A smart business owner recognizes the importance of having the right business insurance coverage to protect his or her company against the many risks that can undermine its financial viability and threaten the livelihood of both owners and employees.

Despite this appreciation of business insurance, there are several insurance policies that may be overlooked by many owners. Among them are:

• Employment practices liability insurance can protect businesses against employee claims such as discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination. Most commercial liability policies exclude employment practices liability claims.
• Hired and non-owned auto insurance may be beneficial for businesses without commercial vehicles. The use of personal cars in the course of conducting business can open a company up to unanticipated risk. When an employee uses his or her personal car to perform a work-related task, any accident or liability arising from that use is generally not covered, potentially leaving both the employee and the business unprotected. Moreover, businesses are also liable when an employee rents a car for business purposes.
• Credit insurance can cover the exposure of unpaid customer receivables. The advantages of this coverage lie not only in that it may provide cash to the business for qualifying bad receivables, but banks may offer more favorable lending access to businesses that have it.
• Cyber insurance can help to offset costs of a data breach, including investigation, notification and credit monitoring services, while also protecting against the costs of lawsuits and cyber extortion. With over 86% of organizations compromised by at least one cyber attack, no business should operate without the appropriate levels of cyber business insurance.¹
• Employee benefits liability insurance can be valuable for businesses that offer health insurance, a pension, tuition assistance, etc. This insurance covers any mistakes that occur in the benefit’s administration that harms an employee. For instance, not putting a new employee on a health plan and not discovering the mistake until an employee submits medical claims for reimbursement.

Of course, the appropriate business insurance coverage will differ from company to company, which is why business owners should meet with their insurance professional and discuss the risks not covered by their current policies, as well as what they can do to fill in the insurance gaps.

Source:

1. https://www.comparitech.com/vpn/cybersecurity-cyber-crime-statistics-facts-trends/

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