Working from home insurance: Is your business covered?
It’s a new world of risk exposures out there, isn’t it? So many new worries and we as trusted insurance advisers have to be on point more than ever.
With all the global disruption over the past two years, it’s now commonplace for employees to be working from home. People may be working from home for a few days a week or, in many industries, on a full-time basis. This means employees would have their employer’s contents at their place of residence.
So, what questions should savvy insurance brokers ask business owners?
– Do you have employees working from home?
– If so, what amount/type of business contents have been removed from the main location and time period?
What to bear in mind?
– Under most Business Package insurance policies, Temporary Removal benefit (and just Property only) is probably not adequate due to the 90 days restriction (or less in some cases).
– Some insurers have new Working from Home benefits but will only cover for Property damage, so you need to be careful of the wording and its application.
What can we as insurance brokers do for our clients now?
– Ask the question of your business clients, document responses and check-in with the holding insurer if cover needs to be obtained.
– General Property is probably your safest bet for now, but the clincher will be the amount to cover and the rating of the risk so as not to be too cost-prohibitive for clients.
– Be careful of what contents have to be specified, as some insurers require computer equipment to be specified.
In this ever-changing landscape for many business owners, we hope to see a standard insurance wording solution be developed by the insurance industry to fully cover this exposure.
John Mills
Broking Manager