Your Business Is Everything to You, Help Make Sure You Have it Protected When you work with Tri-County Insurance, you’ll receive: Call Today For A Free Quote

As a Sauk Rapids, St.Cloud, Foley, St. Joseph, Waite Park, Sartell, MN. businessowner, you need some of the same commercial insurance coverages for the cars, trucks, vans or other vehicles used in your business as you do for vehicles used for personal travel. We offer all the standard coverage plus many options for the vehicles you own, lease or rent for use in your business. We can help you choose a package of coverage that fits your business needs.

Your Businessowners Policy (BOP) does not provide any coverage for vehicles, so you must have a separate policy.

Most states require you to purchase liability insurance for bodily injury and property damage that may result from a vehicle accident occurring while you or someone from your organization is driving on business. Many states also require you to have uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage and/or medical payments coverage (known as Personal Injury Protection (PIP) in some states). You can also purchase physical damage coverage for vehicles your business owns, leases or hires.

The Business Auto Coverage Form (BACF) is the most commonly used contract for providing business auto liability insurance.  Although the form refers only to “autos,” autos are defined to include cars, trucks, trailers, vans or other vehicles designed for use on public roads. Each vehicle you use in your business can be separately “scheduled,” or listed on your policy along with corresponding coverages. In other words, you can choose different coverages, for your various vehicles, depending on the vehicle’s characteristics and the coverage you need for it. Do I Need a Business Auto Policy?

Your insurance agent will ask in detail how you use vehicles in your business; who will be driving them; whether you own, rent or lease; and whether you and your employees are likely to be driving their own cars for your business. The answers to these questions will indicate the types of coverage you need.

In general, only a BACF can provide the level of liability protection—the recommended minimum is $500,000—that even a small business needs to cover the potential damages in a serious accident. Will My Personal Auto Policy Cover Business Use?

Your personal auto policy provides coverage for some business use of your vehicle. Similarly, your employees’ personal auto policies cover some business use of their vehicles too.

A personal auto policy is unlikely to provide coverage, however, if the vehicle in question is used primarily in business. It will not provide coverage for any vehicle owned by a business. The personal auto policy, whether yours or your employee’s, may not have enough coverage to protect your business.

For example, imagine you are driving your car to a business meeting while having an intense conversation on your cell phone with one of your sales reps. By the time you notice a van ahead of you has stopped to make a left turn, it’s too late to avoid a collision. The driver and five passengers are injured in the accident. They sue you and your company.

If you have only a personal auto policy, your insurer will probably defend you personally and pay the claim—up to the policy limit. Your personal auto policy insurer will not defend or pay damages on behalf of your business, however. For a very serious accident or one with a number of injured people, your personal auto policy may not be enough to cover the damages. In that event, the injured parties would likely sue to collect damages from your business. If you or your employees are driving personal vehicles on business and relying on your personal auto policies, be sure you and they have sufficient liability coverage to protect your business in the event of a serious auto accident. Do not expect to rely on a personal umbrella policy for any claims that arise from business use of a vehicle. Typically, the personal umbrella excludes all claims occurring in the course of a business endeavor. What Vehicles Are Covered?

The scope of coverage in the business auto policy can be either broad or narrow, depending on your choice of options. It could, for example, be written to apply only to one specifically described auto. Or, as an example of very broad coverage, the policy could be written to apply to the named insured's liability exposures arising out of the use of any auto.

In general, you have three options for which vehicles you choose to cover.

Autos Your Business Owns

• All autos your business owns, hires or leases

• All autos used for the business, including those that your business does not own, hire or lease

Most businesses should buy the third type, since that is the only coverage that protects the business from liability when an employee or owner is driving a personal vehicle on business.

Be Sure the Right Insured Is on the Policy

An insurance contract usually requires that the owner of a vehicle be named in the policy "Declarations" as the “principal insured.” If you drive any of the same vehicles for both business and pleasure, make sure you tell your insurance agent who holds the vehicle’s title, you personally or your company. This will avoid problems if you need to file a claim or a claim is filed against you.

Physical Damage Coverage

The three types of physical damage coverage for motor vehicles are collision, comprehensive and specified perils.

• Collision coverage is for losses that result from the collision of a covered vehicle with any object or from the vehicle overturning.
• Comprehensive coverage is the broadest form of auto physical damage coverage, because it provides for losses from any cause except collision and overturn (insured under collision coverage) and a few policy exclusions, such as wear and tear, mechanical breakdown and acts of war. Among the causes of loss covered under comprehensive are flood, fire, theft, glass breakage, falling objects, explosion, earthquake or colliding with a wild bird or animal.
• Specified perils coverage covers many of the same perils as comprehensive, but because it covers only “named” perils—those specifically named in the policy—it has a lower premium. It is sometimes referred to as “fire, theft and Combined Additional Coverage (CAC)”

If your businesses has a large fleet of vehicles, over time, it may be more costly to insure the fleet for physical damage than it is to retain the risk, that is, pay for any physical damage directly rather than by insurance.

Regardless of how many vehicles your business has, it may be cost effective to carry physical damage coverage only on the newer or more valuable vehicles.

What Will the Insurer Pay for Physical Damage?

The amount an insurer will pay on an auto physical damage or theft claim depends on the market value, known as Actual Cash Value (ACV), of the vehicle at the time of the loss. The most that will be paid is the lesser of the ACV or the cost to repair or replace the vehicle with one of like kind and quality. In the event of a total loss, the ACV is adjusted for depreciation and the vehicle’s physical condition. Thus, the older the vehicle and the worse its condition, the more its value has depreciated and the less the insurer will pay.

The insurance company may pay you the value of the loss in money or, at its choice, it may repair or replace the damaged or stolen vehicle. In case of a theft, it may return the stolen vehicle to you with payment for any damage caused by the theft. Liability Coverage

The liability portion of the BACF obligates the insurer to pay all damages the business is legally obligated to pay because of bodily injury or property damage caused by a covered vehicle, up to the policy limits.

When there is an auto liability lawsuit against the insured business, where the loss is covered by the policy, the insurer is obligated to defend the business or settle the lawsuit. The decision whether to contest or settle the case is entirely at the insurer’s discretion. The insurer’s duty to defend or settle ends when the insurance policy limits are exhausted. By way of example, imagine that three people are injured in an accident in which you or one of your employees is at fault. The policy limit is exhausted in judgments or settlements for the first two claimants. That leaves your business liable to pay the award directly, should there be a judgment in favor of the third person. Punitive damages may be awarded in cases of gross negligence, such as drunk or reckless driving. By law in a number of states, a BACF cannot cover any punitive damages for which you may be liable. Even in states where coverage for punitive damages is allowed, your policy may exclude them. How Much Liability Coverage Does My Business Need?

Many insurers recommend a business auto coverage limit of $1,000,000, with $500,000 as the minimum. The higher limit does not add a great deal to the premium, considering the amount of additional protection it provides.

What is a Combined Single Limit (CSL)?

Unlike personal auto policies that have separate limits for bodily injury and property damage liability (split limits), the BACF commonly has a Combined Single Limit (CSL). This creates higher limits for both bodily injury and property damage coverages, including per occurrence limits. Although you can purchase other limits, the most common commercial automobile CSLs for a small business are $500,000 and $1,000,000.

Does a Business Umbrella Cover Autos?

If you have a business umbrella policy, it would provide protection for owned, hired and non-owned autos, if the umbrella shows the auto liability policy as an underlying policy for which it provides coverage.

What Coverage Do I Need if My Employees Use Company Vehicles for Personal Business?

Some businesses let employees drive company vehicles home and use them for personal purposes in the evenings or on weekends. So long as these vehicles are scheduled on your business auto policy and the appropriate “coverage auto symbols” are shown on the "Declarations" page, you have coverage for owned autos taken home by employees.

Employees’ own personal auto policies will not cover their use of a company car unless the car has been specifically borrowed as a temporary replacement for the employee’s own car while it is unavailable. In addition, employees who lease, hire, rent or borrow autos for their personal use are not covered by their employer’s business auto policy.

When Your Business Vehicle Is Also Your Personal Vehicle

Sometimes employees or executives of a company or other persons who are supplied with a vehicle owned by the company have only that vehicle. They do not own a personal vehicle nor do they obtain personal automobile coverage. The BACF does not cover personal use of the vehicle in this situation. To close this coverage gap, you need to add the Drive Other Car Coverage Endorsement to your BACF. This provides insurance while the named individual or a member of his or her family is driving a car borrowed from a third party.

What Coverage Do I Need if Employees Drive Their Personal Vehicles on Business? - Hired & Non-Owned Auto Coverage

If your employees drive their own cars for business purposes—to visit clients, for example—your business could wind up liable for property damage and bodily injuries resulting from a traffic accident for which an employee was at fault.

Sometimes businessowners don’t notice they have this exposure. Consider these scenarios:

• Your office manager stops by the office supply store to pick up some items for work on her way back from lunch.
• On the way home, a supervisor stops by a client’s office to leave a product sample.
• While on vacation, a salesperson driving his personal vehicle makes a brief stop to visit a customer.

These are all situations where a business can find itself liable for an auto accident with damages higher than the policy limit of the employee’s personal auto policy.

To protect your business from these liability risks, you can add the Non-owned Auto Liability Endorsement to your BACF. It provides coverage when employees drive their own vehicles on business. This BACF coverage is excess over the limits provided by the employee’s personal auto coverage. If the employee’s limits are low—such as only to satisfy state financial responsibility limits—then it is critically important for the business to have this non-owned auto protection.

You Are Liable if You Allow a Bad Driver on the Road

You are legally liable when you allow someone to drive one of your vehicles. If you fail to take reasonable steps to determine that the driver is qualified to drive or if you allow someone to drive whom you know has a poor driving record and that person causes an accident, you could be liable for negligent entrustment. Any damages awarded for negligent entrustment would be on top of liability for the accident itself.

A case of negligent entrustment arises when someone allows another person to use a vehicle knowing or having reason to know that the use of the vehicle by that person creates a risk of harm to others.

Your organization is responsible for verifying a driver’s qualifications before entrusting him or her with a vehicle. Do not entrust a bad driver with a vehicle—not even for a quick errand.

Keeping Premiums Down

The best way to keep your BACF premiums down is to avoid accidents. Driving safety should be emphasized. Drivers should not be so pressured to produce that they feel compelled to drive unsafely. All vehicles should be well maintained.

Ask your agent whether your insurance company has business auto safety resources that you can use to help your organization be accident free. For more information on reducing the risk of auto accidents, click here.

Let Tri-County Insurance help you choose a policy that will fit your individual needs.  Protecting your assets, whether personal, business, or both, is our goal.  A well-chosen policy can lessen the impact of some of life’s most common, yet unforeseen perils.  We’re here to help when you are considering Business Auto coverage.

Your standard dwelling fire policy offers protection for your home and other permanent structures on your property for the following perils. A dwelling fire policy is similiar toa homeowners insurance policy.  A person who owns a house and lives in that house would have a homeowners insurance policy on the residence.  A person who owns a house, but, rents it out to someone else would have a dwelling fire policy on the residence.  Dwelling fire policies are often slightly more expensive than a homeowners policy because there is a renter, not the owner, living in the home.

• Fire or lightning
• Aircraft
• Volcanic eruption
• Smoke
• Vehicles owned by others
• Riot or civil uprising
• Hail or windstorm
• Explosion

Additional Coverages Actual Cash Value Coverage for Total Losses If the home or other structures are ever destroyed or damaged due to a covered loss, we will pay the Actual Cash Value for the loss.

• Repair Cost Coverage for Partial Losses. Most losses are partial - which means, the home has sustained some damage due to a covered loss, and needs repair. We'll pay the cost to repair the damage, unless that cost exceeds the actual cash value of the property. In those rare cases, we will pay the actual cash value for the loss.
• Coverage for Other Structures. The policy protects detached garages and sheds on your property against loss, too - at 10% of the overall dwelling coverage limit. Just like with the home, the loss that caused damage to the other structure must be one of the perils listed on the policy.

• Personal Property Coverage. This optional coverage helps protect the homeowner's personal property against damage caused by named perils.
• Fire Department Service Charge Coverage. If the fire department needs to come to the home, the homeowner may be billed for the trip they make. Our policy pays for the charge, up to $500.
• Reasonable Repair Coverage. Sometimes, homeowners need to make immediate repairs to the home to guard against additional damage. For instance, you may need to cover your roof if a windstorm blows part of it away. Our policy reimburses policyholders for reasonable repair expenses incurred to protect your home against further damage.
• Vandalism and Malicious Mischief. Optional coverage that protects against this type of damage.
• Personal Liability Coverage. An optional coverage that protects our customers should they be held liable for accidents:
  • that happen to other people while they are on the insured property.
  • that are caused by the customer's own negligence when away from the insured property.
• Premises Liability for Rental Homes. This optional coverage is important for our customers who rent out their homes to others. It protects the customer if they are held liable for accidents that happen to other people while they are on the insured property.
• Burglary coverage. Optional coverage that protects the home and personal belongings for their actual cash value, if someone forces entry into the home. This coverage is not available in all states, ask your agent for details.

Let the Tri-County Insurance help you choose a policy that will fit your individual needs. Protecting your assets, whether personal, business, or both, is our goal. A well chosen policy can lessen the impact of some of life's most common,  yet unforseen perils. We're here to help when you are considering purchasing Landlord Insurance from us.

The number of lawsuits filed by employees against their employers has been rising. While most suits are filed against large corporation, no company is immune to such lawsuits. Recognizing that smaller companies now need this kind of protection,we provide this coverage as an endorsement to our Businessowners Policy (BOP).

EPLI provides protection against many kinds of employee lawsuits, including claims of:

• Sexual harassment
• Discrimination
• Wrongful termination
• Breach of employment contract
• Negligent evaluation
• Failure to employ or promote
• Wrongful discipline
• Deprivation of career opportunity
• Wrongful infliction of emotional distress
• Mismanagement of employee benefit plans

The cost of EPLI coverage depends on your type of business, the number of employees you have and various risk factors such as whether your company has been sued over employment practices in the past. The policies will reimburse your company against the costs of defending a lawsuit in court and for judgments and settlements. The policy covers legal costs, whether your company wins or loses the suit. Policies also typically do not pay for punitive damages or civil or criminal fines. Liabilities covered by other insurance policies such as workers compensation are excluded from EPLI policies.

To prevent employee lawsuits, educate your managers and employees so that you minimize problems in the first place:

• Create effective hiring and screening programs to avoid discrimination in hiring.
• Post corporate policies throughout the workplace and place them in employee handbooks so policies are clear to everyone.
• Show employees what steps to take if they are the object of sexual harassment or discrimination by a supervisor. Make sure supervisors know where the company stands on what behaviors are not permissible.
• Document everything that occurs and the steps your company is taking to prevent and solve employee disputes.

Let the Tri-County Insurance help you understand and protect all of the risks you run and all of the perils your business faces. We will do this with a well thought out and executed business insurance policy designed just for our EPLI Insurance policy holders.

Liquor liability insurance is business coverage that protects your business against loss or damages claimed as a result of a patron of your business becoming intoxicated and injuring himself or others. If your business manufactures, sells, serves or facilitates the use or purchase of alcohol, then your business will likely need this coverage. Liquor liability coverage may be sold as an add-on to a commercial liability policy or as a stand-alone policy. But, if you do not purchase this extra coverage, your standard commercial general liability policy does not protect your business against liquor-related claims.

WHY DO I NEED LIABILITY INSURANCE?

Good liability risk management can reduce the chances that your business will be sued, but it can never eliminate the risk entirely. You or a member of your organization can make a mistake that injures someone or damages property. Your mistake could harm the reputation or interfere with the privacy of a customer, client, competitor or member of the general public. When such injuries occur, you may be legally liable to pay damages to someone who suffers a loss due to your actions or inaction.

Depending on the degree of harm and the number of people injured and/or value of property damaged, a lawsuit could bankrupt your business. Even if your organization is ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing, a determined plaintiff can keep you tied up in legal proceedings for a long time, entailing significant cost to defend yourself. Liability insurance pays the cost of your defense and protects your assets.

HOW ARE LIABILITY AND DAMAGES DETERMINED?

Everyone in society has a duty to take reasonable care that his or her actions do not injure others. The same rule applies to business entities. Not repairing a pothole in a parking lot, not lighting a dark stairway, failing to train workers how to do their jobs safely and legally or failing to provide directions for the safe use of a product can constitute negligence if a client, customer or member of the general public is injured as a result. The legal meaning of negligence is failure to exercise reasonable care.

If the parties do not agree to settle a liability lawsuit, there may be a trial. Or, the parties may agree to use some alternative means of dispute resolution, such as arbitration, and be bound by the arbitrator’s ruling.

The law of the state where the lawsuit is filed sets the rules for the determination of liability and damages. The amount of damages imposed in any particular case is, of course, in part a function of the economic losses the plaintiff can prove he or she has endured due to the defendant’s negligence. In some states plaintiffs may also be awarded damages for

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• Broad coverages designed for your industry and tailored to your standards.
• Competitive Pricing
• Responsive, fair claims services that protect the best interests of policy owners.
• Access to safety and loss prevention information specifically for restaurant operations.

• Property Insurance - Business Income, Equipment Breakdown, Food Contamination Spoilage, Sewer Backup
• Crime/Employee Dishonesty
• General Liability
• Liquor Liability
• Employee Benefit Liability

Coverage for Sauk Rapids, St.Cloud, Foley, St. Joseph, Waite Park, Sartell, MN., Restaurant Insurance Package:

Business Property

Business Liability

Business Crime

Workers' Compensation

Sauk Rapids, St.Cloud, Foley, St. Joseph, Waite Park, Sartell, MN. Restaurant Insurance

• High Liquor revenue accounts eligible
• Equipment Breakdown Included
• Data Compromise / Identity Theft Recovery Coverage available
• Broadened Property and General Liability Coverage Forms
• Employment Practices Liability available
• Food Contamination Coverage
• Business Umbrella Insurance
  
  Today's restaurant environment is more complex than ever and you want to know you're covered for unexpected occurrences. Arizona Insurance Service All in One Restaurant Package includes Business Liability, Property, Crime, and other coverages designed to meet your insurance needs. Whether your restaurant is elegant, trendy, traditional, ethnic, or home-style we have the package for you. We offer insurance for the following types of restaurants:
  
  * Bars/Taverns    * Cafe's/Coffee Shops   * Diners, Deli's, Food Delivery Services   * Fast food Franchises,   * Lounges   * Pizzerias   * Sandwich Shops   * Pubs/Sports Bars

A surety bond ensures contract completion in the event of contractor default. A project owner (called an obligee) seeks a contractor (called a principal) to fulfill a contract. The contractor obtains a surety bond from a surety company. If the contractor defaults, the surety company is obligated to find another contractor to complete the contract or compensate the project owner for the financial loss incurred.

There are four types of surety bonds:

1. Bid Bond: Ensures the bidder on a contract will enter into the contract and furnish the required payment and performance bonds if awarded the contract.
2. Payment Bond: Ensures suppliers and subcontractors are paid for work performed under the contract.
3. Performance Bond: Ensures the contract will be completed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract.
4. Ancillary Bond: Ensures requirements integral to the contract, but not directly performance related, are performed.At Tri-County Insurance we pride ourselves in being leading insurance experts. Our extensive knowledge and years of experience has led us to specialize in combating diverse risk exposures by providing unique products such as Bonds.

We pride ourselves in being Sauk Rapids. insurance experts. Our extensive knowledge and years of experience has led us to specialize in combating diverse risk exposures by providing unique products such as Bonds.

Sauk Rapids surety bonds – also known as performance bonds – are distinct due to the fact that they help to encourage business, support economic development and protect consumers, taxpayers and businesses in a variety of ways. Most commonly, surety bonds are known for:

• Assuring the completion of a variety of construction projects; i.e. schools, roads, office buildings, hospitals, etc.
• Facilitating compliance with state laws and regulations
• Protecting against breach of fiduciary, or government-backed, responsibilities
• Guaranteeing the payment of contractors

In regards to this level of coverage, there are thousands of classes of bonds available. For example, contractors often require a particular class of bonds called “Performance and Payment” bonds. Typically, the common element to all surety bonds is that a bond is a financial or performance guarantee.

Tri-County Insurance insurance professionals contain a level of expertise not found elsewhere. Bonds are a critical to protecting your business and safeguarding your livelihood—and our bonding experts can provide the following:

• Bid/Performance and Payment Bonds
• Licensee Bonds
• Court and Fiduciary Bonds
• Fidelity bonds
• Public Officials Bonds
• And more…

As your premier  Sauk Rapids insurance agency we have access to major bonding companies giving us the opportunity to secure the most convenient, confidential bond products at highly-competitive rates.

Interested in learning more? Contact our agency today to speak with one of our trusted agents who can further explain to you about surety bonds, fidelity bonds, licensee bonds and so much more! Allow us to help obtain the security you’ve been looking for.

Let Tri-County Insurance help you choose a policy that will fit your individual needs. Protecting your assets, whether personal, business, or both, is our goal.  A well-chosen policy can lessen the impact of some of life’s most common, yet unforeseen perils. We’re here to help when you are considering a bond for your business.

Coverage Solutions for the Trucking & Transportation Industry

The transportation industry is the backbone of this country making goods and people get from one place to another. At Tri-County Insurance we understand the importance of this industry to our economy and the exposures those in the various segmentss face on and off the road. We specialize in providing insurance programs for a variety of transportation  businesses including public transport (buses, & paratransit) and commercial auto fleets.

Our extensive insurance experience and access to specific markets that serve the transportation industry allow us to put together an innovative program that is tailored to your niche and needs. This includes:

• General Liability

As an contractor in MN, you need liability insurance. The Tri-County Insurance specializes in contractor license bonds and general liability insurance for MN contractors. We have been in business for many years and our experienced team delivers reliable and fast service. We work with several major insurance companies to deliver the lowest ratee. These plans will help reduce the risk if your business faces a costly lawsuit that could shutter its doors. The US Small Business Administration suggests that business owners discuss their specific risks with insurance providers to determine what type to get and how much coverage is necessary.

What Does Contractors Insurance Provide? Contractors insurance policies range significantly in terms of what they offer. Most will have a business owner's policy (BPO) that will provide:

• General liability insurance

• Workers' compensation insurance

• Commercial vehicle insurance

• Other insurance products you need

WHY DO I NEED LIABILITY INSURANCE?

Good liability risk management can reduce the chances that your business will be sued, but it can never eliminate the risk entirely. You or a member of your organization can make a mistake that injures someone or damages property. Your mistake could harm the reputation or interfere with the privacy of a customer, client, competitor or member of the general public. When such injuries occur, you may be legally liable to pay damages to someone who suffers a loss due to your actions or inaction.

Depending on the degree of harm and the number of people injured and/or value of property damaged, a lawsuit could bankrupt your business. Even if your organization is ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing, a determined plaintiff can keep you tied up in legal proceedings for a long time, entailing significant cost to defend yourself. Liability insurance pays the cost of your defense and protects your assets.

HOW ARE LIABILITY AND DAMAGES DETERMINED?

Everyone in society has a duty to take reasonable care that his or her actions do not injure others. The same rule applies to business entities. Not repairing a pothole in a parking lot, not lighting a dark stairway, failing to train workers how to do their jobs safely and legally or failing to provide directions for the safe use of a product can constitute negligence if a client, customer or member of the general public is injured as a result. The legal meaning of negligence is failure to exercise reasonable care.

If the parties do not agree to settle a liability lawsuit, there may be a trial. Or, the parties may agree to use some alternative means of dispute resolution, such as arbitration, and be bound by the arbitrator’s ruling.

The law of the state where the lawsuit is filed sets the rules for the determination of liability and damages. The amount of damages imposed in any particular case is, of course, in part a function of the economic losses the plaintiff can prove he or she has endured due to the defendant’s negligence. In some states plaintiffs may also be awarded damages for

WHAT KIND OF LIABILITY POLICY SHOULD I GET?

For small businesses the most efficient and least expensive way to purchase liability insurance is usually as part of the Businessowners Policy (BOP) which combines property and liability insurance in one contract. Alternatively, a business may purchase a Commercial General

WHAT TYPES OF DAMAGES ARE COVERED BY THE BOP?

Your liability insurer will pay damages that you are legally obligated to pay as a result of “bodily injury,” “property damage” or “personal and advertising injury,” up to the policy limits and subject to your deductible. Punitive damages are generally not covered, although there may be some exceptions.

Bodily injury means injury, sickness, disease or death; it may include injuries that are emotional or mental, such as post traumatic stress syndrome or humiliation.

Personal and advertising injury includes libel, slander or any defamatory or disparaging material or a publication or utterance in violation of an individual's right of privacy; infringing the privacy or copyright rights of another in your advertisement; wrongful entry or eviction, or other invasion of the right of private occupancy; and false arrest or wrongful detention.

WHAT IS COVERED MEDICAL EXPENSES?

For the most part, your BOP liability coverage is for situations where a third party claims you were negligent and sues for damages. The medical payments coverage is an exception, as it pays medical expenses for bodily injury to third parties that occurs on premises you own or rent or as a result of your operations regardless of fault.

People are less likely to sue you if they receive prompt medical payments to cover the costs of any injuries they have sustained for which they could claim your business or organization is liable. Medical Payments coverage gets the payments to them without their having to file a lawsuit or go to court and engage in a protracted claims process. This coverage also allows your insurer to pay small nuisance claims without the need for costly legal expenses.

People who commit insurance fraud usually know that for claims below a certain amount, insurers prefer to pay the claim or settle rather than incur the legal costs to defend against the claim. If you have a relatively high limit for medical payments, your insurer can more readily dispose of a lot of smaller claims. However, submitting multiple medical expense claims could negatively impact your insurance claims history. If you are in a business with significant traffic from the public, such as a retail store, be sure to discuss the possible consequences of your medical payments limit on your claims history with your agent.

WHO IS INSURED?

BOP liability coverage insures a sole proprietor, partners or partners named in the policy "Declarations," but only with respect to their duties on behalf of the business. The spouses of sole proprietors or partners are also covered. If your organization has officers and directors, they are insured, as are your stockholders, but, once again, and this applies to all parties, only with respect to their duties or liabilities in connection with the business. Employees and volunteer workers are insured for acts committed within the scope of their employment in your business.

Let Tri-County Insurance help you choose a policy that will fit your individual needs. Protecting your assets, whether personal, business, or both, is our goal.  A well-chosen policy can lessen the impact of some of life’s most common, yet unforeseen perils.  We’re here to help when you are considering Contractors Insurance.

Cyber-Insurance Cyber-Insurance is an insurance product used to protect businesses and invdividuals from internet based risks, and more generally from risks relating to information technology infrastructure and activities. Risks of this nature are typically excluded from traditional commercial general liability policies or at least not specifically defined in traditional insurance products. Coverage provided by cyber-insurance policies may include first party coverage against losses such as data destruction, extortion, theft, hacking, and denial of service attacks; liability coverage indemnifying companies for losses to others caused, for example, by errors and omissions, failure to safeguard data, or defamation; and other benefits including regular security-audit, post incident public relations and investigative expenses, and criminal reward funds. Cyber-Crime

As businesses increasingly depend on electronic data and computer networks to conduct their daily operations, growing pools of personal and financial information are being transferred and stored online. This can leave individuals exposed to privacy violations and financial institutions and other businesses exposed to potentially enormous liability, if and when a breach in data security occurs.

In 2000 the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance joined together to create the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to monitor Internet-related criminal complaints. In 2014 the IC3 received and processed 269,422 complaints, averaging about 22,500 complaints per month. The IC3 reports that 123,684 of these complaints involved a dollar loss and puts total dollar losses at over $800 million. The most common complaints received in 2014 involved auto and real estate fraud and government impersonation email scams.

Interest in cyber insurance and risk has grown in 2014 and 2015 as a result of high-profile data breaches, including a massive data breach at health insurer Anthem that exposed data on 78.8 million customers and employees, and another at Premera Blue Cross that compromised the records of 11 million customers. The U.S. government was targeted by hackers in two separate attacks in May 2015 that compromised the personnel records of as many as 14 million current and former civilian government employees. A state-sponsored attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, allegedly by North Korea, made headlines in late 2014.

Cyberattacks and breaches have grown in frequency, and losses are on the rise. In 2014 the number of U.S. data breaches hit a record 783, with 85.6 million records exposed. At 781 in 2015, the number of breaches was about the same, but the number of records exposed doubled to about 169 million. The majority of the 781 data breaches in 2015 affected medical/healthcare organizations (66.7 percent of total breaches) and government/military (20.2 percent), according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. These figures do not include the many attacks that go unreported. In addition, many attacks go undetected. Despite conflicting analyses, the costs associated with these losses are increasing. McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated the likely annual cost to the global economy from cybercrime is $445 billion a year, with a range of between $375 billion and $575 billion.

Let Tri-County Insurance help you choose a policy that will fit your individual needs.  Protecting your assets, whether personal, business, or both, is our goal.  A well-chosen policy can lessen the impact of some of life’s most common, yet unforeseen perils.  We’re here to help when you are considering Cyber Liability coverage.