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Best In-Class Business Insurance for Technology Firms & IT Consultants
The opportunity to start a part-time, home-based business has never been greater than it is today. Jobs ranging from IT consultant to Uber driver are just two examples of how many opportunities there are to make money from home or in your spare time.
In fact, according to the 2014 U.S. Census Bureau statistics, there are over 23 million non-employer firms—those who work from home on a full- or part-time basis—operating in the United States.
Working from home has plenty of benefits, of course, but it also comes with risks.
If you operate a home-based business, don’t make the mistake of assuming your personal insurance policies will provide the level of protection you need. Your current policies may not provide adequate coverage for you along with your business activities. Just because you are involved with a part-time business does not mean you are free from risk.
Here are some things the owner of any home-based business should consider:
If you have homeowner’s or renter’s insurance coverage, most policies limit their coverage of business property located at the insured’s residence to $2,500, and $500 for property away from the insured premises.
This amount of coverage may be adequate for a person whose primary business equipment is their computer and cell phone, such as a freelance technical writer or marketing consultant who works primarily from their home. But it may not be enough for a person who meets with clients outside of their home, taking their laptop, LCD projector, and other equipment with them.
Another consideration is where to keep your business property in the first place. The limit for business property usually applies to your house, which is also referred to as “residence premises.” Business property you keep in a separate structure, like a workshop or detached garage, may not be covered at all.
For instance, there would be a gap in coverage for a person who makes cabinets in a workshop. Neither their tools nor their supplies would be covered.
Depending upon your situation, you may be able to get the coverage you need for your business property by adding a business property endorsement to your homeowner’s policy or by getting a commercial property policy.
Liability coverage provides protection for bodily injury or property damage claims made against you by others. Your homeowner’s policy provides no coverage for liability arising out of your business pursuits.
For example, if you were to have customers come into your home and they were injured on your property, your homeowner’s policy would not provide any coverage for the injuries.
Another liability exposure could be someone getting hurt or injured by your product. For example, a person who makes toys for children and sells them at craft fairs could have a problem if a child were to choke on the toy.
Commercial general liability protection will help protect you from these types of claims.
Another potential problem for owners of part-time home-based businesses is liability arising out of their professional advice. A person who does bookkeeping from home could inadvertently make an error, resulting in a large fine from the IRS. Commercial general liability coverage does not provide any protection for this.
A professional liability policy, such as errors and omissions, provides protection for rendering or failing to render services.
There are many considerations when it comes to insuring a home-based business. Many of our clients are often surprised by how affordably they can get the coverage they need so their personal assets are not put at risk. Contact us for a quote today!
Trying to find fitness professional insurance might feel overwhelming when thinking about potential issues you could face. As a personal trainer or fitness instructor, do you really know what kind of insurance you’d need to cover everything?
Any career involving working with people is going to have some element of danger, especially when using equipment. No doubt you have numerous pieces of training equipment in your fitness facility that you completely trust.
What happens, though, if a piece of equipment malfunctions, causing injury to a client?
In other cases, it could mean a claim of personal injury based on a singular exercise. Despite being sure that your exercise program is safe, a client may throw their back out and blame you for the injury.
These are just some of the general problems you might encounter. Other sideline situations could occur, and you may not have proper coverage to compensate.
Here’s some insurance policies to consider if you’re just now opening doors to a new fitness business.
Personal injury is more than possible when you’re working with clients for personal fitness training. Those clients could end up needing an operation or decide to sue for injuries they incurred while working with you or being at your facility.
Liability insurance usually covers various categories in fitness, including yoga, general aerobics, or spinning. All of these can potentially cause bodily injury, no matter how safe you’ve attempted to make them.
Finding a liability policy with legal protection is just as important since legal fees to fight a case could put you in bankruptcy. Especially when a client sues you for compensation on their medical expenses, you need legal coverage to protect your finances.
The same goes for protecting your own property. A client could damage your equipment or a natural disaster could destroy your facility. The latter could happen to any business, no matter where they’re located.
You’ve perhaps never heard of license protection for fitness instructors, but it’s an important insurance to consider. One of your clients could complain to a state licensing board that you are not following regulations, thus threatening the welfare of your business. When this occurs, you’ll have to defend yourself legally, which only means massive legal bills.
A policy covering license protection will help cover your legal expenses. Without this, you could lose more money than just legal fees.
General liability sometimes isn’t enough to help cover the medical expenses you’re forced to pay if a client gets injured. Separate policies exist to give you more thorough coverage so you’re assured everything gets covered and doesn’t leave lingering expenses.
Finding a stand-alone medical payment policy usually helps cover medical costs ranging in the multi-thousands. All of these policies have limits, yet work well as a supplement.
Because you’re working personally with your clients, some of the physical contact you have with clients could be misinterpreted. Someone could sue you for harassment or sexual misconduct, leaving you in another legal debacle that could put you out of business.
These cases could go on for a long time because the accusations involve extensive background checks with little to no witnesses. When it’s just your word against a client’s, it could mean six-figure legal bills.
As another separate policy, it’s a good idea to get this protection, even if you trust all your clients to not misjudge your actions.
Having adequate and complete insurance coverage for your business is a vital component in its ultimate success or failure. Insufficient coverage or a lack of coverage can lead to everything from operational headaches to foreclosure.
Every business needs a periodic checkup, just like every person needs to get a regular physical examination. Problems that are detected and treated early are more likely to be resolved compared to ones that are put off or ignored.
Using cost alone when it comes to deciding which business liability insurance policy to buy is not always the best evaluator. It is important for a business to control costs, but not at the expense of the company’s future.
Luckily, full-service broker can help you find the best business insurance quote for your company at a cost that is within your budget.
The first and most obvious sign that your business needs an insurance checkup is simply the fact that it is overdue—sometimes long overdue.
We understand. You are very busy running the business and oftentimes insurance is the last thing on your mind. And the “average” insurance broker is not very proactive in keeping up with each of their clients’ needs.
That’s why you always need to keep in mind what makes your coverage effective—or not—and what changes may affect that over time.
If you are a business with employees, at some point, you will run into an employment practices dispute. These disputes can be over wrongful termination, negligent evaluation, wrongful discipline, or wrongful infliction of emotional distress—just to name a few.
Your general liability policy may or may not include employment practices liability. If it doesn’t, then you need to set up a stand-alone policy.
Another side of hiring more employees is maintaining compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Understanding the maze of rules and regulations of this law requires a full-time effort. Your insurance broker needs to have a full understanding of all of the thresholds in the law and ways to avoid the expensive penalties that are in place for non-compliance.
Perhaps your business has grown enough over time that you have the need to deliver products or drive somewhere to provide services. There may come a time when your personal vehicle won’t do, and you may opt to purchase a company car or van.
While the need for commercial vehicular coverage is obvious when you start using company-owned vehicles, the coverage limits need to be aligned with your business’s financial structure.
If, over time, you find yourself needing to rent additional vehicles or send your employees on jobs that require them to drive, there will be additional coverages that you need to obtain in order to avoid any headaches should an accident occur.
If you have added square footage or even added another location to your business, then you need an insurance liability coverage adjustment or perhaps an entirely new business insurance quote.
While most see changes on the upside as a need for a checkup, it also works the other way. If your company has downsized or restructured, it will also need a re-evaluation of its insurance needs.
If the company has shifted its focus, say, from simply providing software support to writing software applications, then there is a need for a liability insurance checkup. If your business insurance doesn’t fully cover against cyberattacks, then you are opening up yourself to a whole world of potential problems.
If your client database was hacked and personal information was leaked, would your business be able to survive the certain litigation that will follow? Consider what happened to Target after it announced a data breach back in December 2013. The company’s profit dropped more than 40% in the fourth quarter. Even years later, Target still faces litigation from the incident.
While some general liability policies include coverage in case of cyberattacks and data breaches, many do not. If you are running a small business, you probably do not have the time to become an insurance expert. Depending on a knowledgeable, full-service insurance broker is the best way to ensure you have proper coverage.
In today’s litigious environment, people are ready to sue for perceived wrongdoing at the drop of a hat. Avoiding potentially business-killing litigation and penalties is a major part of insurance coverage. Making sure your company has sufficient coverage in place is more important than ever.
When you think about subcontractors needing insurance, you might picture someone working on something that is more of a physical labor job—for instance, a plumber or even a landscaper that comes to do work on behalf of your company.
While those subcontractors are important, what about your tech subcontractors?
When hiring out subcontractors to help complete certain jobs, there is quite a bit that you need to know about insurance requirements and how they protect your business, as well as the subcontractors themselves.
These requirements are there to protect you, but it is also the law in New Jersey. Those who are hired out, such as IT contractors or consultants, fall under this blanket sector of subcontractors and are included in your insurance needs.
If a technical worker (or any worker, for that matter) causes damage at a place of business and they happen to be a subcontractor that you have hired out, you may be under the impression that your general liability insurance will cover this.
However, this is not always the case.
In fact, some general liability insurance policies specifically exclude subcontractors from coverage. If your tech support contractor drops your client’s computer equipment or ruins a customer’s server, you are not necessarily covered.
In the state of New Jersey, general liability insurance is required for all subcontractors. This means that if you hire out subcontractors, you are required to carry this type of subcontractor insurance coverage. General liability protects a variety of things including your clients and your own business when it comes to injuries or property damage.
Of course, it never hurts to have additional policies in place.
You might consider professional liability insurance, also known as E&O or errors and omissions coverage. This covers your business in case you are sued due to negligence from a worker.
In fact, this is one of the most important kinds of subcontractor insurance for tech companies to have because of the high cost of defending negligence claims, which may involve claims regarding misuse of client data, software malfunction, or system failure.
An injury on the job is another area that is equally, if not more important when it comes to subcontractors. With your employees, you are required to have workers’ compensation. But if your IT contractors, consultants, or subcontractors are not covered by insurance as well, you open up your company to damages that can run into the hundreds of thousands if there is any injury.
For instance, a subcontractor is at a client’s place a business and slips and falls. His injury is serious enough for medical attention, and when the injured party cannot collect from his employer, the place where he was injured is the obvious choice.
If your company is not specifically paying premiums that cover subcontractors, then your workers’ compensation policy is not going to cover it and any costs incurred will come out of your own pocket without general liability insurance.
Another thing to consider if you use technical subcontractors on a regular basis is excess liability insurance. This is insurance that kicks in if the general liability insurance payments are exhausted.
It’s not a requirement by law, but it is something to think about if you have the means to add it. It’s better to be covered too much than not covered enough when the need arises.
There are other types of subcontractor insurances such as tools coverage and auto coverage, but the most important thing to have is general liability insurance. Yes, it is required by New Jersey law, but it is also there to protect your company as the subcontractor and makes sure that no one has unnecessary expenses that they cannot afford to pay.
A professional employer organization (PEO) is a firm that handles your management tasks such as payroll, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, and various others.
However, there are a number of reasons why this is not necessarily the best option for your company.
If your company is using a PEO, then you’re already aware of the benefits. But have you ever considered leaving your PEO provider? If you have asked yourself this question, here are three reasons to consider “yes” as the answer.
One of the major reasons that a company might consider leaving their PEO is due to the high costs. While supposedly the company pays less for health insurance, it is at the offset of paying per-employee administration fees, which can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If you think about it, what are you really saving in the end if the fees are higher than your savings? In fact, you may actually save more money than you are already saving with a PEO, which means the cost difference is even more significant.
Another factor to consider when deciding on making the switch is the fact that a growing company needs services that a PEO does not always offer. Your company must then seek alternatives that often overlap with the services you are already receiving in addition to the new services that are needed.
For example: PEOs do not typically offer integrated human capital and performance management systems except in rare cases. This means that your company must find other software tools to take care of this need. This is when the overlaps often happen.
As mentioned above, services are often duplicated by the need of advanced services.
Another way that this happens is when a company employs a full-time People Operations manager or Human Resources manager. The tasks that are performed by these hired workers duplicate some of what the PEO offers, so expenditures are not managed efficiently and costs are higher than necessary.
Also, your company may end up being charged for administrative fees on support and systems that aren’t even being utilized.
Make sure that your technology is up to date and that your company will be okay with the overhaul that takes place. This is an excellent time to review your policies and make sure everything is relevant and up to date.
Keep in mind that your taxes do not reset with the new company, so that may be a factor. However, taxes are accounted for at the end of the year.
Take into account your workers’ compensation payments. At times, you may be overpaying with the PEO, so that is something to consider that is beneficial to your company’s bottom line.
Today we continue our exploration of workers’ compensation and how to protect your company against false claims from employees. See our post about identifying fraudulent claims.
Experts say current workers’ compensation laws favor the employee, not the employer. The insurance provides income to an injured employee to replace lost wages, medical benefits, vocational rehabilitation, and other benefits.
That is good for an injured employee, but the problem is that not everyone who claims an injury has a legitimate claim. There is a high chance of fraud that can cost an employer a lot of money if not discovered early enough or investigated quickly enough.
Of course, it isn’t possible to wave a wand and suddenly make the laws fair for employers, but by knowing the rights businesses have, you can combat fraud within your own company and minimize the damage it could cause.
The money a company can lose in a fraudulent case is staggering. Earlier this year, ABC reported on a man who reportedly collected $774,000 in fraudulent benefits over a ten-year period. His wife claimed he had a progressive mental ailment that gave him the mental capacity of a five-year-old. Police arrested him on a golf course—functioning fully, of course—for workers’ compensation fraud and grand theft. The couple was taped while in the police car and ended up being placed on 15-year probation and ordered to repay the money awarded.
So what can you do to protect your company against fraudulent claims?
Here are some simple first steps.
It is vital that you get information concerning any claim quickly. This can help you learn how to avoid similar injuries in the future. If you think the claim may involve fraud, gather the facts and discuss the case with your insurance agent.
Consider hiring an investigator to obtain additional information. If you find fraud, turn over the facts to your local district attorney’s fraud unit. There have been many cases throughout the United States of employees making a claim, only to be photographed living a carefree life without a sign of their alleged injury.
A manager or immediate supervisor is the key contact person after an injury. A supervisor usually knows the people he or she works around better than anybody. The supervisor should go with the injured employee to a medical facility. He or she should also be involved in contacting the employee later to express concern and let the employee know he or she is missed and wanted back at work when possible.
This lets the employee know the company cares and may lessen the chances of his or her being away from work longer than necessary and help avoid a lawsuit.
Realize that the cost of any possible fraud comes out of your pocket, not out of the pocket of your insurance company. The insurance company may advance you the money to pay a claim, but your Experience Modification Factor goes up. You will then be charged an additional premium for a period of three years.
You will be hurt financially even worse for fraudulent claims. Once again, your Experience Mod goes up, and your premiums will rise accordingly for three years.
Educating them can help lessen the chances of fraud. Stress that compensation is a benefit, just like health care insurance. One protects them when they are sick, the other after an injury. Point out that any kind of fraud, including workers’ compensation fraud, is a crime. Let them know any fraud will be reported to the authorities.
Obtain workers’ compensation records, credit records, driving records, educational records, Social Security numbers before hiring an employee. Such a background check is worth the money it will cost you. If you avoid just one likely fraudulent claim this way, it will be worth the time and money spent.
For more information about workers’ compensation for small businesses, download our free ebook, The Ultimate Guide To Worker’s Compensation For Small Business!
Providing worker’s compensation coverage to your staff is an important part of keeping your business running smoothly and without the threat of expensive lawsuits if something happens to one of your workers on the job.
Unfortunately, some workers view worker’s compensation as a free meal ticket, an opportunity to leave work behind while continuing to draw a portion of their salary.
When you know how to identify worker’s compensation fraud, you can keep your business running without the fear that at some point, a worker is going to get injured and take you to the cleaners, so to speak.
Starting with these key signs can give you a fairly good idea of whether a worker’s compensation claim is real or fraudulent.
Sometimes the timing of a worker’s comp claim is simply too coincidental to be true.
If it seems as though your employee is taking advantage of the system, going from clocking in bright and early every morning to filing a claim immediately following their termination, you need to take a more serious look at the claim to determine whether or not it’s a true need on the part of the worker.
There are some employees who are simply more prone than others to accident and injury. There are other times when it’s obvious that there’s something more going on.
If one employee repeatedly files worker’s comp claims or has a history of firing those claims with previous places of employment, it should immediately raise a red flag that lets you know that something isn’t quite right.
Your company’s lawyers might also want to take a look at the employee’s medical history to make sure that they aren’t taking an old injury or disability and turning it into a more recent claim.
Was your worker injured when there was no one else around to see it? What about the story they’re telling—is it the same every time, or are there little inconsistencies as the employee finds ways to make the story better?
There are a number of tell-tale signs that someone is lying, and if you’re seeing plenty of them regarding the worker’s story, you might need to examine their claim more intently. Any time you feel as though something doesn’t add up with a claim, from conflicting stories from witnesses to an employee who is constantly changing their story, you need to examine the claim more intently.
Typically, the goal of a worker who is filing a genuine worker’s comp claim is to get back in the workplace as soon as possible. They want their injury to be healed, so they’ll do their best to get to doctor appointments on time and do whatever their physicians and therapists ask of them. They’ll be accessible to your staff, returning phone calls and emails quickly and efficiently. When they’re asked about accommodations that would make it possible for them to return to work, they’re eager to make those adaptations so they can get back to their regular schedule.
A worker who is uncooperative, difficult to contact, and unwilling to make necessary changes in order to return to work may be filing a fraudulent claim and should be watched carefully.
While workers should always be compensated when they’re injured on the job, keeping up with potentially fraudulent claims and ensuring that those individuals are dealt with accordingly is an important part of keeping your business running smoothly. When you know how to spot potentially fraudulent worker’s compensation claims, you can avoid a messy dispute and ensure that other workers won’t make the same attempt in the future.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Michael S. Levenson, General Counsel
Manalapan, NJ – August 9, 2016 – Technology Insurance Associates / InsureYourCompany.com announces the addition of Michael S. Levenson, Esq. as General Counsel to our staff. The addition of Mr. Levenson provides our management, producers, client services representatives, and our clients a resource for continuing to provide the very best in insurance service and outstanding customer service.
Mr. Levenson has extensive experience working for insurance companies and in the health care field. Prior to joining InsureYourCompany.com, Michael was an attorney with one of the largest insurance defense firms in the country where he specialized in health care law and previously served as the judicial law clerk to a judge presiding in the New Jersey State Superior Court.
Mr. Levenson earned his Juris Doctor degree from Albany Law School with honors. While in law school, he served as a Constitutional Law Teaching Fellow and worked at Albany Law School’s Civil Rights and Disabilities Law Clinic, where he dealt with a myriad of health care law issues.
Mr. Levenson can be reached at 732-832-7997 x2022 and mlevenson@insureyourcompany.com.
Imagine someone sues your company for allegedly infringing on the software code of a client you worked for last year. The former client may seek tens of thousands or even a couple of hundred thousand dollars in damages.
Will your insurance protect you?
It may depend on the coverage you have. Some companies will agree to pay for incidents back to a certain date, but this may only be if your errors and omissions (E&O) insurance includes prior acts coverage. Such coverage will protect you back to a date you and your insurance company agree upon.
Prior acts coverage provides continuous insurance protection. If you change policies or have no coverage for a certain period, your business will be exposed to claims that happened while you weren’t protected with prior acts coverage.
Why would a former client wait to sue you? There are a lot of reasons. Some may take a while to find an attorney. Others may not decide immediately that they want to sue. As a result, you may find yourself facing a lawsuit for something that happened quite a while ago.
Naturally, without the prior acts coverage, your new insurance provider would balk at something you did previously—unless you and your company agree to the coverage.
If you want prior acts coverage, make certain the coverage has a retroactive date back far enough that you feel safe for any job, event, or incident you believe you could potentially be sued for.
Naturally, your insurance provider:
Why, as an IT contractor, do you need E&O insurance? There are a variety of reasons that almost any business needs such protection. Because IT contractors are involved in sensitive issues involving the computer system of a business and its security, they may even need it more than most because:
E&O insurance will cover:
You might need E&O insurance even if you personally haven’t done anything wrong. Here are some examples of the kinds of things E&O insurance can cover:
E&O insurance is vital for almost any company or contractor involved in important work for clients—especially IT contractors. If you have any questions about the insurance and prior acts coverage, feel free to contact us.
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