OT: Insurance

I know a lot of you guys are out working for yourselves. How much coverage do you have and what's types do you carry?

I talked to someone recently that mentioned that a lot of companies in the oil industry require 10 million in coverage. How much might that run?

I carry 2,000,000. liability. It costs me around 900/year

Thats in Canada, not sure what it would cost in the states.

controlled said:

I carry 2,000,000. liability. It costs me around 900/year

Thats in Canada, not sure what it would cost in the states.

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Im suprised controlled..most plants i come across now demand at least 3 and most are asking for 5.... And the $900 is dirt cheap!..mind you i am listed as an electrical contractor...trust me i would love to pay only 900 a year! (then again it does cost more for the 5 mil..)...

In Ozz the lowest cover we can get for public liability is $10 million. I carry a broadscoipe insurance for $20 million public liability and $20 million product liability plus $500,000 cover for goods in custody. It costs me $9000 per annum.

Most companies here require $20 million cover.
Then there is fire, tools etc etc with separate cover which costs me another $4-5000.

$5 million liability at apx $2K per year in the US.

Anyone care to elaborate

Anyone who posted on this care to elaborate on their basic type of coverage, and possibly who they are listed with? I'm starting an LLC, and one thing I am finding is that not everyone will even supply insurance.

Yes, lots of insurance companies are dropping liability insurance for our type of work. I started with Hartford and after 2 years they dropped it altogether. Today, I'm with Zurich and have been for 6 years.

Robermee, I had Zurich a few years back and theres a big class action lawsuit going on!
Overpriced contracts and such as well as the terms of their contracts.
You may want to look into it.

bkottaras said:

Robermee, I had Zurich a few years back and theres a big class action lawsuit going on!
Overpriced contracts and such as well as the terms of their contracts.
You may want to look into it.

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Wow...I will....so who do you use now?

robertmee said:

Wow...I will....so who do you use now?

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A local company Firestone (nothing in common with the tyre)through a broker for a while and nowadays Nationwide.

I checked into the Zurich deal. The settlement is under appeal and not scheduled to be heard 'till 2009. Since I'm a customer I'm automatically entered into the pool, so I'm just sitting tight waiting on my refund check

I bought a 1M liability policy for around $350 dollars. I got it through State Farm. I got a decent price bacause I already have my home and auto through them.

At one of the plants, I was talking to the them to figure out how much insurance I would need. It you do any actual wiring and such, you need at least a 3M policy.

I do mostly programming and rarely even need a screwdriver. I do configure meters, drives and such.

The funny thing is they said since I don't do any actual work I fall under the lower class of policies needed.

Mark Buskell said:

I bought a 1M liability policy for around $350 dollars. I got it through State Farm. I got a decent price bacause I already have my home and auto through them.

At one of the plants, I was talking to the them to figure out how much insurance I would need. It you do any actual wiring and such, you need at least a 3M policy.

I do mostly programming and rarely even need a screwdriver. I do configure meters, drives and such.

The funny thing is they said since I don't do any actual work I fall under the lower class of policies needed.

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Since I don't do any work myself I may only need a 1M.
I have everything with State Farm as well.
I'll have to check into it while i'm waiting for my refund check too (from the thread above).

The following is copied from another thread on the subject. If you do a search of this forum using the keyword "insurance", you'll fine quite a bit of discussion on the subject.

Regarding insurance:

There are three types of policy you need to look into.

The first is Worker's Compensation. This covers the employees of your company (including you) if they should get injured on the job. This type of coverage is mandatory. Premiums are based on the type of work you do and your payroll.

The second type may be called a "Business Owners" policy or an E&O (Errors and omissions)policy. This pays your customers if they have a claim against you for subpar workmanship or failure to produce what you promised. This, along with Worker's Comp coverage is what most customers are looking for when they ask you for a "Certificate of Insurance". Many firms won't write you a purchase order until you produce a Certificate of Insurance.

The third is Professional Liability coverage. This is what a doctor would call "Malpractice Insurance". If someone should get injured while working on a machine for which you designed the controls and it can be shown that a failure of the control system contributed to the injury, this is what covers you when the injured party sues you. This coverage is substantially more expensive than E&O coverage.

You should also be aware of this significant aspect of the Worker's Compensation law. When an injured party accepts a Worker's Comp settlement, they give up the right to sue their employer. Even if the employer's unsafe working conditions contributed to the accident, they're off the hook. The employer might get fined by OSHA and their Worker's Comp premium may go up, but they're not going to have to defend themselves in a liability suit.

Also, implicit in the insurance policy is the obligation of the insurance company to defend the policyholder. This is important because it's a pretty sure bet that your lawyer's hourly rate is higher than yours.

Thanks guys

Thanks for all the good info. I have found a place but as yet haven't received a quote. I do know one thing, it sounds like some of the guys here are running only general liability. I have to think that the E&O is just as madatory as the workers comp. Just for info, I'll post the numbers I get. I also have a guy from St. Farm working on a quote, so this will be interesting. Thanks again.

Russ