What insurance products can you use to minimise risk?

By Alex Terblanché, Executive Head of Business Insurance, VAPS and Distribution at Telesure Investment Holdings (TIH)

There has never been a time where the importance of business insurance and reliability has been more prominent.  The media has recently reported widely about issues that confronted business owners who thought that they were appropriately covered for business interruption, only to find out that their claims will not be honoured under certain circumstances.  While Auto & General Insurance did honour Business Interruption claims related to the Covid-19 pandemic, many insurers did not.

There are eight basic insurance products that business owners should look into to try and minimise risk:

• General liability insurance – this form of coverage provides protection for you, your employees, your products and/or services if someone should allege that any of the aforementioned caused bodily harm or damage to property. 
  

• Property insurance – this form of portable asset insurance covers your office equipment, computers, inventory or tools against fire, vandalism, theft, smoke damage etc
  

• Sasria – a short-term insurance company specialising in covering for damage caused by political risks such as strikes, political riots or terrorism.  You also usually get property insurance (non-specialised), vehicle coverage, liability insurance (non-specialised) and crime insurance. Usually, SASRIA is included in a standard commercial policy. 

• Commercial motor insurance – this form of cover ensures that all of your vehicles are insured. If you have employees using their own cars to do company business, you can get them onto non-owned, auto liability insurance to protect the company in cases where employees don’t have their own insurance or adequate cover.  Businesses who transport passengers in vehicles need to ensure that the motor policy has sufficient passenger liability cover in place.  If goods are being carried, Goods in Transit cover is recommended.

• Worker’s compensation insurance – protects your business against the liability caused by employees getting harmed on the job. This type of insurance can provide wage replacement, medical benefits and sometimes legal benefits (in cases where employees are sued or involved in litigation while performing their duties).

• Professional liability insurance – is also known as Errors and Omissions Insurance. It provides protection for professions such as lawyers, accountants, consultants, notaries, real estate agents, insurance agents etc. In professions where a misplaced comma or amendment to a contract can spell losing out on millions, it’s important that such coverage is standard within the profession.

• Directors and officers insurance – directly affects the directors and officers who may make decisions which decrease profitability or affect operations negatively. If the director or officer finds him or herself in a legal situation, this can cover the costs or damages as a result of a lawsuit against them.

• Data Breach – is specifically for the data the business deals with, especially if it’s private information about employees, clients or third-parties. Since the company is responsible for protecting the information, if a data breach occurs this insurance product will protect against any potential loss.

Can your products help businesses minimise risk? Tell us all about it: