5 Things to know about Personal Umbrella Liability Insurance

May 10, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

5 Things to Know About Personal Umbrella Liability Insurance

In today’s unpredictable, finger pointing world, people can sue you for just about anything so it is important to protect yourself and your money. Without umbrella coverage you may not have enough insurance to protect your assets. Our environment is volatile and random so don’t be caught in the rain without an umbrella. Here are five things everyone should know about Personal Umbrella Liability Insurance.

Excess coverage. Umbrella liability is designed to be excess insurance on top of another policy. An underlying policy such as a homeowners or auto insurance policy must be in place first. Umbrella extends the amount of Liability coverage you have. Say your homeowner’s liability is for the amount of $300,000, if an injury or claim where to exceed the amount stated on the policy the remainder can be your responsibility. For example, a claim for $1,000,000 is filed against you, your Homeowners can cover $300,000 but what about the leftover $700,000? With a personal umbrella the amount exceeding the original policy is covered by the umbrella limits.
It’s for everyone! You don’t have to be super rich to have a personal umbrella policy. Everyone deserves the right to protect what they have worked for their whole lives. This coverage is affordable; hundreds of A+ rated insurance companies have umbrella programs priced for everyone. Enjoying life is what it is all about and you work hard for the little extras in life. If you have an ATV, camper, or boat the opportunity for incident is greater. Protect yourself and start enjoying life.
Broad coverage. You may be faced with a situation that is not covered by your homeowners insurance. If someone were to sue you for slander for instance, this would fall under personal injury Liability which is not usually included in a homeowner’s policy. But if you have umbrella liability in place personal injury is part of the broad coverage of the umbrella so you don’t have to go to your pocket to defend the suite. The umbrella policy is a shield for you and your family filling in gaps of coverage in your home or auto insurance policies. Filling these gaps prevents leaks of coverage that can put your savings, nest egg and college funds at risk.
Prevent Your Ruin. It’s a normal day like any other, except today you are involved in an auto accident, rear ending the car in front of you and injuring the driver. Today is not your lucky day as the person you hit is a corvette driving executive and he is seriously injured and cannot return to his very important job. A jury awards him a multi-million dollar settlement that you have to pay. This can leave you financially ruined. The courts will go after you savings, your home and may even take part of your salary for years. This situation is preventable of course with personal umbrella insurance. Strengthen your insurance policies by adding broader coverage with extended limits.
Worldwide Coverage. If you travel often a personal umbrella provides international coverage for personal liability. Say you are enjoying a pristine golf course in England, the wind is howling and you new clubs are being tested every stroke. Unfortunately your golf game isn’t the greats and with one wild swing you manage to hit a person in the head with your shot. Following the incident the victim is unable to work and looking for compensation. If you are sued for this matter international you are covered as the liability portion of your policy follows you internationally.

Filed Under: Liability Insurance, Umbrella Insurance

What is Workers Compensation?

April 28, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

What is Workers Compensation Insurance?

If you are injured on the job you will require compensation for lost wages and medical bills. But who do you go to for compensation? Before workers compensation laws were enacted employees would have to sue the employer and prove that they were at fault or negligent. This did not help either party and would leave someone with a huge financial loss. After many years of passing laws and countless court cases each state in the union now has some form of compulsory workers compensation law requiring every business with employees to have a worker’s compensation insurance policy in force. This gives every employee the right to medical benefits and wage replacement in case of injury, while relinquishing their right to sue the employer.

How does workers compensation work?
When a business purchases workers compensation insurance they are paying an annual premium for a injury or illness benefit. Workers Comp provides payments for medic bills and lost wages to employees who are hurt on the job and may not return. To receive medical payments and wage replacement a claim must be filed. After treatment is administered the employee needs to contact the employer and file a claim with the insurance carrier. This is the only way benefits can be given out to the employees. A claim will trigger the insurance carrier to review the claim and determine if the policy benefits apply. The insurance carrier will do a thorough investigation reviewing the injury, talking to witnesses and contacting the employer. They are trying to determine if the injury was work related and covered by the insurance. They will investigate the seriousness of the injury the ability of the employee to continue to work. These factors will decide the amount of wage replacement the employee can receive. Please refer to your states workers compensation laws for more details.

For the Employee
The employee is guaranteed the right to medical payments and wage replacement if they are injured or become ill on the job. If injured, workers’ compensation has medical benefits to pay for reasonable medical treatment, prescriptions and hospitalization services related to the work injury. There are different medical benefits for different types of injury. There are temporary total disability benefits, permanent partial benefits, permanent total benefit, and death benefits. These benefits are to help the employee while out of work for an extended period of time usually more than 7 days. Providing wage replacement (generally two-thirds of their wages are paid) and medical payments.

For the Employer
Workers compensation protects the employer from law suit by their employees, with an active workers compensation policy, employees relinquishing their right to sue the employer. This gives the employee confidence that the employer is taking care of them if an injury occurs. Every state has workers compensation laws that the employers need to follow. Compulsory workers compensation law makes it mandatory to provide workers comp or face a penalty from the state. These penalties can be expensive so avoid them and contact your local agent to find out more about the state specific workers compensation law.

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Filed Under: Business Insurance, Workers Compensation

How Errors and Omissions Can Protect Your Business

April 14, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

Professional liability insurance has many names. You can call it professional indemnity insurance, errors and omissions or malpractice insurance. The name depends on the profession you are in. For instance if you are a physician, hospital, clinic or healthcare provider you will call it malpractice insurance. If you are in a non-medical profession such as an IT consultant, lawyer, accountant or insurance broker you would call it errors and omissions. The name is unimportant but what is important is how and why professional liability insurance exists.

A profession is defined as an occupation requiring considerable training and specialized study. Special education and ethical conduct usually accompany the duties of a professional and because of this professional liability addresses the liability that general liability misses. General liability is a great for bodily injury claims or property damage for professionals who provide advice or a service need protection from bearing the full cost of defending your legal liability.

In the business world there a several factors that influence the legal liability of professionals, the professional/client relationship, expectations regarding professional services, standard of care, legal environment such as laws/regulations, prior court decisions, and the litigious nature of society. When you enter in to a contract with a client your legal liability is to meet those requirements. Professional liability is designed to handle claims of alleged failure to perform such as negligence, misrepresentation, violation of good faith and fair dealing, and inaccurate advice.

If you work leads to a financial loss for your client your business could be responsible for damages and court fees. Professional liability coverage is focused to protect your business and the work you do. A client can allege that you failed to perform your part, made an error or omission in the service or product sold. For example a software product fails to perform properly, it may directly cause financial losses which could potentially be attributed to the software developer’s misrepresentation of the product capabilities or a custom-designed product fails without causing damage to person or property other than to the subject product itself, the cost to redesign, repair or replace the failed product itself can fall on to the manufacturer.. These are potential cause for legal action and with professional liability insurance (errors and omission) you can protect your business.

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Filed Under: Business Insurance, Liability Insurance

Why do I need General Liability Insurance?

April 6, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

Why do I need General Liability Insurance?

You may not see a direct need for your business to have general liability insurance. The question “Why would I need general liability insurance?” is one an insurance agent answers every day. Insurance protects you for the unexpected, making sure your business is able to operate through any obstacle life has to offer. Here are five reasons you would need general liability insurance:

In order for you to perform your job your client may for evidence of insurance. This is the number one reason we find that any business would need general liability. Almost every wok agreement contract has insurance requirements you must meet. If you don’t have the insurance already you will need to find a quote fast or your client may offer the contract to another better prepared business. Don’t let this happen and prepare your business with an insurance program. Your client is asking for this insurance in case of bodily injury or property damage. Insurance will cover you for your responsibility in any of these events

Clients Visit your place of work
If your business involves customers or clients visiting your work place you are at risk if someone is injured or damages property. Avoid the anxiety with general liability insurance. If a person were to slip trip or fall they may want to hold you responsible for medical bills or lawyer’s fees. General liability provides insurance coverage for lawsuit and medical payments.

Have employees at third party locations
When you send an employee to a third party location your business is responsible for their actions and work they do. Off premise work needs to be insured just like having customers in your place of work. A bodily injury or damage to property can occur and without general liability lawsuits or medical bills will come out of your pocket. General liability extends its liability to where you are performing your job. While doing maintenance work at a client site a person slip trips or falls across liquid on the floor due to the maintenance work you are responsible.

Access to clients equipment or server
For many businesses it is not uncommon for you to be in the care of, custody or control of your client’s equipment. General liability insurance covers you from fire, storm damage or theft of your clients property. If you are working with a company’s systems integration, network or server this coverage is crucial. Commercial general liability insurance is able to cover computer equipment from damage, certain power failures and computer viruses.

Write or Speak about Clients business
When it is your job to write or speak about a clients business you are at risk from offending a competitor or consumer. They may see your work as libel, slander, disparagement, or infringing on a copyright. General liability provides coverage for personal or advertising injury designed to cover publication of material that slanders or libels another person or organization. Legal defense costs from lawsuits that claim false, malicious or misleading statements in advertisements, promotional flyers, brochures, or Web sites, etc. can also be covered.

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Filed Under: Business Insurance

What is a Certificate of Liability Insurance?

March 28, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

What is a Certificate of Liability Insurance?

A certificate of liability insurance is a one page document that verifies the existence of insurance coverage. The certificate includes the insured party’s name, the insurance company’s name, the policy number, the effective /expiration date, the type of insurance coverage and dollar amount.

With this one piece of paper you can provide extensive details about your insurance policy to anyone. You may ask yourself “who would need to see my insurance certificate?” Before agreeing to sign a IT consultant contract your client will ask for proof of insurance. They demand this when liability and large losses are a concern. For example in the event of a bodily injury or property damage caused by you while doing work on their behalf or at the client’s site your client will be defended under your policy just as you are.

The following may also be provided on your certificate of liability insurance:

1) Certificate holder- a certificate holder is anyone who is named in and insured by the insurance policy. In some cases clients may ask to be named as a certificate holder to ensure that they’ll be notified in the event that your policy is canceled before its expiration date.

2) Additional Insured- this refers to anyone else besides the policy holder who is covered by an insurance policy. A certificate of insurance typically includes a list of additionally insured parties, if they exist. For the purposes of most tech firms, additionally insured parties would include your customer or clients. People who are “additional insured” can receive coverage benefits if the work you do on their behalf leads to an injury or property claim against them.

Typical Contract Language-“Insurance required will name Client as an additional insured with respect to Client’s insurable interest, will be primary or non-contributory regarding insured damages or expenses, and will be purchased from insurers of sound internationally recognized financial standing.”

Certificates of insurance also include language that indicates that, if an insurance policy is cancelled, any and all certificate holders will be notified. ‘Certificates of Liability Insurance evidencing the required coverage and limits shall be furnished to Client prior to the commencement of any work hereunder and shall provide that there will be no cancellation or reduction of coverage without thirty (30) days’ prior written notice to Client.”

The certificate of insurance is your key to doing business and a crucial document that you need access to all the time. With our great certificate department you are one email away form receiving or sending your certificate to clients. Anytime you have a request, our certificate department is here to help. The one thing your insurance certificate cannot do is grant you any of the policy benefits. You will need to have a copy of your full insurance policy to do so.

Filed Under: Business Insurance, Liability Insurance, Technology Insurance

Steps to buy a home for the first time

March 14, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

Buying a new home can be overwhelming just to think about. If you have never purchased a home before, here are some steps to better understand what’s involved.

Get preapproved for a mortgage. Preapproval determines the size of the loan a bank will lend you. This will help you figure out the price range of the home you can buy and a down payment amount. It’s also important to have when making an offer on a home. Your bid is stronger by being prequalified. There are a bunch of mortgage calculators you can find online like Bankrate to give you an idea of what your monthly payment would be by inputting an interest rate, down payment and loan amount.
Know your credit score. Applying for a mortgage is basically like asking the bank to check all your financial records. They will obtain a credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Even the minor error in a report can change the score. Make sure that all of your credit card balances are low or paid off and be sure to watch your opening and closing of accounts as they will make the lender suspicions. These factors contribute to your credit standing and will influence the bank on the rate they offer you. Banks are trying to determine the amount of financial responsibility you can take on. They will look at your income, down payment and available funds to determine your monthly payments.
Find a house! The next step is to search for a house you enjoy. Find a real estate agent you can trust to help guide you through this process. They are experienced in finding you the location, price range and style of house you are looking for.
Make an offer. Once you find a suitable home it’s time to make a bid or offer. Some negotiation back and forth may occur but once a price is agreed on a contract can be drawn up. After the contract is drawn up you are given a time period for attorney review. During this time you should have the house inspected by an engineer form a home inspection company. They will make sure the home is up to code and report on any issues they may find. After the home inspection report is completed a contract date is set. Your attorney will now give a dollar amount that will be held in escrow until closing. At this point a formal mortgage application is taken out and this is when you will be told how much insurance to take out on the house.
Get homeowners insurance. No bank or lending institution will allow you to take a mortgage without it. Home insurance is a combination of property insurance and liability insurance. It covers private homes form loss or damage to its contents, loss of use (additional living expenses) or loss to personal possessions of the home owner. Liability coverage for accidents that may happen at the home or at the hands of the homeowner within the policy territory is also provided. Homeowners insurance is a term policy set for a fixed period of time, usually 12 months. Only a person with insurance interest can be named on the insurance policy. The policy will be for at least 80% of the value of the house. This is due to the coinsurance clause that all property insurance policies have. Co-insurance is a penalty imposed on the insured by the carrier for under reporting/declaring/insuring the value of the property. Reach out to a NJ insurance agent to get a good understanding of the specific coverages your (almost) new home might need.

Now that you have qualified for a mortgage, searched for a home, placed a bid, drawn up a contract and obtained an insurance quote you are now ready to become a home owner. These are just some helpful insights into the process of buying a home that you can use to prepare yourself when it’s time for you to purchase a home.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

How can a business protect its data?

March 10, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

How can a business protect its data?

Keeping your data safe and secure is an important job for every business owner. Hackers, viruses, and employee error are potential hazards every business must prevent to keep their data secure. You may ask; how can a business protect its data?

First, you need to understand where your business is vulnerable. Do a security audit and test your entire IT infrastructure. This includes your computers, networks, and mobile devices. Once you know some of the spots you need to improve, you can form a data protection strategy.

Employee Error
Hackers and viruses are usually the main focus in a business’s data protection strategy but one of the biggest threats is employee error. Consultants, partners, and vendors all access your network. Put a security policy in place so the people who enter your network have specific rules to follow that ensures your data security. For example, mandate that all computers used to connect to your network have security software (firewalls and antivirus software). Have a rule in place that reminds your employee not to exchange security information over the phone and encourage the use of strong secure passwords. This can help minimize the threat to your data. Keeping your employees involved will make it a habit to think about data and network security and can also create a team work environment.

Lost, Stolen, or Corrupted Data
Your data can be stolen, corrupted or lost. These are risks you need to prepare for. One of the main things you can do to keep your business running is to have a back up strategy. This will ensure that you can recover your data at any time. Without a back up strategy your data can be lost forever. Back up your data regularly. Whether it’s hourly, daily, or weekly, it’s really up to you to assess how much data you can afford to lose. You can use the software already on your computer or there are plenty of third party programs out there to use. Storing your data offsite can also protect it from any natural disasters that may occur.

Along with backing up your data, it’s a good idea is to encrypt it. Even if the data is stolen it cannot be used to harm you or your clients. Encrypt individual files, folders or an entire disk. There are hundreds of methods a variety of ways to keep your data safe. Make sure you invest the time and money in encryption programs and antivirus software.

Cyber Risk Insurance
Now that you have done your research and put together a data protection strategy there is one more thing you can do. Cyber risk insurance proves that insurance carriers are becoming more sophisticated and in tune with today’s world. Cyber risk protects technology companies like yours. If your system is breached, it can disrupt or even ruin your business.

Cyber risk provides protection to all types of business from inadvertent disclosure and theft of confidential information such as social security, bank account and credit card numbers, and damage to or destruction of computer systems and data form computer viruses, hacking and criminal activity.

Any organization that stores or transmits confidential information or whose operation may be subject to disruption from the failure of technology needs cyber risk insurance. Cyber risk insurance can especially help information technology companies mitigate their cyber risk. The cost of this insurance depends on the size of the company, type of industry, amount and type of information stored along with other factors.

Contact a technology insurance expert to learn more.

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Filed Under: Business Insurance, Technology Insurance

Insurance tips for technology companies

March 1, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

Insurance tips for technology companies

In the insurance world knowing what to ask can save you time and effort looking for a policy to protect your business. A recent article on technology insurance discussed five good questions that IT companies should be asking their insurance carrier or agent. The information technology world is growing every day and with it, risk. Problems can arise in ways that you can’t even imagine. The code you write could cause your client a financial loss. Do you know how to protect yourself from this scenario? You may think you have the right insurance but without asking the questions, you can be left with gaps in your coverage.

Your company’s international exposure is also something to consider. In the online world, your software can be downloaded and used anywhere in the world. Working with an insurance carrier that understands this is crucial. Make sure they have experience in international commerce and are able to guide you towards the products that will protect you overseas.

Another good point the article brings to our attention is that even though your software is impregnable you can be included in a claim against both you and the hardware manufacturer. Make sure your insurance is ready for this situation by asking you agent or carrier for a product that will protect you from this type of lawsuit.

Communication is the key to success. Contacting your insurance agent or carrier should be simple with multiple outlets so that you are never left in the dark. When dealing with an insurance company or an independent agent, be sure they have an easy communication process in place. I always check to make sure I have contact name, phone number, second phone number, email, second email, and a place to go for online support.

Filed Under: Business Insurance, Technology Insurance

The Perils of Perils

February 28, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

Do you know what a peril is? Didn’t think so. Watch our latest video to learn more. The first in a multi-part series!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Make sure you read your insurance policy

February 20, 2013 By insuranceguru Leave a Comment

Insurance is a wonderful thing our society has created and has become essential in the business world. It is important for policyholders to actually read the policy over and review what it covers and, more importantly what it doesn’t. Most business owners looking for insurance are concerned with the cost of insurance rather than the coverage. This is a fine approach until catastrophe strikes, like this past October with Hurricane Sandy left many business owners without enough coverage. An insurance agent in New Jersey will likely be very qualified to advise on the proper business insurance coverage given their familiarity with known business and weather risks.

With Sandy policyholders were most worried about flood insurance. Standard property insurance and business owners policy do not have flood insurance in them. It is a separate policy that you property must qualify for. A recent article in BestWeek discusses the lawsuits being filed by business owners and homeowners against brokers for not presenting the right flood coverage options to their clients who lost property in the storm. It’s amazing to see how many people are interested in what the insurance policy covers after a loss has occurred.

Preparing for the unknown is what insurance is all about. Your broker should review the policy with you until you fully understand it but it is not their responsibility to make sure your read the policy. Reading an insurance policy is about as much fun as going to the dentist, but with a thorough review of your policy you will make sure it is everything you need.

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Filed Under: Business Insurance, Hurricane Sandy