Retail Service & Hospitality

Just one brief business interruption can be incredibly costly for an organization, often leading to loss of revenue, key employees, or long-term closures. That’s where business interruption insurance can help.

The responsibility for transporting goods is a liability exposure and is limited to $2 per pound under the Transportation Act. A proper insurance program can protect your company and customer relationships.

Auto insurance provides coverage to drivers in the event of an accident that results in damaged property and/or injuries. Mandatory insurance in all provinces includes liability insurance and accident benefits. Drivers may also purchase optional insurance coverage, which includes physical damage to your vehicle.

One of the best ways to effectively protect your business is to carry adequate Commercial General Liability Insurance coverage.  This coverage mitigates your companies financial exposure to bodily injury and property damage claims so you can continue running your business with peace of mind.

This insurance provides protection for physical assets such as buildings and their contents, equipment and inventory, and property in transit.  Commercial property insurance doesn’t only protect the building you use, but a long list of things inside including equipment, inventory, furniture, computers and other electronics. It can also provide protection for things outside of the building including outdoor signs, fencing and landscaping such as gardens, trees and shrubs.

This form of insurance protects your equipment when on the job site or when it is being transported. A key to this coverage is a firm understanding of the equipment valuation. 

The reality is that nearly every business can become a victim of crime. Thieves (regrettably even your employees) do not need direct access to cash to steal from you—merchandise, supplies and securities are all fair game. While standard commercial insurance policies may provide some protection from criminal acts, they often do not cover losses resulting from fraudulent activities. Crime insurance was developed to deal with the limitations of other policies and extend protection to include coverage for a wide variety of wrongdoing.

The continued rise in the amount of information stored and transferred electronically has resulted in a remarkable increase in the potential exposures facing businesses. In an age where a stolen laptop or data breach can instantly compromise the personal data of thousands of customers, protecting your business from cyber liability is just as important as some of the more traditional exposures businesses account for in their commercial general liability policies.

As a member of a board, you are personally liable for executive decisions and actions. From fiduciary responsibilities to employment practices and human rights complaints, D&O insurance protects against the financial consequences of alleged and wrongful acts.

Legal disputes can disrupt any business, large or small, and the subsequent legal expenses can be crippling.  While Commercial General Liability, Directors & Officers, Errors & Omissions  and Employment Practices liability generally cover some legal expenses, Canadian businesses are turning to legal expense insurance for added protection.  This an insurance product designed to enable businesses to defend or pursue legal action against a third party, while limiting their financial exposure.  Under this form of coverage, policyholders pay an annual premium in exchange for legal advice, information, assistance and representation in certain defined situations, according to the terms of the policy.

Liquor liability exposure is not limited to those whose primary business is the sale of alcoholic beverages.  If you serve alcohol at company function and a patron becomes intoxicated and then injures a third party, there is a potential for exposure.  It is important to take the appropriate steps to control your risk.  Victims and their families file suits against restaurants or bars every day for their role in serving a customer who is then involved in an alcohol-related accident. Establishing an events and liquor liability prevention policy, training workers and transferring risk are critical to minimizing your events and liquor liability.

Marine and Aviation includes insurance classes protection sea and air transport. They include:

Marine Hull: Protection for sea-going vessels

Marine Protection and Indemnity: Liability coverage for sea-going vessels

Marine Yacht Insurance: Combined hull and liability insurance for yachts, which can be extended to include coverage for the crew and owners of the vessel

Marine Liability Insurance: Providing liability coverage to operators of marinas, ports and marine engineering businesses

Cargo Insurance: Protection against damage to cargo in transit (and storage in some cases), whether by air, sea, train on car

Aviation Hull Insurance: Protection for damage to aircraft (commercial and private)

Aviation Liability Insurance: Liability from Aviation accidents

In this class War and Strikes are insurable in various ways.

No matter what industry you work in, your business faces environmental and pollution risks stemming from operations. To protect against these risks, companies are increasingly turning to pollution liability insurance.   Virtually every CGL policy contains a pollution liability exclusion. It is imperative that a business understands the scope of pollution liability coverage under its CGL policy, the availability of limited pollution liability endorsements and the existence of broad form pollution liability policies, if needed.

Drones are being used in many unique situations such as surveying lands, aerial photography, and in film. Businesses utilizing this fairly inexpensive tool need to consider their potential physical losses carefully. With drones, it’s often the loss of the payload—not the aircraft itself—that can be the most costly. For example, the cameras used on drones get expensive. Because of the increasing affordability of drones, the payload often has a higher intrinsic value than the aircraft itself. Additionally, cameras and other payloads are usually slung below the aircraft, meaning that in the event of a hard or emergency landing, damage to the payload is almost certain.

Excess Liability Insurance (ELI), more commonly known as Umbrella Insurance, is one of the most important types of insurance your company can buy. It protects your business from holes or limits in existing policy coverage as well as from financially draining lawsuits. Just as you carry an umbrella to protect you from a potential downpour, ELI protects your company from the types of claims that could close your business.  Businesses choose this form of coverage to back up the limits contained in their underlying liability policies (commercial general liability, business auto, employer liability, and professional liability.) For the most part, it is used to cover exceptionally large events or losses with low probabilities of occurrence. Without this coverage, these events – as few and far between as they may be – would be financially devastating to many companies.