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Are You Covered?
  • Your Building in Winter
    Winter brings the threat of freezing temperatures and harsh conditions to much of the U.S. Some places are well beyond the threat; it’s going to freeze—there’s no way around it. Such conditions pose unique hazards to commercial building owners. Following is some information on common winter threats and how they are addressed by commercial property insurance.
  • D&O Insurance:  Protection from Boardroom Liability
    Many people will celebrate the holiday by giving back to their community. Volunteering time or services to a company or non-profit organization may be a selfless act of generosity, but these acts of goodwill can also expose volunteers to possible lawsuits if they are making decisions on behalf of the organizations or company. Fortunately, there is a way to mitigate the exposure to lawsuits and continue lending a hand.
  • How much building insurance is enough?
    As a small business owner, you know the importance of preserving your assets. For many business owners, the largest single asset they possess is their building. Whether you occupy the building or operate as a landlord (or both), consider key exposures in your risk-management and insurance planning.
  • Don't Get Robbed Twice!
    One of the often confusing attributes of crime insurance coverages is that the terms used in the insurance policies reflect legal definitions, not the meanings we assume in everyday conversation.
  • Insuring Income: The Lifeblood of Your Business
    If someone asks you if your firm has a catastrophe plan, how would you respond? Would your answer sound something like this: “There’s nothing in writing, however, if something happened that compromised our ability to earn we have a good idea what we would do.”
  • Business interruption insurance
    Would you believe that there is an insurance product specifically designed to help insure a solid, sustainable profit? In fact, without this coverage, hitting your profit targets may become impossible.
  • Where medical fits into liability coverage
    There are two extremely valuable provisions in a solid business insurance policy designed specifically to respond to incidents such as this. The goal of the provisions is twofold:  protect your business from the financial risk of such accidents—legal fees for defense, the potential for large lawsuit awards against you; and try to quickly respond to the pain of the victim in ways that help to avoid lawsuits in the first place.

  • Don’t Let the "Gottas" Determine Your Risk
    As the owner of a small business, you understand better than anyone the meaning of “risk.” The key is to know understand how much risk you can afford, and when or where is the right place to take risk.
  • Don’t Let Your Income Slip When You Do
    Chances are you started your small business with long days and longer nights.  You are fully aware of the truth of the old saying:  'When you are self-employed you work for the toughest boss in the world!"
  • Boom: Understanding Discontinued Operations Coverage
    As a homebuilder, you spent your life making sure the work you did was safe and sufficient. Every year you purchased a commercial general liability (CGL) policy just in case. You made it many years with no claims and want to reward your good work with a much deserved and overdue retirement in where else? Florida.
  • Protecting Your In-Home Business
    Today more than 43 million Americans are operating full- or part-time businesses from the comfort of their homes, and these numbers continue to grow every year. One of the secrets to running a successful home-based business is being able to separate your business activity from your home activity.
  • Landlords, Beware
    Experienced landlords will agree that there is nothing quite as comforting as a good tenant; especially if the tenant spends his own money making improvements to your building during the lease term. 
  • Managing Your Mod
    Employers are told by the states in which they do business how to provide adequate workers compensation insurance for employees. As in other forms of insurance, fair pricing is determined using historical loss data. In the workers comp world, this data is assigned to specific job-types; hence a roofer who hasn’t had a claim in 25 years may still pay a very high rate for his coverage.
  • Insuring the Theft of Your Business Data
    The stories of breached data security have become almost too familiar: An employee takes home a laptop against regulations. A hard drive is sent out for repair, but disappears. A disc with sensitive data is stolen from an office. For business owners and managers, the threat is real, and there is a need to protect against such violations of data security.
  • Triple Net Lease Caveats
    In recent years, more and more building owners are becoming fascinated with the concept of the “triple net lease.” A primary reason for the interest is that the terms of such a lease require the tenant of the building purchase and maintain adequate insurance on the building itself. This is in contrast with traditional lease agreements, which generally state that a tenant is responsible for insuring what’s his and the building owner handles the rest.
D&O Insurance:  Protection from Boardroom Liability

Many people will celebrate the holiday by giving back to their community. Volunteering time or services to a company or non-profit organization may be a selfless act of generosity, but these acts of goodwill can also expose volunteers to possible lawsuits if they are making decisions on behalf of the organizations or company. Fortunately, there is a way to mitigate the exposure to lawsuits and continue lending a hand.

 
A directors and officers (D&O) insurance policy protects directors and officers from liability risks associated with working or volunteering on the board of an organization or company. These risks can include negligent acts or omissions, antitrust violations, wrongful termination, libel and slander, and misleading statements that result in a lawsuit against the company. Whether you’re working or volunteering as a director or officer, it’s important to make sure you’re protected from these risks with a D&O policy.
 
Directors and officers can be sued by the company or organization they work or volunteer for or by other current or former directors and officers, employees, shareholders, investors, lenders, vendors, customers, competitors, various government officials, such as state attorney generals, the IRS and state and federal labor departments, consumer groups and numerous other third parties. While the entities that can sue a board member are numerous, the situations in which lawsuits can be filed are limitless. Here are just a few examples of real D&O claims from the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America:
 
* A minority shareholder in a family-owned electrical contracting business sued the two major shareholders on behalf of the company, claiming they breached their fiduciary duties. The minority shareholder claimed that the majority shareholders, by drawing excessively large salaries and bonuses, caused the company to lose money. The court ruled in favor of the majority shareholders, but the defense costs amounted to six figures.
 
* A mid-sized manufacturing firm hired an employee away from one of its competitors, bringing the person on as an officer. A year later, that new officer’s ex-employer sued the officer and his new firm, alleging that the officer misappropriated trade secrets and violated certain provisions of his termination agreement.
 
*The plaintiff filed a complaint against their competitor alleging that a former employee, now working at the competition, engaged in unauthorized use of confidential and proprietary information and committed other acts of unfair competition. As a result, the plaintiff alleged it has suffered irreparable and immediate injury. In addition, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant has possession of its confidential information and intellectual property.
 
There are several types of D&O insurance that can protect individuals from these situations. These coverages include corporate reimbursement coverage, which protects directors and officers of a company or organization; side-A coverage for directors and officers who are not indemnified by a firm; and entity coverage for protection against claims made against a company.
 
D&O policies can also be written to include coverage for employment practices liability for protection against lawsuits for wrongfully terminating an employee or sexual harassment.
Before you start working or volunteering in a director or officer capacity, you should check with the company or organization to make sure it has a D&O insurance policy in place. If you’re serving on a board and you’re unsure about whether you’re protected, your Trusted Choice® independent insurance agent can answer any questions you have about coverage and risk exposure.

 

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Alexandria, VA 22314
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Fax: 703.683.7556
Email: Trusted.Choice@iiaba.net