Your Liability world awaits....

Combining consistency with reliability is the end goal.  My job is to eliminate as many 'insurable' hurdles and provide the programme that ensures you are protected against as many 'insurable' risks endemic to your profession as the market will allow. (I have to stress the word 'insurable' here as the reality is, no policy covers everything)

Being pretty good at separating perceived risk from actual risk, I can help you with the more traditional liability accounts (over to your right), as well as craft coverage for complex or hard-to-place professions.

Back in the day when professionals (like accountants, lawyers) made a mistake, they would have to pay any remedial compensation to their client from their own pockets, limited only by the value of their assets. They could literally 'lose the shirt off their back' if their mistake was a real doozy and so, insurance policies to protect against these losses were created.

Today, the increasing reliance of businesses on the contracted services provided by many occupations has widened the scope of the term 'professional', and a professional is regarded as any person or firm offering specialist advice or services. The risks are as significant as ever and mistakes can still lose a professional their business and their reputation without adequate liability cover.  

Here are some of the foundations on which to build a sound liability programme...

Professional Indemnity 

Can also be called Errors and Omissions , E&O or Professional Liability

But it all means the same thing.  Cover for any unintentional mistakes you are accused of making while your providing the professional advice, service or design that your Clients' have paid you the big bucks for.  And yes, it has to be unintentional, we don't want anyone going all Jack Torrence and thinking this policy is going to clean up the mess.

Public Liability 

aka Broadform Liability, General Liability or Personal Injury and Property Damage)

Think of any injury to a person or breaking stuff that isn't yours while on the job and this is Public Liability.  In the Professional Occupational sense this is usually covering one's butt for lease obligations in a tenancy/landlord environment.  It also comes in handy where you're involved in selling Products (your own or reselling) or if you've got other peoples property in your care (think IT servicing)

Management Liability 

The 'on trend' term for a suite of insurance products that include the big kahunas' commonly known as Directors and Officers Liability and Company Liability.

The best way to describe Management Liability is (aside from a necessity in this day in age) cover for mistakes you make in running your business.  Think Directors fiduciary duty, mistakes made in an employment process, poor choices at a workplace function or financial practices that could get you a free visit from IRD.

The NZ market provides two options.  Standard off the shelf (often an aggregated limit across all sections or a standard limit per section with no flexibility to 'insure' against or not) or Modular (where flexibility over limits and policy types is tailored to suit).

In conjunction with the big kahuna's above, the Management Liability 'suite' can include the following:

  • Crime Insurance
  • Employment Practices Liability
  • General Liability
  • Employers Liability
  • Statutory Liability
  • Cyber Liability

Associations Liability 

You can probably find an association for almost any profession, the list spans the alphabet. 

It may not be obvious but Associations (including Not for Profit organisations) and their management teams have faced increased liability over the years due to the expectations of responsibility and accountability through the advice or services they provide to their members, or to the public.  

Claims could arise from a participant or observer getting injured at an organised event, you could be in the firing line for Copyright Infringements/Newsletter & Marketing Liabilities such as defamation, libel or slander (or false advertising), you could cite Research that doesn't quite hit the mark, make a bit of mess on a Grant Application or Administration of it , or make a snafu on your Members Certification (or Decertification). 

An association may indemnify its officers for claims made against them arising from the discharge of their duties on its behalf but it's important to note that indemnity isn't a guarantee as there could be insufficient funds or the circumstances may not permit the indemnification to operate.

 

There are few industries which could afford to ignore the legal and regulatory risks of their operations and the not-for-profit sector is not immune. Fines from various government or industry regulatory bodies can reach hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars for very serious breaches.  This doesn't include the costs to defend either which could cripple what was once a healthy and solvent organisation.

Association Liability will address the 'insurable' concerns and liabilities of both the association, plus you can tap into the option of providing liability insurance for your Members as well.  

Cyber Liability

Cyber Criminals don't discriminate their targets

This is a full first and third party policy.  What do I mean by that.  First party is you, the Insured so it covers your Cyber Losses and Third Party, well that's your clients, and this policy covers their Cyber Losses as well.  This is way cooler than the Cyber Liability offered by most Professional Indemnity policies these days as it covers your losses as well as your clients (whereas the cover offered under a Professional Indemnity policy as an extension is strictly third party loss only)

Other Specialist Lines

I just love a good intrigue!  Trade Credit, Bond Guarantees are just a couple of nuggets in this sand

There are many types of insurance options to help protect the business you’ve worked hard to build and while Liability is my lane I also work with property investment clients (upwards of $180m total sum insured) providing them with commercial building , rents and liability programmes along with business property (including fleets), legal liability and employee related risks for small, medium and international companies.

Above all else what excites me is solving problems (not lifes problems, that's another type of professional!) but if you have something 'businessy' and you're not sure where to start , then lets chat about it.