We're in the business of
protecting your business.
We work with all the leading Insurance Markets and your broker takes the time to understand your operational needs, risks and exposures. Get custom-tailored coverage, professional advice and solutions so you can focus on the future.
We're in the business of... protecting your business.
We work with all the leading Insurance Markets and your broker takes the time to understand your operational needs, risks and exposures. Get custom-tailored coverage, professional advice and solutions so you can focus on the future.
Commercial (General)
We take the time to understand your operations before recommending a structure, but most businesses need, at minimum, two core coverages: Commercial General Liability (CGL) that protects against third-party damage claims, and commercial property insurance to cover your building and other physical assets. These are often bundled into a package, which can also include other options.
Retail
Running a retail business means understanding risk on multiple fronts—from covering your building or leasehold improvements, to inventory, equipment and fixtures. Your broker can also recommend business interruption and commercial general liability for customers. We’ll help you build a policy that’s not just off-the-shelf.
Wholesale
With high-value inventory in motion, cargo and inland marine coverage protects stock in transit, while commercial property covers what’s on your shelves. Your broker can also help cover product liability for goods you distribute but didn’t manufacture. We’ll help you build a policy that goes from receiving dock to delivery.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing operations face risks that general business policies aren’t built to handle. Product liability, equipment breakdown coverage and business interruption, to name a few. We’ll help you identify the gaps before a claim does.
Contractor
Contractor risks extend well beyond the obvious. Tools and equipment coverage protects your gear, commercial general liability covers third-party injury and property damage and completed operations coverage can even help protect you after the job is done. Before you pick up the tools, pick up the phone and call your broker.
Building Owner
If you own your business building, or if you’re a landlord with commercial tenants, your coverage needs go beyond what a tenant’s policy provides. Your broker can help make sure your policy reflects both the asset and the income it generates.
Course of Construction
A Certificate of Coverage (COC) is a document that proves your coverage is in place—commonly required by landlords, general contractors, and clients before work begins. Your broker can help you get certificates issued quickly and structure umbrella coverage that fits your risk profile.
Bond
Bonds serve a distinct purpose—guaranteeing that a contractor or business will fulfill their obligations. Your broker works with markets that specialize in bonding and can help you meet contract requirements.
Hospitality
Restaurants, bars, hotels, and event venues operate in one of the most complex risk environments in commercial insurance. Liquor liability is a significant exposure, not to mention food spoilage, equipment breakdown in a commercial kitchen, and loss of income. We understand hospitality risk, and we’ll help build a policy that keeps pace.
Business Interruption
Business interruption insurance replaces lost revenue and covers ongoing fixed expenses like rent, payroll, and loan payments following a covered loss. We’ll help you set a realistic indemnity period and make sure your coverage reflects your actual financial exposure.
Named Perils or All Risk? A named perils business interruption policy covers losses caused by the perils listed in your policy. An all risk policy provides protection against loss caused by any risk that is not specifically excluded from your policy.
Limited or Extended Indemnity? The indemnity period is the time period covered for loss of business. There are two basic forms of business interruption indemnities:
- Limited (or earnings). This policy pays only until the damage is repaired or the property is replaced. As soon as your business resumes, the policy stops paying even if you haven’t regained your previous level of earnings. While a limited form policy is less costly than an extended policy, it may not provide adequate coverage for your business. Consider:
- If you are forced out of business for several months, your competitors may snap up some of your customers. As a result, when your business starts up again, you may not be generating the same level of sales as you were before the shutdown.
- There may be limits on the amount of time your business is covered and the amount your insurance will pay in any one month.
- Extended (or profits). This form continues to pay until your business resumes its normal, pre-interruption level, subject to the maximum period of indemnity listed in your policy.
Additional Coverage Consider if you must remain operational during the period affected by damage. You may incur extra expenses – such as outsourcing work; temporary hydro, Internet and telephone connections; advertising; rentals or the cost of moving to a different premise – if you need to carry on business at another location.
Make Decisions Before Your Business is Interrupted The coverage you need depends on the exact nature of your business model. When considering additional coverage:
- Speak to your accountant about the effects of an interruption to your business.
- Discuss coverage options with your insurance representative.
- Be clear about your needs. Ask questions.
- Understand the coverage. Don’t sign anything too quickly.
- Ask around and get opinions from others who operate in the same industry.
Host Liquor Liability Organizations are responsible for patrons when alcohol is served. Forms of liquor liability include:
- Liability as a server. Servers are responsible if they serve alcoholic beverages to people past the point of intoxication.
- Liability as an occupier. People, companies or any other organization that own, have possession of or have responsibility for premises are responsible, in certain circumstances, for protecting persons on their premises from preventable harm.
- Liability as an employer. An employer may in certain circumstances be responsible for the care of employees who over consumed alcohol at an event, such as a staff party.
- Liability as a sponsor of potentially dangerous activities. Risks from such activities increase when alcohol is served.
- Use of excessive force. Security personnel cannot use unnecessary or excessive force to manage intoxicated patrons. Source: Compiled with Canadian Risk Intervention Inc.
Follow these tips for managing liquor liability risks. Before you serve alcohol, consider the following:
- Host events at an off-site location. A restaurant, hotel, conference centre or bar who employ staff that are trained in the proper service of alcohol. Confirm that the host facility has appropriate insurance.
- Ask people when they arrive if they are a designated driver.
- Ensure that a variety of non-alcoholic beverages and food options are available.
- Focus on non-alcoholic beverages.
- Have cash or vouchers on hand for cabs .
- If space is limited in your own residence, reserve rooms in a nearby hotel for last-minute overnight guests .
- Keep watch and don’t hesitate to ask for someone’s keys if you are concerned about his or her ability to drive safely.
Cyber
Small and mid-sized businesses are frequently targeted precisely because their defenses are lighter. Cyber liability insurance can cover breach response costs, legal and regulatory expenses, ransomware payments, and business. If your business handles customer data or depends on connected systems, this coverage deserves a serious look.
Cyber crime stats:
- Every year, cyber crime costs as much as $600 billion or .8% of the global gross domestic product (GDP).
- In Canada, cyber crime losses tally more than $3 billion a year or .17% of our GDP.
- In 2018, the average cost of a data breach in Canada was almost $5 million.
- The average cost to detect and contain a breach (through investigations, assessments, audits and crisis management) is $1.78 million.
Recognizing the damaging consequences of cyber-related threats, Public Safety Canada has outlined several measures that small businesses should take to protect themselves against cyber attacks.
While identifying and mitigating cyber risk is an evolving process, the following actions may be helpful when defending your organization, customers and your reputations.
- Know the threats. Email scams, phishing attacks, botnets, viruses and Trojans are just a few of the electronic tools hackers use. Knowing where they come from and what they look like is the first step to keeping them at bay.
- Watch out for fake software. Cyber criminals develop schemes to trick employees into downloading and installing malware on their computers, mobile devices and networks. Learning to spot the tricks can keep your customer and financial information protected.
- Protect your social networks. Employees may share personal information on social media sites that can be used to build a profile of their responsibilities and activities. This information is then used to develop a convincing scam, tailored to them specifically. It is important to educate your employees about safe social media practices.
- Watch out for phishers. Cyber criminals use fake emails, text messages and websites to trick employees into giving up their important information. It’s called phishing. Passwords, usernames and credit card numbers can be are taken, sold and used. Criminals may even impersonate your business to try to scam your customers. Employees should never respond to emails requesting private information or click on links from unknown sources. Encourage them identify email scams; typically, the message is alarmist, has spelling mistakes, offers a deal that’s too good to be true or requests sensitive information.
- Know how to spot risky URLs. By taking the URLs of recognized sites and tweaking them slightly, cyber criminals can catch unsuspecting people in a scam. Signs that a URL is untrustworthy include hyphens, numbers, spelling mistakes and the “@” symbol in place of a regular character. Encourage employees to manually type URLs in the address bar, rather than clicking on email links. This can help ensure that they are going to a legitimate site and not a malicious or spoofed site.
- Don’t write down passwords. Encourage employees not to write down their passwords on scraps of paper in their workstations. The passwords can be nabbed by a person passing by and used to access their accounts.
- Require employees to create unique passwords. If a password is strong, complex and random, it will help make it as secure as possible.
- Lock computer screens. Advise employees to lock their screens when they’re away from their desks to help secure their computers.
- Protect laptops in public. If cyber criminals get a hold of an employee’s computer or mobile device, they can mine it for the important information you’ve worked so hard to keep secure. Remind employees to be mindful of where and how they keep their devices.
- Contact IT in an emergency. In the case of a potential breach or theft, instruct employees to immediately contact security or the IT department to limit damage.
- Plan ahead for departing employees. When an employee leaves your company, make sure his or her system access is terminated. If not, hackers can exploit the open account.
Directors & Officers
D&O insurance protects the individuals who lead your organization — directors, officers, and board members — against personal liability arising from leadership decisions. If your organization has a board, D&O coverage is worth having. Your broker can walk you through the coverage structure and ensure the right people are protected.
Directors and officers have a duty to exercise due diligence in overseeing the management of the organization that they serve. This involves 3 basic duties:
- Duty of Diligence (Duty of Care): Act reasonably, in good faith and in the organization’s best interest.
- Duty of Loyalty: Place the interest of the organization before your own.
- Duty of Obedience: Act within the scope of applicable bylaws.
Considering Accepting a Directorship? Also Consider Your Liability
In addition to basic duties, a director or officer may be held liable for:
- Failure to act as stated under a statute
For example, if a statute requires directors to file a report or maintain certain records, and these reports or records are not maintained, the director may be liable for an offence under that statute. - Non-compliance of the organization with a statute
For example, directors may be liable for financial losses, wrongful dismissal, employee discrimination or failure to remediate environmental damage. Be aware that directors can be held personally liable and that:- Ignorance is not a defence.
- Resignation is not necessarily a defence.
- Company indemnity may not be enough.
Consult a lawyer for more information on directors’ and officers’ legal liability.
Managing Liability Risk
Organizations with paid or volunteer boards should be aware that directors and officers have very specific duties and obligations. Directors and officers should be given all of the appropriate information that is required to perform their duties effectively.
Your organization should:
- Provide awareness training in negligence and liability to all directors and officers.
- Ensure directors are aware of:
- Risks associated with being a director for the organization.
- Statutory and civil liabilities.
- Specific directors’ obligations.
- Other rules associated with the organization’s business for which directors may be liable due to acts or omissions of the organization.
- Other responsibilities (including understanding finances and knowing the organization and its by-laws).
- Ensure there is no conflict between the duty owed to the organization and a director’s self-interest. Directors should:
- Avoid outside employment or business that may compromise the organization’s best interests.
- Handle confidential and sensitive information carefully (prevent leaks of information).
- Follow guidelines on the appropriateness of public statements (i.e., what and when information can be released).
- Not accept gifts, favours or services relating to company duties.
- Ensure directors are aware of the organization’s operations and affairs. Maintain formalized operating policies and procedures for all activities within the organization’s control. The organization should:
- Implement a financial management policy. Establish clear financial reporting guidelines.
- Store confidential materials and sensitive information in a proper place, and;
- Determine who has access.
- Encrypt all confidential electronic materials.
- Ensure only those with passwords have access. The system should require that passwords be changed frequently.
- Implement firewalls to prevent hackers from accessing information.
- Create a human resources policy. Prepare formal job descriptions for all employees and document required experience and training as well as specific aspects of unacceptable employee performance.
- Ensure all employees, visitors, customers, clients and other stakeholders are protected from reasonably anticipated harm.
- Establish a formal information reporting system. Generally, a director is entitled to rely on information provided by officers or employees/volunteers of the organization, unless the director knows that relying on the officer or employee/volunteer is unreasonable.
- Encourage directors to speak up. Directors should have a clear understanding of all the activities in the organization and should question anything that is unclear. Directors should also clearly communicate their decisions.
- Document decisions and how they were made.
- Ensure directors work closely with legal representatives in making decisions. If a director provides full disclosure to counsel, requests counsel’s advice as to the legality of the proposed action, receives advice that the action would be lawful and proceeds in reliance on the advice, this may demonstrate that the director acted with due care.
- Implement a whistle-blower policy that is communicated to staff and volunteers. Let people know which board member or representative they should advise of any situation of which they feel the board should be aware.
- Implement a director’s indemnification policy that clearly states the rights and obligations of directors and what protection is provided to them by the organization.
*Source:
All information compiled with Canadian Risk Intervention Inc.
Errors & Omissions
If your business provides advice, services, or expertise, E&O insurance covers costs and damages arising from errors, or omissions in your professional work. Your broker can help make sure your policy is structured so there are no blind spots.
Examples of professional negligence situations include:
- Financial Loss. Your corporation provides financial advice. Advice from one of your employees who is trained as a professional financial advisor leads an individual to lose their life savings. The person seeks compensation from your organization.
- Bodily Injury. As part of your non-profit organization’s teen suicide hotline service, an employee who is a trained psychologist speaks to a teen caller. Subsequently, the teen commits suicide and the victim’s family sues your organization and alleges professional negligence.
There is no single definition of who is considered a professional. Ask your insurance representative how your insurer defines who is a professional to determine if any of your corporate employees or volunteers are in this category.
Corporate employees or volunteers who act as professionals in their duties for your organization should consider securing professional liability coverage to ensure that their personal interests are covered.
Depending on the programs and services a non-profit offers, may require that certain types of professional liability insurance be in place. Carefully review all activities of the organization and talk to your insurance representative to determine what coverage you need to protect your organization.
Political & Security
For businesses operating internationally, political risk insurance covers losses arising from events outside your control: such as government expropriation, currency inconvertibility, political action, and civil unrest. Your broker works with specialist markets that understand international exposures and can help structure coverage appropriate to the regions and risks your business faces.
Special Events
Any major one-time event — a gala, fundraiser, wedding, concert, or corporate function—brings together significant financial commitments and public-facing liability in a compressed time frame. Your broker can help you get your coverage right well before the date.
Event Cancellation
Event cancellation coverage is an important element to prevent financial hardship in case an event is prevented from proceeding.
Hole in One
Offering a hole-in-one prize — a car, a vacation, a large cash award—is a proven way to generate golf tournament excitement. For a modest premium, based on the prize value, yardage and the number of players, you’re covered for the entire financial risk of that prize being won. Now, you can cheer right along with the winner.
