Why do you need General Liability Insurance?
Do you have a physical office where clients or vendors occasionally stop by? Do you visit your clients at their offices? Maybe your company has a blog or utilizes other social media outlets. Or perhaps you produce a physical product that is used by your customers.
All of these situations (any too many others to list) expose your company to liability from third parties. By this we mean the risk that you or your company could be held accountable after your business activities cause harm to another. Companies protect themselves from these risks through general liability (GL) insurance.
If you have a lease for office space or any number of other commercial contracts, chances are you’ve already heard of this policy. The counterparties to your contracts want to know that you have the backing of a general liability insurance policy in the event of a dispute between you and them.
The average total cost of a data breach in 2015 was $4,000,000 and the average cost per individual record that was lost was $158 (IBM).
Criminals are only responsible for a portion of these data breaches. IBM and Ponemon determined that half of all data breaches in the US were caused by mistakes! 23% can be attributed to negligence and 27% to system error.
87% of cyber claims come from companies with under $2B in revenue, according to one NetDiligence report.
Clearly GL exposure is massive for almost any company. If you can think of any situation where your company or any of its employees is directly or indirectly responsible for the safety of others or another’s property, you’re exposed!
What is General Liability Insurance?
Put simply, general liability insurance protects your company from some of the fundamental risks that come with running a business. GL will cover a wide range of risks by paying for the costs of litigation as well as restitution for the injury. These costs can include court-awarded damages, settlements, and medical costs.
At Founder Shield we can customize the policy to include or exclude specific exposures depending on unique nature (and budget) of your company. For example, the policy can include coverage for personal injury resulting from a blog post (important for most tech companies) and exclude coverage for property damage from the use of fireworks (probably not quite as important).
What does General Liability insurance cover?
You will have to consult your policy documents to confirm exactly what coverage your General Liability insurance provides but here are a few scenarios that typically would and would not be covered. You can read more about what General Liability insurance covers here.
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Who needs General Liability insurance?
As a business owner, you should make sure that your business is properly protected against risks or unforeseen events. General Liability insurance provides coverage that protects your business agains third-party claims of bodily injury or damage to someone else’s property. Here are some industries where general liability claims are most prevalent:
IT/Technology
Health, beauty, and wellbeing
Contractors
Architecture and engineering
Consulting
Marketing
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