It turns out that buying insurance isn’t necessarily top of everyone’s list of exciting things to do. So when our clients give us the time to do our job properly, allowing us to get a full understanding of their risks, and advise accordingly, we’re always grateful. But we’re even happier when the advice that we’ve given, and the cover that we’ve put in place, assists our clients when things go wrong.
Our first year has seen a number of our clients suffer losses that were both complex, and in some cases financially significant. Let’s be honest – the best you can ever hope to get out of an insurance policy is being put in a slightly worse position than you would have been had the claim not occurred. But if you don’t have the cover at all, you’ve got a major problem. Three claims come to mind, where the outcome has been as good as it could possibly be (names have been removed to protect the innocent):
- Travel claim. A director at one of our clients had to cancel a long haul flight for themselves and their family for reasons beyond their control. The replacement flights cost nearly £10,000. The cost of the replacement flights was covered by a Business Travel policy that we had recently put in place, which the client had not held previously. The particular policy that included cover for directors’ personal travel including their accompanying family members.
- Directors’ and Officers’ Liability claim. A case was brought against one of our client’s directors by a shareholder who felt that they were not acting in the shareholders’ best interests. The case was successfully defended, with the insurer covering the defence costs which amounted to a significant five figure sum. Whilst the client had the cover in place before our involvement, the insurer that we placed cover with was happy to work with the client’s preferred legal team, where many insurers would insist on using their own panel.
- Employers’ Liability claim. A client’s member of staff was injured when using a piece of cutting equipment. Whilst the employee initially accepted that the injury was entirely his fault, he subsequently left their employment and brought a claim for compensation and loss of earnings, which was dealt with by the insurer. However, before we started acting for the client their insurer had not been informed that employees were using high speed cutting equipment, and there is every chance that cover could have been jeopardised. As it was, we had fully informed the insurer of the client’s activities, and there was no issue.
Nobody is likely to be happy in the event that they need to use their insurance – as a rule it means that something has gone wrong, in some cases very badly. But we always do our best to ensure that our clients know what risks they face, what they can do about insuring them, and if a claim is made that the settlement and process is as good as it can be. And whilst it might not be a happy scenario, it’s a lot less painful than it might have been.
In truth we think this should be standard – but it’s a highlight for some of our clients, and that’s good enough for us!