It’s impossible to predict what will happen in the future. A lot of people can make theories about where they’ll be in a few years, and they can even go so far as planning their lives out. But that’s where it will end because they won’t know what will happen next. Life is just surprising that way.
Not knowing where you will stand in the future can be a thrilling experience for some people, but for others, this can be a source of anxiety and worry. To combat this, professionals have found a way to bring about financial security to people who can afford it — through insurance.
Lots of professionals who no longer want to remain in their nine-to-five desk jobs found comfort in the idea of being able to protect other people’s lives and ease their worries about the future. Plus, they get to do the work they love at their own time and pace.
That’s why the world of insurance is a very attractive field for self-starters. Choosing to manage your own agency and training to become an agent yourself is similar to finding your calling. You can help people secure their future while they’re still young and able. But your future must be secure too. Here are three policies that you should provide for your agents and agency:
Professional Liability
Even the best and brightest in the field can make mistakes, simply because they are human. No human being is immune to making mistakes and committing errors, no matter how hard they train or perfect their skills. Sometimes, there are things beyond your control because that’s just how life is.
However, that doesn’t mean that being human should be used as an excuse for making mistakes, especially when it’s an error that costs other people’s money. Your agents may have already been trained to be as professional as they can be, but you won’t always be there to watch over them.
If they were to miss a renewal date or arrange a wrong policy that will cost your clients money to fix, this may be potential grounds for a lawsuit. Your clients may sue you for damages and it can be expensive if you don’t have insurance coverage to protect you.
It’s good that there’s such a thing as professional liability insurance, or what’s commonly called errors and omissions (E&O) insurance. The upfront costs of an E&O insurance policy may be large, but it will be able to cover potential court expenses, compensation, and other expenditures that come with a lawsuit.
General Liability
In this field of business, you and your agents will often have to meet with your clients to draft policies. This can occur in your own premises, in their offices, or even in an agreed-upon location that is conducive to working. But things don’t always go according to your plans.
There could be instances where a client gets hurt while on your premises or property gets damaged because of an accident. When this happens, your clients might want to sue for the damages they sustained and seek compensation for their injuries.
That’s why having general liability insurance is a good way to protect yourself from such situations. So, if something were to happen on your premises, your coverage can take care of the medical bills, compensation, and other legal fees if your clients ever sue.
Most policies can also cover advertising and personal injury claims, which can help protect your agency in case a client decides to file a lawsuit. Through this, you’ll get to have your own lawyer, and the policy will take care of the legal fees as well as compensation for the damages, that is if you’re found liable for the incident.
Cyber Liability
Now more than ever, it’s important for businesses to prioritize their cybersecurity and protection plans in place because cyber threats are at an all-time high. This is especially true considering that a hacker hacks into a computer every 39 seconds on average.
Since you’re running an insurance agency and therefore, holding sensitive client data, you could be a bigger target for cyberattacks because your data is valuable. You’ll have more to lose, which means you should be securing your network and data every day.
The best way to handle this is by getting cyber liability insurance. This policy might not be able to protect you from experiencing a cyberattack altogether, but it can help you cover the costs of recovering from an attack so you won’t have to shoulder all the expenses alone.
Through the cyber liability insurance policy, you’ll be able to investigate the source of the data breach, afford the costs of legal fees and compensation for your clients if you lose their data, and the costs of getting back on your feet after experiencing a brutal cyberattack.
You might not always be there to protect your agents and company from harm, but you can do everything in your power to make sure that they’re not entering the battlefield unarmed. If there’s something you can do about it, don’t let them suffer the blows alone; give your agents the tools they need to defend themselves and hope they succeed.