Though difficult to believe (or not) crime causes a greater amount of commercial property losses than any other type of property losses.
Current estimates are as high as $50 million annually in the United States for employee dishonesty losses alone.
Employee dishonesty is just one of many types of commercial crime exposures that you should consider.
The Basic Crime Insurance parts are:
- Employee Theft
- Forgery or Alteration
- Inside The Property – Robbery or Safe Theft of Other Property
- Inside The Property – Theft of Money and Securities
- Outside The Property
- Computer Fraud
- Money Orders and Counterfeit Paper Currency
Commercial crime insurance coverage can be written as a part of your commercial package insurance policy or it can be written as separate stand alone policy. The advantage of a stand alone would be if you needed to customize forms and coverage to meet specific needs to your business or if the commercial package insurance company is not in a position to offer you the amount of crime insurance that you need.
There are two basic types of coverage forms in crime:
- Discovery Form
The discovery form covers losses that are identified, or revealed, during the policy time, even if the loss happened some time before. - Loss Sustained Form
The loss sustained form will cover only losses that occur in the policy period and up to twelve months after the policy expires. The loss sustained form could expose you to the risk of financial loss since many crime losses are not discovered for years after the fact.
It is important to note that in the policy who is considered an employee and who is excluded from coverage. Generally an employee is a person currently employed or an ex-employee who was recently terminated, compensated by salary, wages or commissions, and is subjected to control by you as the employer. Temporary are included while they are working for you.
Just about all businesses need commercial crime insurance, at the very least, employee theft. Setting an appropriate limit of insurance can be tricky. The amount that could be stolen from you likely exceeds your expectations by a long shot. For further advice on the subject of commercial crime, contact your account, attorney and insurance agent.
