Businesses require funding at various stages. You will need funds to open an office and purchase commercial vehicles. Next, you will need capital to develop products and services, as well as set up a research and development team. Once you are done with that, more funding is required to market and sell products in order to generate revenue.
Throughout your initial business journey, when you are tight on cash, you do not want any unforeseen incident to hit your company and disrupt your cash flow. That is where the role of corporate insurance kicks in.
Corporate insurance is a financial instrument that protects your organisation from unforeseen events that could result in financial loss. There are numerous forms of operational risks, including lawsuits, high staff attrition rates, natural disasters, strikes, and others that an organisation is exposed to.
In order to address these risks, corporate insurance is available as customised policies.
Some of these include the following
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Professional Liability Insurance: Errors and Omissions (E&O) Insurance or Professional Liability Insurance protects businesses against claims originating from negligence, mistakes, or failure to complete tasks. This industry-specific insurance policy needs customisation based on the requirements of each organisation. This form of Corporate Insurance remains mandatory for certain industries like law, finance, accounting, healthcare, etc.
- Property Insurance: This policy protects business assets from fire, theft, and natural disasters.
- Home-Based Insurance: If you operate a business from home, this coverage will cover the associated risks and losses.
- Product Liability Insurance: If someone suffers a loss while using your products and files a lawsuit, this coverage will help.
- Commercial Vehicle Insurance: Most businesses, particularly those in transportation, utilise trucks, vehicles, and buses. If these vehicles cause damage to third parties or get damaged, commercial vehicle insurance can help.
Apart from these, a few other forms of corporate insurance are Business Interruption Insurance and Group Mediclaim Policy.
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Some of the most common reasons why this insurance is necessary for businesses are listed below.
1. Protecting Your Employees
Employees are valuable resources that contribute significantly to your firm's success. However, as an entrepreneur, your job is to offer them a good working environment, basic amenities, and health coverage.
Business insurance, such as Group Mediclaim coverage, is helpful in this situation. This policy protects your employees and, in some cases, their family members in the event of a medical emergency. It pays for their medical consultation fees, hospitalisation costs, ambulance expenses, and other expenditures.
This insurance is worthwhile because employees are usually not required to pay a premium out-of-pocket, and there is no waiting period.
2. Protects Assets
Assume you own a furniture manufacturing company and have your premises near a dense forest. The rationale for this decision is you want quick access to wood and save money on shipping. One day, a bush fire breaks out in the forest and spreads quickly, destroying not just your premises but also finished and raw materials.
In this instance, you can get company fire insurance. This coverage pays for damage based on the market value or replacement cost of the goods destroyed in the fire. For example, if the market value of your loss just before it caught fire is Rs 50,000, you can claim this amount. In another scenario, if replacing damaged products costs Rs 50,000, you may file a claim for it.
3. Natural Disasters
In many cases, it is impossible to avoid loss. One such circumstance is a natural disaster. Do you believe you will have enough time to transport your costly equipment when a cyclone strikes? Or do you believe that if a high-intensity earthquake hits your location, you can protect your property?
To deal with these unavoidable losses, investing in corporate insurance is wise. This coverage financially protects the insured property from flooding, typhoons, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, lightning, and other natural disasters.
4. Legal Liabilities
Assume you manage a paper factory on the riverbank that uses chemicals such as arsenic, lead, and fluoride. One day, due to a breakdown in your plant and machinery, dangerous chemicals are spilt into the river, contaminating the water that residents rely on for harvesting and drinking.
Even though the cause was unintentional, the locals sued you. In this instance, company insurance will assist you financially in dealing with legal proceedings, advocate fees, court fees, and so on.
5. Keeps Businesses Running
If your business is temporarily shut down due to unavoidable circumstances, Business Interruption Insurance might help cover the losses to some extent.
For example, suppose you own a restaurant, and there is a severe flood in your region, causing you to close your establishment until the water drains completely. In this case, the business insurance policy will compensate you the amount you would have earned during the days your firm was closed.
However, to file a claim for such instances, it is vital to read the policy’s fine print and understand various clauses to avoid any last-minute surprises.
6. Help in Getting Projects
If you are in the service industry, sometimes corporate insurance becomes mandatory when getting a new project.
Suppose you own a software development company and want to bid for a contract with a large corporation. The corporation requires that you have professional liability insurance, protecting you against claims of negligence, errors, or omissions in your work. Without this insurance, you would not be eligible to apply for the contract, as the corporation does not want to risk hiring an uninsured contractor.
7. Cybersecurity Risks
As organisations increasingly rely on technology, scammers have found a way to exploit a flaw in your operations and commit digital fraud. These types of fraud include identity theft, data leaks, cash transfers from business accounts, and reputational damage.
Business insurance covers such incidents as well.
Businesses carry countless risks. If you do not have the financial means to deal with them, you might find yourself in a situation where the last resort is to shut down your company. Hence, it is better to secure your organisation with corporate insurance and have peace of mind while focusing on core business activities.