Balens insure a wide variety of businesses for their Assets and
Liabilities throughout the UK and Ireland.
Our 'Bridge Business Protection Packages' offer a wide range of
competitve covers. These Business Protection Packages are
pre-priced packages with optional extensions to help you tailor
your Business requirements. They are designed to 'evolve' with
you as your business does.
Below you will find a suggested range of covers a business should
consider.
Commercial combined policy
Can cover buildings, contents, fixtures for such perils as: fire,
storm, flood, burst pipes, lightning, malicious damage, theft etc.
money insurance, loss of profits various liabilities, legal
expenses. Terrorism is now not included but can be bought back for
an additional premium.
In summary, this type of policy offers a variety of sections
available under one wrapper, customised to your individual
business requirements, with options to pay monthly.
Buildings Insurance
Covers perils as briefly described in Commercial Combined Policy
above with the option to include subsidence plus Property Owners
liability, (see Balens glossary for explanation of the
various liability covers). Not normally required where you are a
tenant or leaseholder.
Contents Insurance
As above but concerned with items other than the structure of the
building and also things that you would normally take with you if
you moved. Can include Equipment, Tenants Improvements to the
buildings, Goods in Transit, Employees Personal Effects, Stock,
etc. Cover can be increased to include Accidental Damage-
i.e. breaking, staining, and other damage not specifically stated
in the list of perils supplied by the insurer concerned.
Public Liability Insurances
This covers liability in law for causing injury to other people
(not necessarily clients/patients) or for damage to their property,
provided that no treatment or advice was the reason for the
incident.
Employers Liability Insurance
This covers the Employer for injuries sustained by any employees
or work experience assistants. This cover is a legal requirement
where staff are employed and the Employer's Liability
certificate needs to be displayed in the workplace by Law. Self
employed people are not usually covered by this.
Products Liability Insurance
This covers the business for any defect in goods sold, supplied or
demonstrated to the customer or client, which may cause injury or
damage. Even if the business did not manufacture the item concerned
and innocently passed it on, under EEC Directive, the Consumer
Protections Act etc., it will still be initially held liable. i.e..
the last to pass on a product in a chain of supply will be held
liable.
Money Insurance
This covers loss or damage anywhere in the UK for travel to and
from the bank- e.g. takings, wages and in the premises for the
usual insured perils during business hours. Out of business
hours cover reduces significantly unless money and credit card
vouchers etc are kept in an approved locked safe. Some cover also
is extended to an employees or director's house outside business
hours. Shortages and theft by employees cover may be very
restricted, so check your policy for details.
Loss of Profits insurance, Business Interruption
(B.I.)
B.I. keeps the profit coming into a company if it can't trade due
to a fire etc., particularly where a business is dependant on the
building for its regular income e.g. a shop, warehouse, factory, or
rented premises for property owners. If you could quickly set
up somewhere else and trade and may not lose income as a result,
you don't really need Business Interruption cover, but should have
Increased Cost of Working (ICOW) cover. This just pays the
additional costs caused by the claim, including the main one of
finding somewhere else and paying for it (lease and rents will
carry on even if a fire has destroyed the building and you still
have got to pay for somewhere else as well). There may be
additional costs for getting extra staff, phones, etc. The Insured
period is usually based on 12 months expenses or Loss of Profit but
can be based on a longer period, if for example, the damaged
building is listed or may for various other reasons take a lot
longer and more money to repair/rebuild.
Directors and officers (D & O)
This covers the Financial Risks arising from the operation of a
Limited Company or Charity, where there are Directors, Trustees or
Council Members overseeing the operations of the
organisation. They can be held personally responsible for
losses arising from Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Negligence,
Mismanagement or Dishonesty causing financial loss, and various
breaches of the Law. Can be extended to include Advice, errors and
omissions, and may further extend to include Public Liability and
Product Liability.
Commercial Legal Expenses
Any Business can incur expenses and be vulnerable under the laws
of the land. There are a bewildering amount of laws governing the
operation of a Business, whether Limited or Private. A legal
expenses policy offers a wide range of support, information and
cover for a range of legally related issues that can arise in the
day to day running of a firm.
- Criminal Allegations Defence
- Data Protection Laws
- Discrimination Laws
- Health and Safety Laws
- Inland Revenue Investigation & VAT
- Contract Disputes
- Debt Recovery Services
- Employment Tribunals
- Employers Advice Lines
Employment practices liability - EPL
This covers costs and awards in the event of employee tribunals
and other litigation and expenses in connection with employee
issues. They typically are extensions of Commercial Legal
Expenses policies or Directors and Officers/Professional Indemnity
Covers.
You may also need financial advice to protect the business
leaders, key persons and offer benefits to staff such as:
- pension scheme
- life and sickness covers
- private health insurance
H & L Balen can provide this in the UK- please see the other
relevant sections of our website.
Employers Liability (EL)
Included in our usual packages, EL is required by Law if
someone is employed (not if it is a one man Band Ltd
Company). We can insure separately if
required.
- Work Experience people are usually covered by this
also so no separate policy is required
- Certificates have to be kept by law now for 40
years after cover ceased!
- Covers the Employer if they are held legally liable for injury
caused to Employee in the course of their work.
- Medical Professionals may have to pay a lot for this cover if
they are involved in lifting or handling.
Public Liability Insurance (PL) - Health
Professionals
The word "Liability" conjures up all sorts of negative
images, and in our experience there are still many health
professionals who get confused about whose policy covers what
when other Health Professionals, organisations, or Landlords/
Room Providers are involved. What follows may help to sort out
the different applications of Liability insurance (as opposed
to Medical Malpractice).
PL covers your liability at law for allegations of
negligence causing injury to people or damage to their
property. Whilst there are numerous other sections of
cover, this is the core of it. If you damage their property
when making a home visit or working away, or injure them
because of, say a loose carpet or faulty treatment couch, as
the injury was not directly caused by the treatment itself, it
would come under Public Liability. If a Practitioner rents a
room, then damage caused to the premises by a negligent act
would also be covered.
However, Practitioners should check that any landlord
renting them space has a public liability cover in place in
case patient slips on a staircase due to faulty maintenance or
other reasons where blame could be attached to the owner. Most
Balen Schemes covers PL where itd injured a passer-by. This
sort of thing usually comes with, or can be added to, a
buildings insurance.
Products Liability Insurance - Health
Products is your legal liability
but clearly not if it is someone elses.
Property Owners Liability
Property Owners Liability is Public Liability
Products Liability is much
misunderstood. It covers accident but with a significant
difference! It applies if a Health Professional actually owns
a property, rather than uses someone elses. For example a
building owner could be held legally liable for not
maintaining the property properly, or if a tree fell down on
neighbours land, or a tile fell off the roof antal injury
to persons arising from supply, sale, manufacture,
demonstration, testing of a product for which you could be
held legally liable. Manufacturers need it, suppliers
need it. Many Policies available as part of a Commercial
Insurance Package usually offer limited cover which does
not extend to design, advice given in supply of product, nor
defects in formulae etc.
In the Medical or Cosmetics
Sector, there are very few insurers giving cover and typically
it has been expensive. Balens now have a lower
cost range of covers for this specially designed, and we can
cover exports to the Americas and cover Worldwide (not always
easily available). We have also launched our successful
Health Products Providers Scheme offering comprehensive cover at
very low cost- please see separate section on this.
We look after a variety of
Businesses in the Health Sector who import, design, supply,
export and produce remedies, cosmetics, health devices and
equipment, natural products, health aids and supplements.
The requirements of the MHRA are
getting more onerous as further legislation from Europe drifts
into our awareness, so vigilance is required to make sure your
product supply business has adequate protection for commercial
risks. Currently the Rules relating to the supply of Herbal
Products in connection with a consultation, or without a
consultation is under debate. Please see their website
regarding issues surrounding natural products.
As well as Businesses selling
and producing Products, Health Professionals themselves can
also get confused as to how and where their requirements can
be met, please ask for a copy of an article David
Balen wrote on this topic... called "Products
Liability for Therapists and Companies"
It deals with the
question of selling products to non - patients, such as
relatives or friends, people at talks and exhibitions, mail
order or selling to other therapists.
Under the EEC directive, the
last person or company in the supply chain is held liable for
any defective product causing injury, even if they did not
manufacture it themselves. It may be possible to claim
back eventually to a manufacturer, but this is not always the
case for a variety of reasons, and the end-supplier could be
faced with hefty legal bills, and possibly a substantial claim
for damages.
Balens have various low cost
facilities for providing basic defective products cover, and
we can offer a Pharmaceutical Liability Scheme which
covers design, advice, formulation and can even cover
exporting to other countries including (unusually) the
USA. Premiums are of course, much higher!
Inevitably, we are subjected
to more laws and bureaucracy as the years roll by,
and consumer protection measures become more and more
developed. I believe it is becoming more and more
important to Therapists and Health Businesses to review their
existing arrangements so that they do not become out of
step. Therapists are often more interested in
looking after others than looking after themselves!
