In today's world, commercial property owners encounter amultitude of risks. Whether it's the greater frequency of severestorms like last year's Superstorm Sandy, preparation forappropriate emergency response in light of the recent shoppingcenter bombing in Kenya, or some unforeseen force majeure,landlords/owners/developers need to ensure thatthey are appropriately insured to not only reducerisk, but also to manage risk appropriately after a disasteroccurs.

Review Your Policy. The firststep any owner should take when approaching disaster planning is athorough review of the insurance policies for each site. Too manytimes the policy is thrown in a file and only picked up after anincident occurs. That's just too late. Like other aspects ofyour business that are reviewed on a regular basis, so too shouldyou review your insurance policies.

It is vital to not only understand what insurance coverage youhave, but also to review with sound counsel what you truly need.For example, questions to ask include:

• What are the policy limits? And, should they be increased ordecreased?
• Are their endorsements pertaining to certain losses like a“hurricane” loss and/or “terrorism” incident?
• What are your deductible limits?

Categorize Your PotentialLosses. The differences in “loss” and “coverage”for commercial landlords can vary greatly. During the last year,how many news stories featured a property owner who did not havethe appropriate coverage in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy?Instead of obtaining an insurance check to rebuild, the owner islost without the appropriate capital to make improvements and isleft with a vacant, unusable piece of real estate.