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DECEMBER 2016
FOCUS ON INSURANCE Commercial Insurance: A Safety Net for Business Business Insurance A Necessary Investment For Every Venture
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ot a business expense, but an investment for the continued success of any enterprise, commercial insurance is not a luxury for the successful but a necessity for every business owner. It’s no exaggeration to say that acquiring commercial insurance for a business is one of the most important investments any owner can make. Depending on the plan and the coverage, commercial insurance can be instrumental in protecting a business from potential loss caused by unforeseen circumstances – both natural and manmade – from an earthquake to a labor dispute. “In a nutshell insurance enables commerce. What it does is it allows the parties involved to have the necessary confidence in knowing that if something goes sideways there is a financial backstop there to ensure that the transaction can continue or the business can remain in operation,” explained Luke Mills, a partner at Megson FitzPatrick Insurance Services in Victoria. Fou nd e d i n 1968, M e g son FitzPatrick is a major provider of commercial insurance products. With more than 100 staff in the Greater Victoria area the company provides an extensive range of insurance products for clients in Victoria, across British Columbia and beyond. A general insurance brokerage, the company has about 30 insurance brokers focusing solely on the needs of its commercial clients. “Commercial insurance is typically separated into two distinctly different kinds; property insurance to cover physical assets such as buildings, rolling stock and other tangible goods. Then there is liability insurance which is in place to protect against lawsuits, protecting intellectual property and other less tangible interests,” he said. While property insurance is essentially the beefed up business version of the type of protective policy every homeowner is familiar with, liability insurance is strictly for business professionals and provides protection against everything from the theft of intellectual property to serving as a shield against legal actions resulting from providing faulty advice. Professionals such as
Commercial insurance in essence serves as a safety net against unforeseen changes or events
Insurance companies strive to provide the coverage that best serves the requirements of the client doctors, lawyers, REALTORS® and even insurance brokers use variations of a type of policy known as Errors and Omissions (E & O) insurance to protect themselves, their firm or their
assets against legal action. “Say in our case, we as insurance brokers have to carry professional liability insu rance in case someone alleges we gave them some bad advice
and somehow they suffered financially because of it,” Mills explained. E & O insurance is considered SEE INSURANCE | PAGE 9