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Best In-Class Business Insurance for Technology Firms & IT Consultants
If you operate an IT staffing agency, you won’t be able to get clients without proof of insurance. While you may wonder if all the coverage is necessary, the truth is, the insurance your clients requires you to have will benefit you in the long run—and it’s affordable.
Not only will insurance be needed to get clients, it also could protect your company against possible lawsuits if your equipment or something you do damages a client’s equipment, or if a client claims something you did or failed to do causes a business loss for him or her.
Here are some of the kinds of insurance you might need to protect your IT staffing agency.
General liability insurance covers injury to people and damage to property, including medical expenses for third parties injured at your business. This is often the first insurance a company buys and would protect you from lawsuits over property damage and third-party bodily injury, lawsuits for libel and slander, product liability lawsuits, and advertising injury lawsuits (including copyright infringement).
Benefits include settlements, court costs, attorney fees, immediate medical expenses, and judgments, if you’re found liable.
Professional liability insurance for IT recruitment agencies works like malpractice insurance does for doctors. This is also called E&O, or errors and omissions insurance. Potential clients will want you to have this, because they know people are human and make mistakes.
Suppose someone you send to work at a large company makes a mistake that causes a client to lose data valued at tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars—your client might sue you. Without the insurance, your expenses could mount quickly.
You could be sued for even such things as oversights and honest mistakes, as well as incomplete, shoddy, or incorrect work, negligence in rendering professional services, and failure to provide services you promised.
Workers’ compensation insurance can protect your most valuable asset—your employees. If one of your employees is injured on the job, this can cover medical expenses and related costs, such as lost wages.
The law often requires this, but even if you are in a state that does not, a client in such a state will probably require the coverage. You will need the insurance to meet state requirements if you have W-2 employees, and some states require it for 1099 workers.
Many states also require you to have this coverage for failing to prevent or causing an injury or illness at work. This can pay for partial lost wages, medical costs, funeral expenses, ongoing care and rehabilitation, and death benefits. You face huge out-of-pocket expenses without workers’ compensation, and the coverage usually pays for $1 million worth of expenses per occurrence.
One example of something covered would be carpal tunnel syndrome, which many workers get if they must repeatedly do the same hand motions during a day. It also covers falls, broken bones, back injuries, and allergic reactions.
Cyber liability insurance protects businesses against data breaches. There is first-party cyber liability insurance and third-party cyber liability insurance. Third-party insurance would be more useful for staffing firms, as it covers data breaches on third-party networks, while the other coverage would cover your own network. If a client sues you, this covers court costs, damages you owe, attorney fees, and costs for settling out of court.
Fidelity bond coverage, sometimes called employee dishonesty coverage, will pay your client if you or one of your steal property or money on the job. Your clients will want you to have this if they are banks or financial service industries, because they give you personal account information, such as Social Security numbers and account numbers. A settlement in a data breach case can often reach almost $1 million.
If you have any questions about why you need proof of insurance, the kind of insurance you may need, or anything else, feel free to contact us.
When one of your employees sustains an injury that makes working impossible for the duration of the injury or disability, filing workers’ compensation and disability claims as appropriate often becomes a priority. This is necessary in order to ensure financial stability during the time that the injury prevents employment.
To make sure that a disability does not present your employee with otherwise avoidable financial hardship, as well as to prevent expensive settlements and litigation for your own sake, it’s essential that both parties understand the basic facts about these types of insurance claims.
To someone who has never been on either end of the claims process, it may seem as though these two types benefits serve the same purpose. Indeed, there are some limited circumstances under which the two may overlap, but this is not generally the case.
Workers’ compensation insurance is a type of coverage that most states require employers to carry. This insurance pays out benefits to employees for injuries that they sustain while on the job for which employers would otherwise be liable. This might include a deli worker who injures his hand on a slicing machine or a janitor who slips on a wet floor.
State disability insurance, on the other hand, pays out benefits to people who are injured outside of work whose injuries temporarily prevent the ability to work. Both are paid with the intention of helping to make up for lost income.
This is sometimes possible if the amount of money that state disability pays out would be higher than the amount that workers’ compensation pays out. In this instance, the injured employee would be eligible for the higher state disability benefits for every day that he or she qualifies for workers’ compensation.
Sometimes, there is a period of time during which an employer or the employer’s insurance company are disputing or confirming a workers’ compensation claim. During this time, state disability insurance may pay benefits to an injured employee in order to help him or her avoid financial hardship.
If the dispute is resolved with the determination that workers’ compensation insurance will pay out the claim, the state will request the return of any funds that it paid during the waiting period.
Workers’ compensation benefits and state disability benefits are paid out only temporarily, with workers’ compensation paying only until a condition is resolved or until it becomes permanent. At that point, state disability insurance will pay benefits for up to 52 weeks, after which point any permanent disability might entitle a person to receive social security disability benefits.
After 52 weeks, state disability benefits will cease and those who are permanently disabled may qualify for SSDI. In some cases, if the injured party expects to be disabled for more than one year, workers’ compensation and SSDI benefits may be paid simultaneously for a period of time.
Both types of insurance may also pay benefits simultaneously if the claimant has a terminal illness. In either case in which both benefits are paid at the same time; however, the amount paid by SSDI may be reduced in part depending on the wages earned by the claimant.
Laws vary from state to state about what information about previous claims is available to employers, and it’s wise for an employer to consult with an attorney prior to hiring or denying employment to anyone based on suspected fraudulent past claims.
It is important for employers and job applicants alike to note, however, that the Americans with Disabilities Act protects “applicants against discrimination based on previously filed workers’ comp claims.”
Suppose an employee of your company develops arthritis from doing repetitive tasks, but the state you live in does not recognize arthritis as an injury covered by workers’ compensation. Thus, your business is left open to a claim from the employee that could cost you significantly, or the employee is left with no recourse to cover medical expenses.
Tough situation, right?
Employer’s liability insurance could protect you in such a case, as well as provide payments to the injured employee. The coverage protects companies from major financial losses if a worker experiences a job-related illness or injury not covered by workers’ compensation.
This insurance, combined with workers’ compensation, protects against expenses from deaths, illnesses, and injuries in the workplace. Employer’s liability insurance is also known as “part 2” of a workers’ compensation policy.
Most workers, other than federal employees, have protection provided by workers’ compensation laws mandated individually by the states. Most companies must, by state law, have workers’ compensation insurance. The mandated insurance will pay a certain amount for lost wages and medical expenses to employees or their beneficiaries when an employee is sickened, killed, or injured on the job. As a result, an employee does not have to sue his or her company to prove fault to receive the workers’ compensation.
If, on the other hand, the employee doesn’t believe the coverage completely pays for losses or feels an employer’s negligence caused the injury, he or she may sue the company in an attempt to receive punitive damages for pain and suffering.
Employer’s liability coverage protects companies and pays for expenses not covered by workers’ compensation or a general liability insurance policy. In addition, affected employees must release an employer and insurance company from additional liability to receive damages for their lost wages or injuries.
Employer’s liability coverage will protect against a number of possible claims not covered by workers’ compensation, including:
Read More: Workplace Safety Tips: Preventing Accidents and Insuring Your Company
Worker’s liability insurance provides for situations not covered by either workers’ comp or general liability coverage. General liability protects a company from lawsuits and similar claims within a policy. General liability protects a company from property damage and personal injury claims that come out of the premises, products, or operations of a company.
Employer’s liability insurance provides coverage up to a specified dollar amount in the purchased policy, per bodily injury, incident, or disease. Workers compensation, on the other hand, does not have a cap on the maximum amount paid in damages.
Coverage for employer’s liability can provide protection other insurance does not and can protect a company against a major financial loss. If you have any questions about the coverage, or anything else related to business insurance policies, feel free to contact us.
Although you probably understand the importance of having business insurance in place, you could find yourself looking at your policies and wondering, “Why are my business insurance limits so high?”
It’s a pretty reasonable question; your business might be a small one that only brings in a six-figure income (or less!) each year, but you might have millions of dollars in insurance coverage. This could make it seem like you are paying out a lot more for insurance than you have to, but the truth is that your company is a lot better off with higher levels of insurance.
First of all, you should know that even small businesses are required to carry certain types and levels of insurance. For example, you are required to have workers’ compensation insurance to protect your employees in the event of an accident. In New Jersey, you are required to hold disability insurance.
Plus, the owner of the building that you rent/lease or the lender that you are purchasing your building through might require certain levels of coverage. Your insurance company will ensure that you have at least the minimum amount of insurance required for your business by law to help protect you.
Just remember that legal fees are expensive. In the event of a claim, you might be required to pay both your own and the other party’s legal fees if you lose. Plus, you will not want to settle for an inexpensive lawyer who won’t work hard for your company, and you won’t want to find yourself in a position where you cannot afford the legal representation that you need.
With the right insurance policy, however, your insurance will cover your legal fees and any legal fees that you might have to pay for another party. This can help you ensure that you have the legal representation that you need without any stress. Since a lawsuit can be stressful enough on its own, this is important.
If you get sued, you might be surprised by just how high the claim can be. For example, if someone gets hurt on your property, you might have to pay for very expensive medical costs. If the person has to go to the hospital, has to have surgery, or is otherwise seriously injured, these costs could add up more than you think.
In some cases, it is also worth your while to just settle the case. This means that you will offer a certain amount of money to the plaintiff without actually admitting fault. This can be a good idea in some situations because it allows you to handle the case quickly and relatively quietly, and it can prevent all of the costs associated with a long and drawn-out trial.
However, in a lot of cases, settlements can be extremely expensive. In order to get the other party to agree to the settlement, your lawyer will have to make an appealing offer. If you don’t have the money to pay the settlement, then you may have to go through a long and even more expensive trial. If you have good insurance, however, you’ll be able to cover these matters. This can be extremely helpful in the case that your company ever gets sued.
As you can see, there are multiple reasons why insurance limits for businesses are often so high, even for small businesses. If you have more questions about business insurance or would like to better protect your company from these situations and more, contact us.
It’s an unavoidable truth of running a business: If you don’t want to have to pay additional or unexpected premiums, your company must prepare for annual workers’ compensation audits. There are few things more unexpected and unpleasant for a business owner than having to pay the premiums after a policy year has expired.
Such unexpected increases or costs are usually incurred for one of three major reasons:
So how do you prepare your business for its annual audit and, more importantly, avoid the aforementioned pitfalls that could cost you a lot of money down the line?
It’s easy to make the mistake of not having someone to monitor your projections during a policy year. Your insurance agent could use diaries quarterly and contact a client about what the payroll is each time. A company then has time to adjust workers’ compensation premium payments.
When the payroll is projected, each entry for the workers’ compensation class codes must be close to what payroll will be at year’s end. Guesswork won’t do. Guesswork will cause a company to have to pay additional premiums. Businesses that have highly rated class codes will be hit worst, because rates impact how much the premiums are.
Not having a knowledgeable person to deal with an auditor is costly. This happens often. An auditor has to look at a business owner’s books to determine the actual amount of a payroll. He or she must then place each employee into a workers’ compensation class code. Doing that will impact the amount a business will pay for workers’ compensation.
When employees are not placed in the proper code, an auditor may rate them incorrectly, causing a higher rate. Someone in the company must understand the various class codes, as well as the job functions of all the employees. If this isn’t done correctly, an auditor often has to guess, and the advantage will go to the insurance company.
When a company works with independent contractors that don’t have workers’ compensation, they face an auditor asking for a certificate of insurance for the contractors. If not available, that contractor’s compensation is added to the audit.
Of course, there’s not a single type of audit out there that can go well without the proper documentation. Here are some of the records needed for an audit:
Simplify the auditor’s job. He or she will be on a strict schedule. Make the job easier by not rescheduling. Have all the information he or she has requested available and ready, and be sure the records are complete and accurate. Be prepared to answer any basic questions he or she may have about your business, and be prepared for the owner, not a person of lower position, to answer questions. Give only the information requested, and don’t ask the auditor questions.
Separate overtime paid to employees by job classification on payroll records. Keep payroll records in dollar amounts, not percentages that reflect work actually done.
Don’t sign an auditor’s worksheet if it is incomplete. Many auditors prefer to gather data and take it to an office or home to complete. Ask for and keep a copy for your files.
If you have questions about annual workers’ compensation audits, or if you want to make sure that the policy you have in place is right for the specific circumstances of your business, feel free to contact us or schedule a free insurance assessment with one of our experts.
Your business insurance is critical to the protection and growth of your company. Its goal is to keep you in business even when mistakes or accidents happen, taking care of some of those critical financial issues that have the potential to put you out of business.
You’d like to hope that nothing will ever happen that will require you to make use of your business insurance. In many cases, business owners choose minimal coverage for just that reason. That insurance can’t protect you, however, if you don’t have adequate coverage!
If you’re not sure whether or not your insurance is protecting you adequately without draining you dry, check out these signs you need to reevaluate your business insurance.
There are a number of factors that go into determining your risk. From the potential for problems to arise within your building to the possibility that your product could cause harm or injury if used improperly, you need to recalculate those risks on a regular basis.
If the risks change, your business insurance needs to change along with it. Reevaluate your coverage any time your risks shift to ensure that you are still adequately covered no matter what happens.
You should be getting more out of the relationship with your insurance company than a quick quote or a check if you do have to file a claim. You want a company that will work with you to lower your premiums, find the policy that works best for your company, and walk you through the entire claims process, whether you’re dealing with a property claim or a liability issue.
Your insurance company should have your back throughout the entire process, keeping you aware of all the information you need. If you’ve filed a claim and discovered that wasn’t the case, it might be time to reevaluate your business insurance.
Consider the type of claims that you’re most likely to have to make. Do your employs work with hazardous materials or around particularly dangerous equipment? Do you have unique considerations that could become a problem down the road? What about problems caused by cyber security or other online issues: are they covered under your policy?
Take the time to hash those out and make sure that you’re adequately covered in the event of those types of claims. It may require an add-on to your existing policy, but those small annual fees will be well worth it if you need to take advantage of that policy.
Business insurance is tricky. The cost of your premium depends on a variety of factors including the property where you work, the type of business you do, and the number of employees you have working for you. If you feel that you’re paying too much, however, check out other potential policies.
Make sure, however, that you’re paying attention to the details of what’s covered by those policies. Inexpensive insurance is great upfront, but it can cost you down the road if you need to make a claim.
The growth of your business can have a substantial impact on your insurance premiums. The growth is wonderful, but you want to make sure that your coverage continues as your company grows! You should reevaluate your coverage annually no matter what kind of growth your business has experienced, but checking in halfway through the year is a great policy for businesses that are growing more rapidly than usual.
Looking for more information about business insurance? Contact us today to learn more about how you can get the best policy for your company without feeling as though you’re constantly overpaying for business insurance.
In the past, the liability insurance that many small businesses carried was occurrence coverage. This means that when someone filed a claim against the business for an event that occurred while an active policy covered the business, that claim would be processed, even if the policy was no longer active by the time the person made the claim.
More recently, however, due to industry-wide changes, most policies no longer offer occurrence coverage. Instead, they are usually claims-made policies.
A claims-made policy offers coverage only for claims that are actually filed during the time that the policy is in effect, provided that the incident in question also occurred at a time that the policy was active.
So how can a business protect itself against claims an entity makes about incidents occurring prior to the start of a new policy, since the previous claims-based policy that was in place when the incident occurred will not cover the claim filed after the policy expired?
By paying close attention to the new policy’s retroactive date!
What is a retroactive date in insurance? Here are 3 things everyone needs to know about retroactive dates when looking for liability coverage.
The retroactive date is the date on which a business’s liability coverage begins. For a new business without a previously existing policy, the retroactive date is usually the date on which the insurer writes the policy, and as long as the policy is continually rewritten with no lapse in coverage, this date will remain the same for as long as the policy remains in effect.
When switching insurance providers, a new provider will often agree to write a policy that honors the previous policy’s retroactive date. This will protect the business from exposure to liability for occurrences that happened during the active period of the previous policy but for which someone files a claim during the life of the new policy.
This is called prior-acts coverage. It is imperative for that the business owner is upfront with the insurance provider writing the new policy about the prior occurrence of any events that may be likely to lead to a future claim being made. If the insurance provider decides that the risk of a future claim related to an incident that occurred prior to writing the policy is too significant, the provider may not honor the previous policy’s retroactive date.
This is important to take note of since it opens up the possibility of businesses being forced to pay untold amounts of money out-of-pocket should someone submit a claim in the future for an event that occurred on a date earlier than the current retroactive date.
Full prior-acts coverage guarantees that a provider will process any claim made after coverage begins, no matter how far in the past the incident that the claim refers to took place. In order for this to be legally binding, it is important that the business owner inform the insurance provider if it knows of any claims that will be made related to past incidents prior to the signing of the contract for the new policy.
It is important to pay close attention to a new policy’s retroactive date even if the policy is simply a continuation of an existing policy with the same insurance provider. This is because a provider may choose to move the retroactive date ahead rather than honoring the existing date in some instances.
The decision to advance the date of a new policy is usually made when an event or set of circumstances took place after the original retroactive date that make it likely that someone will file a claim against the business during the time frame that the old retroactive date covered. This serves the purpose of limiting the insurer’s vulnerability to claims which in turn exposes the business itself to risk for any claims made for the time period prior to the new retroactive date.
Paying close attention to the retroactive date on every policy prevents expensive surprises if an uncovered claim is made down the road.
Once a policy is expired, any claims made for the time period during which it was active will not be responded to. In the event that a business decided to terminate a liability coverage policy, it may be possible to extend protection from claims made in the future to a later date.
To do this without purchasing a new policy, a business owner should purchase an extended-reporting-period endorsement, often referred to as a tail. There is a limited time period during which the business owner can decide to purchase a tail, typically within 30 days of the termination date of the policy.
Finding group health insurance for your small business is a good way to reward your employees with the best possible medical coverage. Even if you’re a very small business with under 100 employees, you can sometimes still get group health insurance.
Despite new ACA rules saying you don’t have to get coverage if you’re that small, it’s still beneficial to give your employees more peace of mind.
Mostly, you nurture a better retention rate in your workforce when you provide group health insurance. Employees won’t want to stick around if they work under dangerous conditions and know they have no health care coverage.
Having health insurance also gives more incentive to your employees toward preventive care that wards off future illnesses. You’ll have healthier employees this way so you won’t have long absences.
Whether you provide group health insurance or not, it’s your responsibility to make employees aware of their health care options through the ACA. Otherwise, obtaining group insurance is a good way to start the year for your small business.
Let’s look at how it works, how much you may have to pay, and whether you can even qualify.
Your business is possibly so small, you’re not completely sure you can qualify for a group health insurance policy.
It is possible to get group health plans if you have at least two owners or employees in your business. This needs verification through all of your tax statements or federal return documents.
Yet perhaps you’re still confused whether you qualify as a true business entity at all. If you have a business license, you’re officially entitled to this insurance. The same goes if you’ve had articles for incorporation or organization.
All insurance companies offering group plans have different rules on employee contribution percentages. It all depends on your state and what’s currently available. Be sure to do your homework on contribution levels so your employees don’t get stuck with a percentage they can’t handle financially.
ACA rules have changed how insurance companies provide group health plans. Nevertheless, you still have two main types of plans to consider. It once was that indemnity plans were overly common here in the United States. They provide better choices in doctors, though they do cost more.
The more popular choice now is a managed care plan. While you don’t get as much control over the doctor you want, you still save money on many out-of-pocket costs. There’s also less paperwork to deal with when signing up.
Whichever plan you choose, all plans now have to provide an Essential Health Benefits package to let you know exactly what’s covered for your employees.
The health insurance you choose has to analyze your group of employees to determine the cost of your premiums. Thanks to ACA rules, pre-existing conditions no longer matter on figuring your premium amount. Your insurance company can still base price on the ages of your employees, how many employees you have, plus the size and location of your business.
As for contribution cost, you usually have to cover 50% of an employee’s premium. Then your emplo yee covers the rest, plus the full premium for any dependents they have.
Once again, the minimum contribution level on your part depends on which state you’re in and rules of the insurance company. You still have the freedom to contribute more toward the premium if you want to. When you sign the application for your plan, you’ll have to indicate exactly how much you’ll contribute each month.
Let us help you find the group health plan your business needs. Contact us here at InsureYourCompany.com to use our reliable resources in getting the insurance and documentation your business requires for success.
As an employer, you have a lot of different things you have to worry about. From making sure you have enough people on staff to meet the demands of the company to making sure taxes are paid on time and so on, it’s easy to see how things can get confusing and overwhelming.
This rings even truer when dealing with providing health insurance to your employees, especially when it comes to the question of full-time W-2 employees versus 1099 contractors. Many employers are left wondering: Can a 1099 employee take part in group health insurance?
Any employer who has at least 51 full-time employees or their equivalent could face heavy penalties down the road. Beginning this year, any large employer who doesn’t offer some form of health coverage to any eligible employee will wind up with tax penalties. The same applies to employers who don’t provide employees with an affordable option or an option that doesn’t meet all of the minimum requirements.
If you have less than 50 employees, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about insurance exactly. You still have to make sure your employees are classified properly. Otherwise, you could get hit with a substantial fine by the government.
This is where people get confused in trying to figure out who is classified as a 1099 employee and who is a regular full-time employee.
First, you need to understand what the relationship is between the individual who is performing the services for the business and the business itself. A hired individual can either be a 1099 independent contractor or a common law employee.
Employers typically classify an employee based on how many hours they work. If the employee works at least 30 hours per week, they are generally referred to as full-time employees. Beyond working a certain amount of hours per week, there also has to be some sort of established relationship between the employee and the employer.
Under common law rules, anyone performing work for an employer is deemed an employee if that employer is the one who will control what is going to be done and how. This is still true even when employees are given freedom to do certain actions on their own.
The main thing to remember is that this occurs when the employer can control all of the fine details of how the employee is going to perform the services needed.
Individuals are called independent contractors when they are the one controlling the end result of the job, but not how it is going to be done. While this might seem simple enough, it really isn’t. There are a whole host of different factors that come into play that determine whether an individual falls under this category or not.
Instead of classifying your employees wrong, you need to speak to someone who can better assist you. There are far too many penalties and rules that could land you in over your head.
Since laws vary from one state to the next as to whether a 1099 employee is eligible for coverage or not, you need to discuss your concerns with a licensed professional. Take the time to contact us and go over all of the details of your business and what you are looking to accomplish. We will make sure you are taken care of and get the coverage your employees need.
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