Category: Corporate Insurance
What is an insurance broker? How to find the right one for you?
Broadly speaking, Insurance brokers are the professionals who consult, offer, and negotiate insurance policies for organizations and individuals. They offer risk management consulting to their client by outlining the various risks that are involved in their life and business. After clearly identifying and quantifying the risks, an insurance broker works with the client to find the right protection solutions to minimize the impact of those risks, if they were to occur. Insurance Brokers work as a bridge between the insurance companies and customers with the sole aim of finding the best possible solution for their clients.
Whether you are looking for a life insurance cover or an education policy or any business insurance, you should consider appointing an insurance broker who will help you throughout the whole policy buying process. Companies that work with experienced and professional brokers find tremendous value as capable brokers are able to “shop” different insurance companies for the best possible cover with the lowest premiums. Professional Brokers also monitor and continuously review your polices to ensure that you get the best out of your policy.
Types of individual insurance that an insurance broker offers
- Life Insurance
- Education Planning
- Critical Illness Insurance
- Retirement Planning
- Medical Insurance
- Personal Accident Cover
- Motor Insurance
- House and Mortgage Insurance
- Travel Insurance
Types of business insurance that an insurance broker offers
- Group Medical Insurance
- Property Insurance
- Workmen’s Compensation
- Professional Indemnity Insurance
- Cyber Risk Insurance
- Engineering
- Marine Cargo
- Fleet Policy
- Contractor’s All Risk
How to find the right insurance brokerage for your needs?
If you are searching for the right insurance brokers to buy insurance policies, consider these points during your search:
- The services they offer to their clients to know if they fit with your requirements.
- The practices they follow while finding the best insurance policies for your needs.
- Review the work experience and qualifications of the professionals.
- Whether they offer free consultation services to their clients.
- Whether they offer risk valuation and management services to help you identify the kind and level of risk involved in your business.
- Check for the online reviews, ratings, and testimonials given by the clients to get an idea about their professionalism and good they are at their work.
These are the best practices that you can follow during your search to find the right insurance broker for your purpose. Insurance policies are your best defense to bear the cost against any damage or loss.
All about Directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance: The what, who and why
If you are the Director or an officer of a company then you have a high-risk profession because if held liable for your own or other Directors’ decisions, you could face a huge loss through litigation from competitors, shareholders, creditors, or various other regulatory bodies.
So, in order to safeguard your company and its major decision-makers from the threat of being held legally responsible or sued for any sort of negligence, malpractice, or accident, you can rightly use this type of Liability insurance i.e. a Directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance.
But wait, what exactly is this liability insurance? Here’s an overview of Directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance.
What is D&O liability insurance?
Directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance protect the personal assets of business directors, officers, as well as their spouses when senior members of a company are held legally responsible by their employees, competitors, customers, vendors, investors, or other parties for actual or alleged misconduct in managing the business. D&O liability insurance comes to the rescue and offers them extensive coverage.
Who are the persons covered under D&O liability insurance?
The Directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance can cover the following individuals:
- The officers and directors employed by the company
- The risk manager who is also the employee of the company
- Officers and directors of the subsidiary companies
- An employee of the organization who is working in the supervisory or managerial department of the organization
- Independent directors and officers
- The secretaries of the organization
- Non-executive directors
- The employee (excluding the officer or director) of the company who is acting as a lawyer on behalf of the organization.
Simply put, the Directors and Officers insurance applies to all those people who hold supervisory as well as managerial positions in the company. This includes employees, Board of Directors, or any other person who is a part of the company’s management.
Why there is a need for Directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance?
There are a plethora of good reasons on why you definitely need D&O liability insurance. Discussed below are some of the significant ones.
- D&O liability insurance helps meet various legal and regulatory requirements.
- It helps in the case of accounting misconduct and financial fraud.
- It is very much required when cases related to sexual harassment are made against an officer or the director of the company.
- It covers all the legal costs in case a Director or Officer covered in the policy issued.
- It is needed when the major assets of the company are mistreated or when the company’s funds are misused.
Today, there are many companies that believe they don’t really need D&O liability insurance. But when one considers all the aforementioned reasons, one realizes that there is actually not a single reason for a company not to opt for D&O insurance. Always remember that not purchasing this insurance coverage might be risky as only a single D&O claim can ruin all the personal assets of a company and the organization may incur a great financial loss.
What are the various factors that determine the premium you pay for a D&O cover?
- The financial condition of the company
- Business activities / Specific industry
- Quality of management/experience of management
- Diversity of business activities
- Length of time in business
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Organizational structure
- International operating exposures
- Claims history
For more information about D&O insurance, talk to a consultant at New Age Insurance Brokers or e-mail us at info@newageib.com to help you through the process of negotiating and purchasing the right coverage for your business needs.
Corporate Insurance Brokers: A guide for selecting the right one
Today, understanding insurance policies can be challenging for customers, as policy documents are covered with technical and confusing terminology. The presence of corporate insurance brokers helps in preventing customers from getting trapped in any unproductive insurance coverage or get misguided by their coverages with hidden exclusions.
But who exactly is a corporate insurance broker?
A corporate insurance broker is basically a group of experienced individuals who act as a mediator between the customers and insurance providers. Regardless of the business type or size, these experts can serve as skilled and knowledgeable advisors on how to manage the various risks facing your company and the changing trends of insurance policies.
Finding a corporate insurance broker:
Just like any other professional service, a broker-client relationship needs to be service-driven. This is why it is important to find someone who is well-organized and who completely understands the core requirements of your business and workforce. Aside from this, there are a few more things that your potential insurance broker must possess. So, before you rush to hire any corporate insurance broker, read on to learn about some more factors that need to be considered.
- Check communication skills:
The relation between an insurance broker and the client must be one of open communication and mutual respect. Therefore you should avoid brokers who are unable to make you understand the benefits of a particular insurance policy and who are more interested in just selling the insurance products without knowing your actual needs. Eventually, a good corporate insurance broker is one who listens to the customers first, understands the needs, and then addresses the needs with the correct insurance policies.
- Ask about their availability:
Always remember that the best corporate insurance brokers are ones who can offer their services at any time of the day. They can be reached whenever you need them. Be wary of brokers who are not flexible with their time and who are not with you when you need them the most. What matters the most is offering quick help to the customers and you must choose a broker on whom you can rely upon for any situation.
- Know about the broker’s experience and knowledge:
Businesses now days are surrounded by a ton of threats that ranges from financial to compliance and inventory risks. Many major risks can cause serious impacts on the overall business operations and which is why getting the right insurance coverage that safeguards the business and its assets are so significant. A corporate insurance broker majorly helps and assists businesses to assess the threats they are facing. They also recommend the best insurance policy that addresses all the identified risks and directs you to an accountant or lawyer if there is a need for any further consultation.
Hence you should look at a broker’s experience and the kind of people they have hired. You should also look at whether:
– They have the requisite qualifications
– They have dealt with your industry before?
– Do they have experience with helping clients get their claims?
– They have tie-ups with a variety of insurance companies or just a handful. Having many tie-ups will allow you to get the best possible coverage at the best possible premiums.
In addition, when you are cross-checking the brokers, ask them for client references to better understand the area or industries they specialize in. Also, take time to meet and communicate with them to get an insight into how they work and determine if they are the right fit for your business needs.
An effective corporate insurance broker will always put your business first. He/she will act as an important resource you can look upon at any time. So, take your time to research and hire a broker who is worth your time, money, and partnership.
Credit Insurance – A Primer
There are a lot of corporate insurance policies, right from one for the employees, to manage their health and safety of the workplace; ensuring physical stock to almost anything that is essential to the running of the business. However, perhaps the most important one for the financial health of the company is credit insurance. Credit insurance is a vital tool that protects your cash flow when the business cycle is taking a turn for the worse.
Now, let us take a look at some of the major features of the credit insurance policy and why you need to be covered under credit insurance. Here are the four key reasons for you to go ahead with credit insurance for your company.
1. Guaranteed Payments
The World Bank has stated that “Trade credit insurance is an insurance policy and risk management product that covers the payment risk resulting from the delivery of goods and services”. Credit insurance helps you with a collection of dues which can otherwise dampen your cash flow. As we know “cash is king” and, tight cash flows in a tight economic cycle could affect the balance sheet and in the worst case, cause a business to shut shop. A credit insurance policy will act as a safety net, thereby providing you with a platform to trade with confidence.
This policy covers up to 90% of a contract’s value and protects your company not only by reducing exposure but also by shielding you from defaulting customers and bad debts. In short, this is a vital risk management tool.
2. Grow your Business
Selling on credit can be a necessary evil for the growth of a business. While there is an element of trust when it comes to dealings with trading partners, insurers providing credit insurance have reliable tools to determine the creditworthiness of your customer. Credit insurers issue ‘early warning signals’ to your company. This is done when a potential partner is uninsurable or when previously granted insurance cover has been withdrawn. By playing a proactive role in assisting your company trade more securely, a credit insurance cover can help you make better decisions.
Thus, the sales of your company can grow and that growth will be safe growth with no to limited defaults.
3. Deterrent to Defaults
Credit insurance acts as a deterrent for those who are used to defaulting payments. Defaulters can be delisted or blacklisted from doing any further business with banks and other financial institutions i.e. the cost of compliance falls on the defaulters. This incentivizes them to keep their “credit ratings” in proper shape with credit insurers as they now understand the implications of not only losing one client but potentially many of their clients who will be alerted on their payment defaults.
4. Banker’s Comfort
When you have credit insurance, even your bankers feel more confident that your receivables are safe. This will urge them to bank with you by extending new loans and lines of credit for business expansion. Because of the higher quality of receivables backed by an insurance policy, the bank will also be more willing to extend working capital finance at lower costs.
Now that you know how credit insurance can not only safeguard your business but help it grow, it is time to find the right team of professionals to work with. New Age Insurance Brokers has hands-on experience in credit insurance across myriad industries. Please e-mail us at info@newageib.com and we will be more than happy to help you!
Manage a tech company? Learn why you must have cyber liability insurance
The world has been seeing massive growth in electronic communication or digital communication. From the moment we wake up till we sleep, we engage in hundreds of digital transactions knowingly or unknowingly.
When you run a business that is vested in digital services or products, it will involve your clients or customers sharing very sensitive information, which also includes various business and financial credentials. Besides client information, a technology company will also have other sensitive data such as business contracts, e-mails, pricing, employee details etc. that can be vulnerable and thus open to exploitation.
The data on cybersecurity paints a clear picture of the type of cyber risks a business has to endure. AV-TEST registers over 350,000 new malware every single day, i.eove 127 million new malware every year!And the numbers keep on rising because data exploitation is a lucrative crime as various laws and regulations rush to catch up with this ever evolving sector. The news of Yahoo being hacked in 2016 compromising over 3 billion accounts is an example of how damaging data breaches can be not only to short term business but long term reputation and business.
In January 2019 alone, 1,769,185,063 user accounts where breached across various hacks. So it goeswithoutsaying that like every business, a business working with digital products or services will also experience its fair share of risks. Companies that can manage cyber risk well will gain client and investor confidence and thus experience business growth.And this brings us to Cyber liability insurance.
What is Cyber liability insurance?
Cyber liability insurance provides the policyholder coverage against financial losses that they may suffer from data breaches or other cyber-related events.
For example, when a business experiences a data breachlike a hack where sensitive financial credentialsis stolen, then the policy will offer financial support for different legal and non-legal expenses that is related to the breach.
Most Cyber liability insurance will provide financial support for the expenses incurred by the company in restoring the stolen/damaged data, securing the data on theservers and computers, etc. in addition to the legal expense support. The standard coverage found on most Cyber liability insurance coversare as follows:
- Lost incomes due to a data breach
- Extortion losses
- The amount incurred in notifying the customers
- The cost incurred in fighting class action lawsuits
The level of coverage and additional features depends on the type of Cyber liability insurance that one chooses.
Another factor to consider when it comes to Cyber liability Insurance is whether to choose first-party insurance or thirdparty insurance.
First party coverage: In this type of coverage, the insurance company will only provide coverage to the losses incurred to your company.
Third party coverage: The insurance company will cover for the legal expenses against complaints raised by the customers or from people who were affected by what happened with your business.
Bottom line…
Starting a technology business is certainly demanding. Knowing the risks involved and having a plan B is a crucial part of the conducting business. Being a tech company, the risks are mostly related to the data integrity of both the business and its customers. Having cyber-liability insurance gives you that boost of confidence you need to take your business to new heights.
If you are wondering which other insurance policies you can use to protect yourself and your business from financial risks, then we can help! Contact NAIB today to know about various insurance policies from the best insurance providers in Dubai.
