Types Of Insurance that we offer

Professional Indemnity

Professional Indemnity Insurance provides essential financial protection for a wide range of professional advisers. In the event that a client suffers financial loss as a result of alleged neglect, error or omission Professional Indemnity Insurance will meet the cost of defending claims and any damages payable.
Any person who gives advice, designs, or offers similar services in a professional capacity is seen by clients as an expert. In these times of high consumer awareness, clients will not hesitate to pursue a claim if they feel that they have received sub-standard service. The need for Professional Indemnity Insurance has never been greater.
While some professional people see Professional Indemnity Insurance as an expensive and unnecessary overhead, we know from experience that any professional can produce substantial claims. Court awards have risen sharply in recent years. Without insurance, the financial security of a business is threatened.

Public Liability

There are many areas where your business is exposed to risks. A Public Liability policy can cover you for the following:

Injury to any person
Loss of or damage to property
Obstruction, nuisance, trespass or interference with, rights of way, of air, light, water or others.
Wrongful detention, imprisonment, eviction, arrest, or invasion of the right to privacy.

The standard policies usually extend to cover UK , Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, although we can place cover worldwide including USA and Canada with UK jurisdiction and in some cases we can place public liability risks with worldwide cover outside the jurisdiction of the UK.
A public liability policy can be extended to also cover the following:

Health & Safety at work - legal defence costs
Motor contingent liability
Movement of obstructing vehicles
Leased, hired or rented premises
Cross liability
Car park and Cloakroom liability - i.e. where a car or personal belongings of a person are held in trust by you or in your custody or control
Data Protection Act - liabilities arising under the Data Protection Act to pay compensation for damages or distress
Consumer Protection Act - legal costs & expenses
Bona-fide sub-contractors
Defective Premises Act
Product Liabilities

So a Public Liability policy clearly helps you or your business protect against a vast number of possible exposures.

Employers Liability

Employers Liability Insurance is a statutory requirement. If you run a business where people are working for you (even on a part-time or voluntary basis), there will be a certificate issued by the insurance company that must be retained for a period of 40 years. The current certificate must be displayed where your employees can see it. The penalties for not holding an Employers Liability certificate can be severe with fines up to £2,500 per day. The statutory requirement for Employers Liability is £5,000,000, however, cover is usually a minimum £10,000,000 and will protect the company or employers against claims that maybe made by an employee of a business. Claims can range from mental anguish to industrial injury and many more exposures besides. Employers Liability Insurance is essential to most businesses and employers for their protection and to provide the employer with legal defence costs and damage awards, should an employee get injured or sustain losses because of an employers fault.

Directors and Officers Liability Insurance

Directors and Officers may be held personally liable to all parties that have any interest in the affairs of the Company. In essence, a Directors and Officers Liability Insurance is a form of Professional Indemnity cover for Company Directors and Officers.

General Duties of Directors

Fiduciary Not to act outside their own authority, not to commit the Company to transactions prohibited by law or outside the Company’s Memorandum of Association and to avoid placing themselves in a position where their personal interests conflict with those of the Company.

Care That one might expect of a reasonable person.

Skill Although, “he need not exhibit a greater degree of skill than may reasonably be expected from a person of his own knowledge and experience”, (City Equitable Fire Insurance Company 1925), a Director or Officer or anyone with a particular skill or qualification should exhibit a greater duty of skill than those without, eg. Finance Director, Company Secretary etc.

Statutory Exposures (Typical)

Companies Act (over 200 offences)
Company Directors Disqualification Act
Insolvency Act (“ Wrongful Trading”)
Financial Services Act
Health and Safety at Work Act
Company Securities (Insider Dealing) Act
Data Protection Act
E C Directives and Regulations
Consumer Protection Legislation
Racial and Sex Discrimination Legislation

Malpractice Insurance

Malpractice insurance is for professionals to protect themselves from the financial effects and costs of being sued. A malpractice insurer agrees, through an insurance contract, to investigate claims, provide legal representation, and accept financial responsibility for payment of claims up to a specified monetary amount during the policy period.
Even the most competent professional can make a mistake and should protect against that possibility and even professionals who make no mistakes can be sued. Defending a malpractice lawsuit is often expensive even when the defendant wins. The costs include legal fees, expert witness fees, other expenses and, if a case is lost or settled, the payment.
Health care professionals win most malpractice lawsuits, but the legal system rarely allows for the recovery of expenses by the winner. Since the cost of defence is high and a loss can be devastating, this insurance product is essential to every practice.

Clubs and Associations Insurance

Committee members, trustees, directors or senior club representatives need to be protected for the services they give to their clubs or associates. The type of covers they may need to consider are some or all of the following:

Building & Contents covers/equipment insurance
Trustees, Directors, committee member insurances covering each person for any claims that could be made against them while performing their duty for the club/association.
Public Liability Insurance
Employers Liability (If applicable) insurance.
Professional & legal liability insurances

You may only need some of the above

Charities and Trustees Insurance

The senior officers and trustees of a charity have individual personal duties and responsibilities for the management and administration of that charity or association, bringing with it the potential of many liabilities. The fact that many people who give their time ‘free’ to charities, acting in either a management capacity or as a trustee, does not absolve them from these very real liabilities.

There are several publications explaining the duties and responsibilities of a trustee, which the charity commission has produced, giving out details on such things as protection and investment of charities assets such as property, the requirement of financial information to be prepared and available i.e. charity’s accounts, together with guidelines in respect to employees and agents of the charity, as to how they are monitored.

The structure of a charity, where trustees are appointed and the duties of those trustees are formulated by a deed or document controlling that trust, from statute and from common law should a trustee accidentally be neglectful or be ignorant of these duties this could lead to a ‘breach of trust’ and leave that trustee's personally liable which may be “unlimited liability”.

The important issue for charities or associations to consider is the potential liabilities and exposures they subject their trustees, directors and officers to and itself becomes a ‘duty of care’ particularly to employees of that charity or association.

The best form of protection against potential liabilities (and there are many) would be to arrange an insurance policy, however, there are guidelines that you need to perhaps consider - the Charity Commission for England and Wales has summarized these in their publication 'CC49'.

In general the charity needs a broadly worded policy to indicate cover for the following exposures:

Liability for Directors
Professional Indemnity Cover
Use of funds collected (not financial loss of investment themselves)
Fidelity – dishonest, fraudulent, criminal, acts of a manager/s or employee/s
Loss of Documents
Executive covers – liabilities
Employment practices liabilities i.e. employment disputes including costs for things such as official investigations, enquiries, health, safety, etc
Indemnification of innocent trustees / directors of the charity

Residents Associations Insurance

General Information

Whether you have formed a Residents Association, Management Company or Resident Company Limited by guarantee you need to consider the protection of those volunteers who have put themselves forward as Directors, Residents Committee Members, Trustees, Officers or Chairpersons.

As a very well intentioned volunteer you may be exposing your self to duties and responsibilities that could hold you personal liable should things go wrong.

Directors and Officers Insurance, Residents Association Insurance, Club Insurance and Management Companies Insurance cover will offer a very good protection for those committee members, directors and officers or trustees who look after the affairs and maintenance requirements of the building/s owned by the residents.

The Types of Exposures

Health & Safety – fire safety, electrical and mechanical equipment checks
Insolvency Act (wrongful trading)
Companies Act 2006, being the latest which mainly comes into force in October 2008
Disability Discrimination Act
Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (Ageism)
Dishonesty to fellow directors
Failure to supervise
Racial and sexual discrimination
EU directives and regulations

The Cover for Residents Associations

Wrongful Act – where any actual or alleged wrongful act or omission by a committee member, directors or officers individually or collectively.
Libel & Slander
Errors & Omissions
Safety & Emergency Regulation
Discrimination
Dishonesty of fellow directors

The policy will cover for defence of these types of allegations and if a director or resident association committee member/s was found to be neglectful of their duties, damages would be awarded. (The policy will not respond to fines, penalties and punitive or exemplary charges).

Other Resident Association Insurances We Offer

Public Liability
Employers Liability
Building Insurance
Property Owners Liability
Engineering Insurance