carries its own minimum premium, and each renewal is another chance for a lapse. Lining the dates up, by writing a policy for a short term or extending another once, lets the whole program be estimated, priced and shopped together. The exceptions are a store owned with different partners and a lender that requires its own policy.
Why the dates scatter
A group's insurance is usually bought one store at a time. Each location gets its policies when it opens, often under its own company, and each lease, lender or franchise agreement adds requirements of its own. That is how a program grows. Five companies with a package policy, a liquor policy, a workers' comp policy and an umbrella each come to twenty policies, each with its own date.
Minimum premiums stack the same way. Liquor liability minimums alone often run $500 to $1,000 a policy, so five separate liquor policies pay five floors.
What one date changes
One renewal is one submission: every store's sales and payroll, every company's claims and the next twelve months for the whole group, in front of carriers at the same time. The specialty restaurant programs built for groups of two to ten units are designed to see the group as one account. It also means one ninety-day renewal process instead of one every few weeks, and one date on which to confirm that every company and every location is on the policies.
How the dates get lined up
Pick the date, often the renewal of the largest policy. As each other policy comes up, it is written for a short term that ends on that date, or the policy on the target date is extended to meet it. Within a year everything renews together, and nothing goes without coverage in between.
One date does not have to mean one policy. Separate policies for each company on a common renewal date is a standard setup, and it keeps each company's limits its own. Workers' comp is often priced as one group anyway, because the rating bureau combines commonly owned companies: What is a good experience mod for a restaurant?
The two exceptions
A store owned with different partners or investors can keep its own date and its own policies, so its owners are not sharing limits or claims with companies they do not own. A lender may require its own policy on the location it financed. Neither is a reason to leave the rest of the group scattered.
The last of the ten questions on the insurance check is this one. Once the dates are lined up, the next question is when to start: When should a restaurant group shop its insurance?