Late-night comedian Jay Leno once said “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Teach a man to create an artificial shortage of fish, and he will eat steak.” A mildly funny joke -- unless you’re the client of a PAR firm dealing with its own accidental shortage of fish.

This particular client sold frozen fish. An electrical failure led to the spoilage of the stored fish inventory. The client relied on a third party for storage space and had no control over where the frozen fish were kept.

The PAR agency had replaced the inland marine coverage previously sold to the frozen fish vendor by another agency. In place of the inland marine policy, the PAR-insured firm obtained scheduled-location property insurance. When the fish spoiled, they weren’t even at one of the locations named.

Had the producer conducted a thorough exposure analysis and understood that inland marine coverage was proper, this problem would have been avoided. And, the producer could have provided his client with more than just rotted fish.