I had a fun phone conversation last week with a social media solopreneur about business insurance. Ruby’s business has grown, the clients are getting larger, and she wanted to get a handle on the business insurance she should be considering for her growing enterprise. I believe our discussion provides a great framework for solopreneurs and small business owners contemplating their business insurance needs.
Small business is alive and well! I’m working with three new business owners who’ve decided to go out on their own and know they need business insurance to help protect their dream. The new owners include a therapist, a civil engineer, and a new retail store which will sell mattresses. I can’t imagine three more diverse businesses, but surprisingly, there are common themes about their needs. There are many different types of business insurance, however, most small businesses will benefit from two broad categories – general liability and professional liability.
In the past two years, there have been two very interesting lawsuits over the question of whether or not commercial general liability insurance policies contain coverage for cyber liability. The two lawsuits had very different outcomes which may appear to muddy the waters regarding when cyber liability is covered and when it is not covered by a general liability policy. Let’s take a look at both lawsuits and where I think this may go.
On a Friday in late June, the Supreme Court, ruled in a 5 to 4 decision, same sex couples may now be legally married in all 50 states. Many people rejoiced while many people thought America was going to hell in a hand basket. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, the impact of this decision has huge ramifications for small and medium sized businesses specifically in the area of employment practices liability insurance or EPLI.
Drone, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have made a huge splash in the news over the last year. Amazon has discussed using them for local delivery, one landed on the White House lawn, as well as, their war time use in the Middle East. The commercial uses for drones are seem almost endless as people imagine how they can be utilized. Hollywood has won approval to use them for filming movies, farmers believe they can be used to check on crops, as well as administer fertilizer and insecticides more efficiently and utility companies want to use them to check power lines. Insurance companies are planning to use drones in disaster response situations.
One of the questions testers, legislators, and even insurance companies are asking is who or what is at fault when a self-driving car crashes? Will it be the other driver, the autonomous car, or some combination? In addition, what testing procedures will the automaker need to follow when testing the vehicle, and whose insurance covers an accident if the self-driving technology is to blame for the accident?
Before the data breaches at Anthem, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus, and Target, there was Sony. In 2011, the Sony Playstation Network was hacked resulting in the theft of customer data. Sony pushed to have their insurer, Zurich, cover the losses resulting from the data breach, but Zurich denied the claim. Sony had a general liability policy, but not a cyber liability policy with Zurich.
Last week, I wrote a post about Dallas area homeowners receiving notices from the mortgage companies regarding their monthly mortgage payments are increasing. This is due to their home insurance rate increasing, or an increase in property taxes, or some combination of both (see https://wiseinsurancegroup.com/home-insurance-property-taxes-and-escrow-accounts/). It turns out they aren’t the only ones receiving these notes!
I’m working with a small Dallas area non-profit organization on their insurance. They work with kids on a variety of issues pre-teens and teens face; family, school, bullying, and the difficult transitions many of us faced from elementary to middle school, and then again moving on up into high school. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed learning about what they do and then helping the organization find the right insurance to protect it.
Last fall, Dallas was set to open a horse park near the Great Trinity Forest in southeast Dallas. The opening was delayed partly due to
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