Specialty Coverages
There are a number of specialty forms of coverage that we often include as a part of our comprehensively prepared programs of insurance. While most of these are available through carriers with whom we have direct agency relationships, we also have the ability to go outside to our insurance wholesalers to find the coverage and carrier combination that is right for our clients.
Here is a partial listing:
Professional Liability (E & O)
Professional liability coverage protects against liability claims for negligence, errors and omissions in the performance of professional services. Also referred to as Errors and Omissions Insurance, this coverage is essential for businesses that provide professional services such as Lawyers, Accountants, Designers, Consultants, Engineers, Real Estate Agents, etc.
Employee Benefits Liability (EBL)
Provides coverage for claims that arise out of negligent acts, errors or omissions in the administration of your employee benefits program such as group life, health, disability and profit sharing plans.
Liquor Liability
Provides coverage for damages legally obligated to pay due to the selling, serving or furnishing of alcohol.
Employment Practices Liability (EPLI)
Provides against claims arising out of such things as: Employment related discrimination, employment related harassment, abusive or hostile work environment, wrongful discharge or termination of employment, breach of employment contract, failure to provide equal treatment or opportunities, failure to promote, wrongful discipline, and retaliation.
Over the past two decades, employment practices disputes have become one of the fastest-growing sources of litigation in the United States and a significant concern to every company with employees.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal employment discrimination laws, receives approximately 80,000 complaints annually. Discrimination based on race, sex or age make up more than half of all employment claims, but employees can bring actions based on a number of other alleged wrongdoing, including sexual harassment, retaliation and failure to supervise.
Employment claims are expensive to defend and settle. The average compensatory award for employment claims for all plaintiff verdicts was $555,533 in 2004, an increase of nearly 20% from the previous year. Class action employment practices claims often generate settlement values in the millions of dollars. For example, an employment discrimination class action against a national retailer was recently settled for $50,000,000.
Directors and Officers Liability (D & O)
Provides coverage for claims arising out of the decisions made by company management and board of directors.
Managing a company or organization in a dynamic, competitive marketplace requires great skill and mastery of many competencies. Executives entrusted with leadership roles in public companies face tough challenges, and their decisions are under ever increasing scrutiny by their shareholders, customers and competitors as well as by the governmental bodies that regulate their business.
D&O liability claims generate settlement values in the millions of dollars each year. In 2005 alone, securities class actions against public companies resulted in an aggregate settlement value of $9.6 billion dollars. Claimants include: shareholders, employees, competitors, customers, clients, and government.
Fiduciary Liability
Employee pension, benefit and compensation programs are becoming increasingly complex. Anyone who serves as a trustee, or who has discretionary authority over a pension or other employee benefit plan, assumes a certain level of risk. Directors are at risk in these cases because under ERISA, fiduciaries of 401 (k) plans are liable to the plan participants for mismanagement of any such plans, including mishandling the selection of prudent investment options available to the plan participants.
