Commercial Insurance

Covers loss of, or damage to, property (contents, stock, furniture, equipment, fittings etc) by theft following upon, or followed by, forcible and violent entry to, or exit from, the premises within which they are contained.

Commercial motor policies are very similar to our private motor policies. There are 2 types of policies available:

• Compulsory Third Party Only:
  ONLY provides cover for your legal liability to third party property and persons. Loss or damage to your motor vehicle is NOT covered.
• Comprehensive:
  Provides the cover for Compulsory Third Party Only AND loss or damage to your motor vehicle

Covers all risks of physical loss of, or damage to, computers and consequential loss including costs of re-creating data and increased cost of working.

This policy can be bought on per project basis or annually (to cover various job sites). It is an “All Risks” based insurance policy that usually covers 2 sections:

• Material damage to the buildings and civil engineering works (materials, freight, customs duties, dues and cost of construction and the value of services, materials, machines and labour). You can also protect for clearance of debris, damage to existing property, contractors’ plant & machinery, professional (Architects’, Surveyors’ and Consulting Engineers’) fees.
• Public liability, where you become legally liable to pay as compensation to third parties for accidental bodily injury, or illness, to any person; accidental loss of, or damage to, property not belonging to you.

Sometimes also known as “Business Interruption” or “Loss of Profits”. A property insurance policy covers the property when it suffers damage, i.e. a material damage, loss, but the business may also suffer a “trading loss” due to the business being interrupted and so may not be able to operate on the same scale as before, if at all, for a period of time. This is where you need Consequential Loss insurance to cover your inability to meet any continuing expenses (salaries, rent, interest etc) and/or reduction in net profit and/or extra expenditure that is incurred (hire of temporary premises, overtime payments, purchase of goods from competitors etc).

Sometimes also known as “D & O” insurance for short. Directors and Officers of a corporation can be personally sued by shareholders, creditors, suppliers, customers, competitors, regulators or even the corporation itself for damage caused by them through wrongful acts (meaning: omissions, errors, misstatements, neglect or breach of duty) in their function as D’s & O’s.

A D&O policy protects against these legal claims for wrongful acts committed by corporate D&Os in performing their corporate duties – it is meant to protect their personal assets if they become legally obliged to pay for a wrongful act committed by them.

Covers loss of money or other property belonging to you or for which you are legally responsible as the direct result of any act of fraud or dishonesty committed by any employee described in the policy schedule.

Covers loss of, or damage to, goods which you are responsible for whilst they are in transit from one place to another either by road, sea or air. Very often there will be contract conditions which determine who is responsible for the insurance and when it is to apply.

This covers:

• loss of money.
• loss of, or damage to, any safe or strong room in your premises arising from theft of money therefrom or any attempt thereat.
• loss of or damage to clothing and personal effects belonging to you or any of your directors, partners or employees sustained as a direct result of theft or attempted theft involving assault or violence or threat thereof.

Provides protection against the consequences of liability to pay damages to third parties in respect of negligent breaches of professional duty that is committed in the course of practising the profession. Can cover individuals or firms.

Professional negligence means failure to exercise reasonable skill or care and may arise:

• As breach of an implied or express contractual term to exercise reasonable skill and care in the performance of a contractual duty or
• In tort as a breach of a duty of care owed by the professional to a client or third party

Most important professions are Architects & Engineers, Lawyers, Accountants. Other professions usually classed as “miscellaneous” other than those involved in healthcare where this type of insurance is known as Medical Malpractice insurance.

This is a wider version of Property – Fire & Perils insurance that covers loss or damage arising from any fortuitous cause except those that are specifically excluded. Because of this, it is more expensive.

Sometimes also called Fire & Special Perils or Fire & Allied Perils. This covers property (buildings, stock, contents, fixtures & fittings, machinery etc) belonging to you or for which you are responsible for against loss or damage from a specified list of “perils”. The Cayman FIRST policy covers:

• Fire, Lightning.
• Explosion but excluding loss or damage to boilers or other vessels, machinery or apparatus in which pressure is used, (or their contents), resulting from explosion of vessels or contents.
• Storm – but excluding damage to walls, gates, fences, docks, seawalls and jetties unless specifically included in the policy schedule.
• Flood defined to mean the overflowing or deviation from their normal channels of either natural or artificial water courses, bursting or overflowing of public water mains and any other flow or accumulation of water originating from outside the building insured or containing the property insured but excluding:
  • Loss or damage by flood caused by hurricane, cyclone, tornado or windstorm, earthquake and volcanic eruption.
  • Loss or damage directly caused by subsidence or landslip.
  • Loss or damage to goods in the open.
• Catastrophe perils – defined as hurricane, cyclone, tornado or windstorm, earthquake and volcanic eruption and flood (including overflow of the sea) caused by these perils but excluding damage to walls, gates, fences, docks, seawalls and jetties unless specifically included in the policy schedule.
• Bursting or overflowing of water tanks, apparatus and pipes, contained in the premises described in the policy schedule, but excluding damage to the water tanks, apparatus or pipes themselves.
• Riot, strikes or labour disturbances.
• Malicious persons or vandals but excluding loss or damage caused by you or any member of your family or any of your employees (or directors).
• Falling trees or branches.
• Aircraft and other aerial devices (excluding any aircraft to which permission to land has been extended by you or anyone authorized by you) and/or articles dropped therefrom.
• Impact by any road vehicles, horses or cattle not belonging to or under your control or the control of any of your family members or anyone in your service. Property insured shall include walls, gates and fences around and pertaining thereto.

Covers your legal liability for damage to third party property and/or injury to third parties such as visitors (non-employees) at your place of business. Claims examples include a client suing after he slips and falls while touring your factory or a bystander injured by falling debris during renovations. Can be extended in certain circumstances to cover Products Liability – your legal liability for claims arising out of goods sold or supplied locally.

Covers both Workers’ Compensation benefits as per Cayman law and can also include Employers’ Liability as an optional extension. Workers Compensation is a no-fault benefit which means that if an employee is injured on the job, benefits are payable regardless of fault as per the standard scale of benefits for death, permanent and temporary/partial disablement. Whereas Employers Liability covers liability arising out of employees’ work-related injuries that aren’t covered by Workers Compensation and more specifically the legal liability aspect i.e. lawsuits. When these claims happen, Employer’s Liability Insurance can cover your businesses legal defense fees, settlements, damages or judgments and other court costs up to the maximum limit of liability that you have in the policy.