Cover insurance requirements

Clients typically insist that suppliers carry different types of insurance to cover the client from damages. Auto insurance is just like your normal auto insurance policy. Clients may ask you to list them as an additional interest. This doesn’t extend coverage to them or allow them to make changes to your policy. It simply means they’re informed of policy changes so they can ensure your policy is in effect. Worker’s compensation and occupational injury insurance covers your employees if they’re injured. Your client wants to ensure you’re compliant with all laws especially those governing how you treat employees. This is one of those laws they want to ensure you’re compliant with. If you’re a sole proprietor, you usually don’t need to have this coverage. Rather than trying to remove this clause from the contract which can be difficult, an approach can sometimes be adding the words as required by law. At Thought Leaders, we take that approach. We’re saying, “If we’re required by law to have this coverage, we will.” And that means if we don’t have to have it, we don’t have to pay for the policy. Consult an attorney for how to approach this aspect of your contract. General liability insurance is a catch all. It protects your business from financial loss should you be liable for property damage or personal and advertising injury caused by your services, your business operations, or your employees. It covers non-professional negligent acts. Things like injuries on your location, accidents you cause or have at a client site, or claims made against your advertising claims can be covered by this insurance. Errors and omissions insurance is often called E&O. This coverage focuses on a failure to perform or financial loss caused by an error or omission in the service or product you deliver. These are causes for legal action that would not be covered by a general liability insurance policy. Those typically address more direct forms of harm. For example, if you run a technology consulting firm and you write software code, E&O insurance can come into play. If your software fails to perform properly, it may not cause physical, personal, or advertising damages, so your general liability policy would not be triggered. But your software’s errors may cause direct damages and financial losses for your client. Those damages could be attributed to failures from your software. That’s the kind of damage E&O insurance can protect you and your client from. When you’re looking at your insurance coverages, make sure you’ve got the right insurance to cover the right liabilities that you might face.