Event and Meeting Planning Insurance
Whether it’s a wedding, birthday party, anniversary, work conference or corporate meeting, so much goes into making an event go seamlessly. You have all your supplies ordered, vendors are lined up, and staff are ready to go. But wait, what are you forgetting? Insurance. If you aren’t properly insured for your event or meeting and something goes wrong, you could be left with a big expense or possibly worse.
Not only does insurance help you manage risk, but it might also give you a competitive advantage. Having insurance in place shows that you understand the importance of protecting your business, your property, and your clients. This shows that you can prepare for anything that might arise during a meeting or event. Let’s review what types of insurance you could need as an event planner.
Business Owner’s Policy
A business owner’s policy (BOP) is the best defense again commons risks associated with the professional service industry. BOP combines general liability and commercial property insurance. This policy protects you from property damage, customer injury, advertising injury, and third-party lawsuits. Many BOP policies are a combination of general liability and professional liability.
Property Damage
Property damage of course means the physical building itself, but it also includes equipment such as electronics and office furnishings. Property damage insurance covers you in case of theft, vandalism, weather, or fire damage. BOP insurance also helps cover expenses and lost revenue if you have to temporarily close due to one of these events.
Third Party Damage
Third party damage insurance would apply to customers/guests, employees, or outside vendors you brought into a property. A customer would be considered a person who was invited to the event. An employee would be one of your employees working at the event. An outside vender could be a florist or bartender. Some examples of these damages could be if a guest falls out of chair or trips over a cord on the floor. This policy would protect you if one of your employee spills liquids on the band or DJ equipment. A third-party policy will also help provide coverage if a vendor slips walking into the venue. This policy would provide additional resources for any potential lawsuits, repair costs, and medical bills.
Advertising Injury
Accidental advertising injury takes place if there is libel (written defamation) or slander (verbal defamation) about your organization. Copyright infringement falls into this category too. Copyright infringement would apply to a protected work (movie, music, art, etc.) that is used without permission from the original artist. This could cover the legal costs of a lawsuit, including attorney fees, court costs, and damages paid to the other party.
General Liability
General liability covers common risks that could come from dealing with the public, such as customer injuries, customer property damage, and third-party injury.
Customer/Third Party Injury
If a customer or delivery person were to fall and break a bone, you could be held liable. This policy would help cover any medical bills, attorney’s fees, court ordered judgements or funeral expenses (if applicable.) This policy does not cover your employees.
Professional Liability
Professional liability, often called errors and omissions insurance, protects you from a lawsuit from client claiming unsatisfactory work. This could be work mistakes, undelivered services, or professional negligence.
Work Mistakes
Mistakes happen to everyone. This would protect against accidental mistakes by you or an employee, such as a billing error or over-order of supplies charged to a customer.
Undelivered Services
Delayed or unfilled requirements can happen from time to time. Especially now during pandemic times. Maybe you booked a speaker, and they can’t make it. These are the type of services that would be covered.
Professional Negligence
If a wedding or corporate meeting doesn’t live up to expectations, a client could accuse your company of negligence when the quality of your service is questioned. This coverage would help with the legal costs.
Workers’ Compensation
Worker’s compensation covers medical costs and lost wages for work-related illnesses or injuries to any of your employees. This would help cover the costs of attorney fees, court costs, medical bills, and other legal fees. Each state has different worker’s compensation laws and requirements for different business types, so be sure to check to see the details of the coverage needed.
Commercial Auto
If you or any of your employees operate a vehicle to conduct company business, this coverage will cover legal expenses, medical bills, or property damage if there is an accident. This type of policy would also cover any business owned vehicles as well.
Cyber Liability
With more business transactions being done online, a cyber policy is great to have in place. It would protect your business if there were a security breach, and any personal client information was stolen. A cyber policy would also cover a cyber-attack or extortion.
Umbrella/ Excess Liability
Think of an umbrella policy as extra coverage on top of any other policies you might have, that could help offset any fees or bills you could face. It can go beyond the existing limits that are in effect for your other policies or may pay for other types of claims your other policies do not cover.
Inter-Agency Insurance
Inter-Agency insurance has been in business for more than fifty years serving clients from over thirty-five states. Insurance can be overwhelming and confusing. Do you get a BOP or just general liability? Do you need auto coverage or cyber liability? What are your company’s needs? Even the best planners can experience a hiccup every now and then. At Inter-Agency, our agents are more than happy to sit down and discuss your business with you.
Inter-Agency works with over forty different insurance companies, so we are confident that we can find a policy that is right for you. We want to serve as your partner in business to ensure you can focus on your clients and we can worry about the insurance. Want to request a quote online? Click here to begin.
If you are currently a client, we offer a client services portal to make a payment or start a claim. You can learn about that portal here.