Every company that provides services should evaluate the need to insure its liability risks. Service provider are vulnerable to industry-specific risks, which are sometimes very different from the risks faced by manufacturing companies. The question of whether a certain service fully corresponds to the contractually agreed conditions is usually more difficult to clarify than in cases involving the manufacture of a physical product. And so it can happen that even when services are rendered using the utmost care, customer expectations are not met and the customer asserts his alleged claims. This is followed by often protracted and costly legal disputes, which can also have a negative effect on the company's reputation or financial capacity.
Therefore every service provider needs business liability insurance that is tailored to its specific needs. AIG insures a broad range of different industries - a short overview of our target customers is included below. We can also check whether other services can be insured, as long as it is not a service that is listed below but that cannot be insured at the moment. Please contact us – we would be pleased to prepare a solution that is tailored to your needs.
Frequent mistakes
Damage compensation claims against service companies are often the result of general mistakes that are made on the job or that are due due to process failures and simple human error. Therefore in most cases, the damages are not the result of bad advice. Typical errors can occur independent of the activity. The list below shows some common, job-specific examples:
Lawyers
- Missed deadline for submitting objections
- Errors in the draft contract
- Failure to do proper due diligence for a transaction
Insurance brokers
- Insurance cover is not placed in a timely manner due to administration errors - meaning that the claim was not covered
- Not enough insurance cover
- Non-qualified advice for contract renewals results in insufficient sums insured
Real estate brokers / managers
- A property was sold to the first bidder well below the market price (negligence)
- Unwittingly provided false information during the sale process
Recruiters
- Failed to do required background checks - the candidate ‘with a past’ also steals from the new employer
Management consultants
- Advice for the restructuring of a larger financial service company contained several design errors that led to much higher costs, a wave of resignations by employees and lost sales.
Trustees
- Missed deadline for tax refunds
- Bad advice for structuring a merger - which results in tax disadvantages
- Fraudulent activities by management go undiscovered during an audit
IT service providers
- A new system does not meet the customer's requirements
- Errors in the software cause disruptions in the customer's entire system
- A virus is transmitted when software is installed at the customer
Media companies
- Someone is slandered in a media report
- Breach of intellectual property during a TV broadcast
- A printer has printed thousands of copies of a brochure for an event, which contain errors because the wrong template was used. The resulting delay caused damages at the customer.
With our ProfessionGuard products, we insure the consulting professions and other service providers against the compensation claims of third parties, for which they can be held liable.
AIG ProfessionGuard
Who do we insure?
Those who give advice to others enjoy a special measure of trust, but they also carry a lot of responsibility and risk in the case of a claim. Financial loss liability claims can affect everyone. Service companies, independent professionals, volunteers - each activity comes with its own specific liability risks. Therefore we offer customised insurance solutions for these areas.
What do we offer?
With Professional Indemnity, we offer individualised and innovative insurance solutions that are tailored to your needs. Feel free to contact us.