Public liability insurance might not be near the top of your list of things to consider as a small business owner, but it should be.

Research shows that nearly 1.5 million Australians are self-employed. This accounts for around 17% of the total workforce.

If you’re one of these workers, you know that some of the standard rules, regulations, and policies that apply to full-time salaried office workers are a little different for you.

That said, it’s easy to get confused about what does apply and what doesn’t. Public liability insurance falls into this grey area and you might have put it off until now. However, it’s time to understand the basics so you can make a smart decision moving forward.

As a self-employed worker, are you required to pay for this coverage? Today, we’re exploring the answer to this question in detail so you never have to second-guess again.

Ready to dive in? Let’s get started!

What is Public Liability Insurance?

In short, public liability insurance is designed for anyone who interfaces with the public on a regular basis. This policy protects you in the event that a third party suffers a personal injury, death or property damage as a result of your business activities. In addition, it also helps protect you against other types of damages, including:

• Pain and suffering
• Sickness
• Disease
• Disability
• Fright
• Shock
• Mental anguish
• Mental injury
• Wrongful eviction
• Some assault or battery charges

Self employed business owner liability insurance

For most business owners, this type of coverage is a no-brainer.

Not only does it safeguard your business against the costly aftermath of such an incident, but it also sends a message to current and future clients that you’re invested in their wellbeing. You can also use public liability insurance to help cover the costs you incur as you work through a claims assessment, including all administrative and investigative expenses.

The only time that such a policy would not offer protective coverage is in the event that a claim relates to:

• Asbestos
• Product recalls
• Punitive damages
• Workers compensation
• Gradual pollution
• Aircraft products

That said, not every self-employed worker in Australia is required to pay for this type of coverage. Next, let’s take a look at a few types of workers who will need it, and those who won’t.

Am I Legally Obligated to Carry It?

The short answer? Unless you’re a self-employed contractor working for the Australian Government, you aren’t legally required to carry self employed public liability insurance.

However, just because it isn’t a legal obligation doesn’t mean that it’s something to shrug off. In fact, most small business owners will agree that this insurance coverage is strongly recommended across a variety of industries.

If you’re unsure whether or not your industry is one of them, the government’s website lists all major sectors, along with their associated legal, operational and business requirements, on this page.

In general, business owners will purchase this type of insurance policy if one or both of the below statements holds true about their organization:

• The general public, including delivery personnel, can visit you on-site at your home or place of business.
• Your business regularly hosts off-site events that are open to the general public.

Examples of Applicable Fields

A self-employed Australian worker who works from home all day and never comes into contact with a member of the public for work-related endeavours might not need public liability insurance. However, there are plenty of fields that do, including the following.

Contractors and Tradies

Are you a construction worker, carpenter, plumber, electrician or any other member of the contracting trade? If so, a majority of your workday involves interfacing with the public.

As such, you’ll definitely need public liability insurance to protect your business as much as possible. This is especially the case if you work on a regular basis with dangerous and heavy-duty machinery that could pose a significant safety risk.

Advertising and Marketing Specialists

This is another example of a people-person field! If you’re in the marketing sphere, you interface with public clients and prospects on a daily basis. They rely and depend on you to create solutions that will help drive business and exposure to their company.

What would happen if a project that you spearheaded went awry and winded up costing your clients a significant amount of money in financial damages? A public liability insurance policy could help protect your own bank account while you help them restore theirs.

Accountants and Banking Professionals

In addition to public liability insurance, banking and finance professionals should also have professional indemnity insurance.

Why? You could be the best accountant in the city, but one slip of the keyboard could render your best client penniless in an instant. Professional indemnity insurance protects your business if a service you perform harms your client financially as a result of your:

• Act
• Error
• Omission

Depending on your niche and skill set, these acts will vary. Some of the most common mistakes that industry professionals make include:

• Auditing errors
• Incorrect tax advice or preparation
• Incorrect numerical data analysis and interpretation

Gardeners and Landscapers

Landscape professionals invest a significant amount of money into their tools and equipment. If you’re one of these experts, are you prepared to bounce back financially if a member of the public is hurt or loses personal property on your job site?

A public liability insurance policy can help you answer “yes”. In addition, this policy will also help you recoup your losses if someone steals your materials while you’re on-site.

Mortgage and Real Estate Experts

Most self-employed jobs in the real estate sector are widely public-facing. This includes mortgage lenders, agents, loan consultants and more.

The very nature of the housing industry means that there are plenty of opportunities for your clients or prospects to experience an injury. For instance, touring unfinished houses could result in injury or another mishap. Investing in public liability insurance helps make sure you’re covered if such an accident happens.

Professional Consultants

Do you plan to offer consultancy services that require in-person visits with the public? This might mean having open business hours during which clients and prospects could arrange a meeting to discuss their needs. If anything goes wrong during such an encounter, you could face an expensive claim that your fledgling business isn’t prepared to cover.

That’s why most consultants will benefit from carrying public liability insurance.

Small Business Owners

Do you own and operate a small brick-and-mortar business? From bookstores to retail clothing boutiques, there are myriad different types of shops and storefronts scattered all around Australia. Keep in mind that the second you open your doors to the public, you’re making yourself liable for any injuries or damages that occur on your premises.

You’ve heard of public liability for business, but did you also know it’s equally important to invest in public liability for coffee shops, cafes, art galleries, and any other niche business that attracts passersby? Otherwise, a simple snafu could cost you big time. A small business owners liability insurance policy could be the saving grace you need to get back on your feet and stay there.

Public Liability Insurance vs. Professional Indemnity Insurance

In your quest to obtain all of the insurance coverage you need, you might have come across another type of policy that sounds similar to this one: professional indemnity insurance.

How does professional indemnity insurance differ from public liability insurance? Both types of insurance policies will cover compensation claims that your business faces. However, the details of those claims will differ.

As its name implies, public liability insurance covers your business against claims filed by any member of the general public, including:

• Current clients
• Current customers
• Suppliers
• Passersby

For instance, a vendor might slip and fall walking into the entrance of your office building. Or, you could schedule a consultation with a prospect and spill your cup of coffee over their laptop.

In both of these instances, the other party can legally file a claim against you to help pay for any physical or property damages. The types of claims filed might include injury compensation claims or property damage compensation claims. In addition, you can also use the money to help cover any legal fees you incur.

On the other hand, professional indemnity insurance only covers you if a client files a claim stating that you had an error in your work that cost them or their company.

Some of the most common mistakes that you might make include:

• Performing professional negligence
• Losing important documents or data
• Unintentionally breaching copyright or confidentiality
• Engaging in defamation or libel

What If I Don’t Have Public Liability Insurance?

As mentioned, there are some self-employment scenarios in which you might never come into contact with the public. For instance, you might be a self-published author who works from home all day and handles his own administrative work.

However, most employees, whether they work for themselves or for someone else, interface with the third-party public on a consistent basis. You might have customers who pass through your premises or ones who use a good or service that you sell.

As such, failing to purchase a public liability insurance policy could expose your business to a great amount of risk.

The reality is that even if you follow every industry best practice regarding quality control, inspection, regulation and safety, you cannot foresee any injury, accident or mishap that might occur at your business. Moreover, you cannot guarantee that every product you produce will be completely free of potentially harmful defects.

Paying into your policy won’t cause a major strain on your company’s finances, but it can protect them substantially down the road. Compensation claims can be enormous, and you don’t want to be caught off-guard by one.

What Should My Policy Include?

It’s critical to work with an insurance broker who knows your local regulations and can advise you on the exact level of coverage you need.

Depending on your location, this might mean partnering with a public liability Perth professional or one who knows the laws for public liability Joondalup. When you find the right agency, you can rest assured that your policy will include all the applicable terms and conditions it needs to maximize protection.

Most policies will include details such as:

• The scope of your business
• The scope of any associated entities that your business interfaces with
• Coverage for members of the public, suppliers and third-party members of the wider community
• Coverage for any employees, directors, or partners

Naturally, the level of coverage that you require will hinge on the nature of your business. A risk assessment will reveal the specific level you need, but for the most part, a business that could pose a greater threat to the public will need greater protection. For instance, a labour-centric trade that requires the use of heavy machinery will need more coverage than a sedentary office environment.

Find the Public Liability Insurance Coverage You Need Today

As a small business owner, you already have plenty on your plate to worry about. You might believe that public liability insurance coverage is just another expense that you can avoid.

However, a single claim can devastate your organization and render your hard work fruitless. You cannot know when or if such an incident might occur, but planning ahead can drastically change the outcome in your favour.

Looking to learn more about this type of insurance policy? We’d love to help.

We provide such coverage for more than 2,000 different types of occupations, with policies ranging from $5 million to $30 million.

Click here to connect with our team of expert agents and get a custom quote today.

Grace Insurance does not accept any liability arising out of any reliance on the information in this article. We urge you to consult your insurance broker for personal advise, as we only provided general advise.

The post Do I Need Public Liability Insurance If I’m Self Employed? appeared first on Grace Insurance.

Your Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney Photo Booth business is highly successful with your booths being hired out for weddings, parties and other events every single weekend. How wonderful! You are undoubtedly so busy servicing these bookings that you don’t have time to think about anything else, right?

There is something else you need to be thinking about though, and that’s photo booth insurance.

We know what you’re thinking; “Why do I need insurance?”  Most photo booth operators/owners don’t think they needed it either. That is until they realise that they did!

How did photo booth owners realised they needed business insurance and who came to the rescue? Read below to find out.

Grace Insurance Photo Booth Insurance

How do business owners realise they needed insurance?

As a photo Booth business owner …

Photo booth operators came to the realisation that they needed insurance when the following questions came to mind:

• Accidents happen, so don’t they want to be covered if there’s one in their photo booth?
• If a customer injures themselves whilst using one of the photo booths, would the business owner be liable?
• What would be photo booth owners responsibility if someone tripped and fell near one of their photo booths?
• What if something happens to one of the photo booths during transit?
• Would we have the funds to cover property replacement, medical costs and potential legal fees?

This is when they realise, they need insurance…

What type of insurance do photo booth businesses need?

Grace Insurance did some research and found that most companies probably needed to look into the following types of insurance cover but not limited to:

• Public Liability Insurance

What is Public Liability Insurance?

It’s insurance that covers your business for things such as:

• Loss or damage of someone’s property
• Injury to others as a result of your service
• First aid expenses at the time of the incident involving your photo booth
• Legal costs incurred in the defence or settlement of a claim

For more information about what’s covered with Public Liability Insurance, click here

• Business Insurance

Business insurance covers many things from:

• Electronic portable equipment for accidental loss or damage and theft
• Water and fire damage
• Burglary and accidental damage
• Loss of profits as a result of business interruption
• Commercial vehicle and the contents within them

You can find out more about Business Insurance here.

• Trailer Insurance

It’s fairly likely that you transport your photo booths on a trailer, so it’s important that this is insured too.

Trailer Insurance will protect your photo booth trailers from theft and damages due to a traffic accident or when parked and unhinged.

Ever thought what would happen to your beautiful photo booth while in transit? Ever thought of transit insurance for your photo booth?

Contact us to find out more about insurance for your trailer.

How Grace Insurance help

With so many different types of insurance on the market, it is confusing to say the least. This is why we as professional insurance brokers for photo booth business owners help.

“Frans and the team at Grace Insurance were so incredibly helpful when it came to our insurances. Not only did they set us up with the right cover that we needed for our photo booth business, they made sure we understood our new insurance cover too.

Want some peace of mind too? Grace Insurance can help you the way they helped many other photo booth companies, by selecting the most suitable insurance options from a number of flexible policies.

Contact Grace Insurance in Joondalup, Wangara, Malaga, Ocean Reef, Whitfords, north of Perth, to find out more about business insurance for photo booths today. Some Photo Booth companies that are using our services:

Reeltime Photo Booths

The post Photo booth Insurance for business owners appeared first on Grace Insurance.

Insurance brokers can be extremely valuable for your business. As a small business owner, you need to make smart choices about your insurance. Your insurance doesn’t just protect the organisation you built – it protects all your employees, too.

Finding the right coverage takes time, research, and knowledge of both policies, the insurance industry, regulations in Western Australia, and your unique requirements. But who has time to do all that when you also have a business to grow?

Enter your new insurance broker. Now, you can benefit from their industry knowledge and experience and make the right choice the first time around – without wasting time or money.

What is an insurance broker, and why should you find one? Keep reading to learn how broker services can better your business.

Business insurance broker

What Is an Insurance Broker?

As a client, you buy insurance from two types of insurance reps: brokers and agents.

Insurance agents work for one company. They know their products inside and out and only provide their captive services to clients who want one of the policies their insurer carries.

An insurance broker, however, isn’t captive to a single insurance company. Brokers are an expert on a long list of providers and policies and can generate quotes for all of them, too.

So, if you want to shop around and receive expert advice without emailing a dozen agents, then you need to choose a broker.

While brokers do offer more choice, they also provide much more than a long list of potentially beneficial policies. By working with more insurance companies, they are more likely to understand bespoke insurance needs. Brokers also have an understanding of how different policies impact the business landscape, which makes them powerful allies for small and medium-sized businesses.

9 Reasons Why Insurance Brokers Add Value to Your Business

The ability of an insurance broker to seek out quotes and policies that fit your business’s unique needs is enough of a reason to choose a brokerage over an agent.

But many small businesses don’t realise just how much value their broker can add to their bottom line.

Here’s how your insurance broker can become one of your business’s most valuable assets.

1. Brokers Get You Better Rates

Brokers get you more for every dollar compared to buying from an agent or directly from the insurer.

Some businesses prefer to skip the broker in favour of a price comparison site. They think they’ll save on commission fees but cutting out the middle man. (You will always know what part of your premium goes toward’s your broker’s sales commission). But removing the middle man doesn’t save you as much money as you might hope.

Why? It’s just not about preferential rates. Though, brokers get those, too. Instead, brokers get you the perfect amount of coverage.

An insurance broker has the experience to identify what coverage you need – and what you don’t. They then use their product knowledge to find a policy that covers all those bases without adding lines that don’t add value.

In other words, you don’t have to pay for policy features that you don’t use, which creates long-term savings.

2. Brokers Save You Time

The insurance world presents such a long list of products (and further decisions once you make the first big choice) that it takes forever to sort through them all.

Your broker’s experience allows them to take stock of your liabilities and risk and find you the top five policies that make the most sense for you. They can also use a long list of tech and software to make it easy to compare the options – not just the prices.

Instead of becoming intimately familiar with 17 different policies, you have a helping hand to filter them for you.

3. Brokers Prevent You from Being Underinsured

One of the worst realisations you can make as a business owner is learning that your business is underinsured.

Why is it one of the most devasting things that can happen? Because businesses only realise this is the case when they need to make a claim and find out they can’t.

Your broker will address all your liabilities – and the size and prevalence of them – and find you a policy that will protect your business when it all goes wrong.

4. Brokers Help Your Insurance Grow with You

Your business is on the move, and there are big things on your horizon. But does your insurance policy reflect the growth?

As your business grows and changes, your liabilities and assets also change with it. A broker can help you adjust your insurance programs to reckon with these new changes and ensure that you are always protected.

Plus, their ability to offer products from different carriers means you don’t lose access to the broker you know so well. You may need to scale your policy, but the helping hand who is always there for you remains the same.

5. Brokers Keep Your Policies Up-to-Date

Both business and insurance regulations change regularly.

A broker who caters to small businesses stays on top of any national or state regulation and assesses your policies on your behalf.

Rather than leaving you legally exposed or liable, your broker keeps an eye on Canberra on your behalf.

6. Brokers Can Be Specialist Providers

A small business insurance broker is also a specialist who can offer bespoke or unique cover to those who need it.

For example, do you deal with significant amounts of personal data and data processing? You can add optional coverage to protect your business in the event of a data breach.

Other examples of bespoke or specialist services include professional liability, business income for off-premises utility services, commercial property insurance,  business travel insurance, and (mandatory) workers compensation insurance.

7. Brokers Advocate During Claims

There are so many differences between working with a broker and a price comparison site, most notably the ability to work directly with a real human. But the human face that makes the most significant difference becomes most apparent when you need to make a claim.

Your insurance broker is an expert in their field, and they can advocate on your behalf if a claim suddenly transforms from a routine event into an intractable problem.

Your broker works in your best interest to help settle most claims quickly and quietly.

Without a broker, you either need to dedicate your own time to the problem or you must phone your solicitor. Both take time, energy, and funds away from your business.

8. Brokers Provide Advice

As a small business owner, there are so many things on your plate. You don’t have time to think about every eventuality or liability.

You know you need fire, flood, and theft coverage. But do you know about the hidden liabilities that impact the value of your business?

Your broker does.

From litigation to loss, a broker can tell you more about liabilities that you never knew existed and therefore protects you from them. You get free business advice and great, comprehensive insurance rates in one neat package.

And don’t worry about sharing private information. Brokers follow a code of ethics that requires them to keep all your discussions confidential.

9. Brokers Are Available on the Phone

Chatbots, messaging services, and forums are incredible customer service tools. But they aren’t what you want if you have an insurance question or a claim.

Unlike price comparison tools, your insurance broker is only a phone call away.

How to Choose Your Insurance Broker

Now that you know how an insurance broker adds value to your business, you might wonder, how do I find this partner and ally?

Start by asking for referrals and references from the local business community. You will quickly find out who is and isn’t happy with their insurance coverage.

Once you narrow down your choice, learn more about their specialist business experience. Do they work with businesses who require your industry-specific coverage? How often? What advice can they offer?

Remember, choosing an insurance broker is about more than price. You also need to consider the overall fit for your business and ensure that you are comfortable with the level of service they provide.

Your goal is to find someone who can ensure that you’re not underinsured or overinsured and who knows about the insurance coverage required and available in both Western Australia and further afield. Alternatively, call Grace Insurance.

Are You Ready to Find an Advocate and Broker?

Your small business insurance needs to protect your business, your employees, and your customers. To find the perfect insurance policy, you need a keen insurance broker who is an expert in the needs of SMEs like yours.

Are you ready to find out how much you can save by switching to an insurance broker? Click here to get a free business insurance quote.

Grace Insurance does not accept any liability arising out of any reliance on the information in this article. We urge you to consult your insurance broker for personal advise, as we only provided general advise.

The post Use an Insurance Broker to Better Your Business Insurance appeared first on Grace Insurance.

Many ask why would you need a good hair salon insurance policy or a barber shop insurance insurance policy? The day-to-day operations of a hair salon require hard work, dedication and some serious taste for style. Creating gorgeous hair masterpieces is certainly a big responsibility.  Hair salon owners also have a responsibility to their employees, customer satisfaction and duty of care, stock control and risk management and reductions – – that’s a lot to think about, right?!

So, if you own a hair salon or barber shop in Perth, or you’re thinking about starting one, here’s a guide to what’s involved in hair salon insurance. Same applies for Barber Shop Insurance. Read more to find the best insurance cover for your unique business needs.

Salon insurance and Barber Shop Insurance

Why do Hair Salon and Barber Salon owners need Insurance?

Whether it’s customer allergic reactions to hair products, tripping over equipment, to damage of property, there are a range of risks associated with owning and operating a hair salon.

There are three main areas of cover that Frans Du Plessis and the team at Grace Insurance in Perth recommend for small businesses, like hair salons:

1. Third-party bodily injury,
2. Property damage,
3. Theft on premises,
4. Plus, many more reasons you probably haven’t thought were relevant.

While not a specific type of insurance, hair salon insurance provides a combination of business policies styled to suit the unique needs of hair salons. With great expertise and ownership comes great hair masterpieces. With hair salon insurance, comes peace of mind, so you can focus on running your business and wowing your customers.

When would a claim be made?

1. A customer could slip and receive serious injury on wet floor inside your hair salon. As a store owner, if you haven’t put up a wet floor sign how would this affect you? You need to make an effort to dry the area as soon as possible or advised people of the potential hazard, then you may be liable for negligence, should they suffer an injury.
2. Covering lost stock and/or money from a break-in. Did you know ‘glass cover’ is an option under your hair salon insurance packing? This ensures the repairs or replacement of front windows in the case of accident or malicious damage.
3. A workers’ compensation claim could be made if an employee is hurt at your hair salon, as a result of a workplace accident or illness.

Depending on the size of your hair salon, these claims (and more) could cost you thousands. Sometimes even millions of your hard-earned dollars. Could you afford to pay for the repairs or associated legal expenses? Below are types of insurance that can ease the costs related to unfortunate, unlikely, but still very real circumstances.

What type of insurance do Hair Salon owners need?

1. Professional indemnity

The goal of your business is for your clients to look and feel great with the new look or style you provide. Hairdressers, like all people, are not infallible and have the ability to make mistakes. Not just emotionally traumatic, a compensation claim against you or your business could potentially ruin your business and reputation. Professional indemnity insurance protects your business from financial costs related to legal fees, settlements, and court costs associated with any legal action pertaining to negligence or allegations of poor quality service provisions.

2. Public liability insurance

Whether you work from your own salon, or mobile service, you’re always in close contact with your clients. This makes Public liability insurance essential for hairdressers. In the unlikely event of a customer, supplier or member of the public sustaining injury or property damage as the result of negligent business (in)actions. Trips, falls, chemical hazards, electrical malfunctions causing injury and/or razor, scissor accidents are all very real hazards an employee or member of the public may experience in a salon.

3. Business insurance

Loyal clientele is essential for your salon, but so is equipment, stock, contents and the salon building itself. Without business insurance cover, you may be faced with unplanned and unwanted challenges. Here’s what this cover includes:

• Contents and stock – Protection in the event of burglary and/or damage to goods.
• Building – If you own the building where the salon operates, you’ll need insurance to repair damage or cover a rebuild in the unfortunate event of fire or storm damage.
• Business interruption – In the event of a fire or natural disaster.

4. Workers Compensation

Medical bills and wage replacements for hair salon employees who experience a work-related injury or illness such as breathing in hazardous chemicals or repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel from cutting hair.

How do I obtain Hair Salon insurance?

There’s some important questions to ask yourself before getting insurance:

1. What risks are associated with running my hair salon?
2. Does the policy cover all risks associated with running my business?
3. How much would it cost to replace contents, stock and salon equipment if it was lost, damaged or stolen?

This is how to prepare for Hair Salon Insurance:

1. Gather all your necessary documents such as: business contact information, building lease (where applicable), number of employees, value of assets, service provisions, yearly revenue, type/amount of stored client personal data, products sold or shipped to customers, years of industry experience, years of business operation, current insurance coverage, claims history.
2. Choose an Insurance Broker who understands your business needs and will work with you to find the best cover possible.

Hair salon insurance, not only provides peace of mind, but also eases the squeeze of (possible) repairs, replacements, payments and legal fees.

Grace Insurance as a solution

Grace Insurance strive to provide the best advice and service tailored to your business. We know insurance, and want to provide our tailor-made coverage to small businesses like yours. By taking out hair salon insurance, you can relax, knowing you have the best possible cover for all unfortunate events that could occur in your hair salon.

The right cover means you can focus on running your business, gaining and retaining loyal customers and creating gorgeous hairstyles.

At Grace Insurance in Landsdale, Malaga, Wangara, Ocean Reef, Joondalup we’re your trusted and local Perth northern suburbs Insurance Broker. Contact us today to see how we can help you protect your hair salon.

The post Guide to Hair Salon Insurance appeared first on Grace Insurance.

Technology advancements such as the internet have no doubt made life easier. You can purchase anything from food to clothes and stay in contact with loved ones at the touch of a button. Online shopping, e-commerce or just about any business who uses electronic data systems, sees people storing their personal information in computer databases – we have access to it all.

These advancements, however, are not all positive, as it means cyber hackers can steal your information from their computer. Hackers steal information for financial, political or just ‘downright malicious’ motives, and cyber insurance is what you can turn to when it comes to covering the damages and recovering your data.

This is where cyber insurance comes in.

Read on to find out what you need to know about cyber insurance.

What is cyber insurance?

Okay, let’s start from the beginning…Cyber relates to anything to do with computers, the internet and information technology.

If your business stores, sends and receives electronic data, then cyber liability insurance cover is something to definitely consider.

Your business most likely stores sales projections and tax records as well as personal details of clients, employees and stakeholders. Such information includes birthdays, emails, contact numbers and banking details.

A business’ electronic data can be:

• lost,
• stolen, or
• compromised

This can result in significant restoration efforts.

Your business can also be liable for damages from third parties if their electronic data is mishandled or stolen from your business computer storage systems. Digitalised personal and public data, is now leaving Australian individuals and businesses more vulnerable. This is why you should look into cyber insurance.

What does cyber insurance cover?

Cyber liability insurance covers financial losses resulting from data breaches and other negative cyber incidents.

There are first-party and third-party coverage available for businesses:

1. First-party cover applies to losses sustained by and to your company directly.
2. Third-party cover applies to claims against your business by people hurt as a result of your business’ actions or failure to act.

For example, a client of your business can take action if their personal electronic data is insecurely stored and leaked publicly online. A real-life example is the global e-commerce site eBay (link), who was hacked in May 2014, resulting in 145 million user information being compromised! This cyber-attack exposed customer names, addresses, birthdays and encrypted passwords of its users.

Many cyber liability insurances cover losses caused by damage, theft, corruption and/or disruption of businesses electronic data stored on the company computer system. They also cover the above when it comes to the client’s electronic data stored on the company computer system.

Loss of income and extra expenses can also be covered by these policies. This will help avoid, or at least minimise, the costs of a business shutdown resulting from a computer system crash or failure.

These losses of income and extra expenses are different from your usual commercial property policy. You may be surprised that interference of a computer system is unalike damage to physical commercial property.

Computer viruses, cyber extortion and cyber hacks

Cyber extortion coverage applies in the unfortunate instance of a cyber-attack from an online hacker. These people or organisations can threaten an evil attack of cyber extortion if you do not follow their rules (generally involving monetary payment). This coverage can also apply to expenses incurred (with the insurer’s consent) needed to respond to the extortionist, including money paid to them.

For losses to be covered, however, they need to occur as a result of incidents such as a computer virus or cyber hack.

Remember, cyber insurance is constantly evolving. Cyber risks change frequently, and thus, the true risk of cyber-attacks is not completely understood.

Notification costs and rebuilding reputations

Did you know that government statutes and regulations may force your business to notify the parties affected by the cyber breaches? Luckily, these policies can also cover these notification costs. The cover may also include the possibility of hiring an attorney to assess your company’s obligations to rules and laws when it comes to notifying people.

Data breaches have the ability to tarnish a company’s reputation. Current and future clients may decide to take their business elsewhere if they think your business and their data isn’t secure. This is why cyber liability insurance can cover marketing and public relations expenditure to protect and restore its reputation after a data breach too. They’ve thought of everything, right? This is otherwise known as crisis management.

Why do you need Cyber Insurance?

Cyber insurance is crucial for covering the costs of malicious cyber events. You may not think your business needs it now or ever. Hackers don’t discriminate based on the size of the business or who runs it.

According to an Australian Government initiative, Stay Smart Online reported that 60% of all targeted attacks struck small and medium-sized businesses. With an average cost of $276,323 of a cyber crime attack to a business, this should really make you think! Could you afford to cover this?

It may help to consider cyber insurance as an investment, rather than an unnecessary business expense. With many business transactions taking place over the internet, and information no longer paper-based, this is why cyber security is vital.

Peace of mind to your business and your loyal clients is a gift. While cyber insurance may not necessarily prevent a cyber-attack or malicious computer activities, it definitely helps preparing for one.

Consider Cyber Insurance for your business today

With all the technology available in the 21^st century, it’s crucial to secure your business’ information technology infrastructure. You have a responsibility to your employees, and clients, to keep all electronic data safe and secured. Worrying about finding the right technologically savvy insurance experts to help you, shouldn’t hinder your decision-making process.

Don’t leave it until it’s too late. Cyber insurance may be the best decision you ever make.

Want to know more cyber insurance for your Perth business? Contact Joondalup, Ocean reef, Wangara Insurance specialists, Grace Insurance today to find out more about protecting your electronic data.

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Well, whilst medical malpractice may never occur in your workplace or practice, it’s important to know what it is and why you may need it, in the unfortunate event that it does.

Read on to find out.

What is Medical malpractice?

Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital, doctor or another allied health professional, through either a negligent act or omission, causes an injury to a patient. These faults often result through errors in diagnosis, treatment, aftercare or inadequate health management. This also includes human error from staff such as privacy breaches.

Who’s involved?

Patient(s), doctor(s), allied health professional(s), (dentists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, midwives, etc.), and insurance companies.

Think your local GP or surgery day clinics and a patient requiring healthcare assistance.

In these situations, lawyers are usually involved, and then, of course, insurance. This is where we come in.

Read on to find out about Medical malpractice Insurance and why you need to consider it.

Understanding Medical malpractice insurance

Now that you know what medical malpractice is, it’s important to know what the insurance policy actually does.

Essentially, a Medical malpractice Insurance policy exists to protect businesses (entities) for their healthcare service provisions. As a medical professional, your individual and business needs can be met, with the best possible outcome for those involved.

The policy:

1. Covers claims resulting in professional exposures such as errors or omissions from practice staff, reception and nurses.
2. Provides legal costs to defend a claim against the Practice Cover where a clinic has contributed to negligence in conjunction with a medical practitioner.
3. Covers claims where a doctor is found to be negligent and the Practice is brought into a claim as a joint defendant.

Practising medical practitioners in Australia must have personal medical indemnity insurance.

Professional Indemnity Insurance generally will not cover your practice entity or employees, so a separate policy will be required for this.

What are some examples of medical malpractice?

Let’s take a look:

1. Failure to diagnose or misdiagnose – e.g. failing to diagnose or inform a patient that they have cancer, or telling a patient they have a common cold virus when tests show pneumonia.
2. Unnecessary surgery – operating on a patient where the risks far outweigh the benefits.
3. Misreading or ignoring laboratory test results – e.g. going back to the scenario of telling a patient that they have a common cold virus and not pneumonia.
4. Premature discharge – this is pretty self-explanatory. You wouldn’t discharge a mother and her baby within the hour of giving birth!
5. Poor follow-up/aftercare – Imagine someone experiences frequent urinary tract infections and is resistant to a number of antibiotics. It would not only be negligent for their health care professional to not diagnose and treat the condition, but also not follow up for a review to see if the treatment is working.

Is the medical malpractice claim justifiable?

A patient may think they have a claim for medical malpractice – but can it be legally substantiated?

Perhaps they think they experienced unnecessary surgery, or a misdiagnosis is causing them long-term health repercussions and/or mental anguish. As a medical professional and/or entity you will need to justify your duty of care actioning if accused of medical malpractice.

Whatever your circumstance, it’s vital that a claim is substantiated for it to be proven as medical malpractice.

What a claim must include:

1. A violation of the standard of care
2. Negligence causing injury
3. The injury caused significant damages.

Doctors and healthcare professionals have a duty of care to their patients.

Medical administrators, although not performing the healthcare themselves, have a duty to follow privacy practices. Why? To ensure medical and personal information is not leaked to third parties without express consent from the patient.

Now, remember – breach of privacy is medical malpractice too.

The 4 D’s of medical malpractice:

1. Duty – lack of duty of care, patient-physician respect and/or inability to transfer to another specialist if expectations are not being met.
2. Dereliction – negligence or deviation from the standard of care.
3. Damages – evidence (medical record, prescriptions, etc.) leads to physical or emotional suffering.
4. Direct cause – must be proven that there is a direct cause between physician or injury. For example, poor application of a cast causing a broken leg not to heal.

Did you know that bodily injury is not the only injury medical malpractice insurance will cover? Mental anguish can be a claim too. This is similar to an emotional distress claim in a personal injury lawsuit, where the damage is non-economic (damage to property or physical injury), but affects the plaintiff psychologically.

Once a claim is deemed justifiable (in incorporating all the above points) – it’s time to navigate the process to accountability and compensation.

How Grace Insurance can help

At Grace Insurance, your local insurance broker near you in Joondalup, Wangara, Malaga, Ocean Reef and Whitfords. We customise personal insurance solutions for medical professionals, just like you.

Together with our medical insurance partner, we can help cover you with medical malpractice insurance (also known as medical professional liability insurance). We can also guide you with your insurance needs. Along with this, we can assist with any insurance claims relating to (potential) medical malpractice as a Doctor/Practice.

Grace insurance provides peace of mind, transparency and choice. Utilising an expert medico-legal team, we empower informed choices with unparalleled quality.

Medical malpractice is often thought of as a dark tunnel of ‘what-ifs’ or ‘what-could-be’s.’ It’s vital to understand the (mal)practice, and know that if it happens to you, you’re not alone.

Whether you’re an allied healthcare professional, business entity or doctor, it’s not unwarranted to insure yourself, your business, and know what medical malpractice insurance policies entail to protect you now and in the future.

At Grace Insurance, we’re your trusted business partners in insurance. Situated in the northern suburbs of Perth, we’ll take care of your insurance needs.

Contact us to see how we can help you today with Medical Malpractice Insurance today.

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As a coffee shop owner, you’re busy with lots of work to juggle, employees and finance manage, stock to order, books to balance, customers to please and most importantly, food and coffee to make!  With all this work, comes a lot of responsibility. And with this responsibility, comes risks, and some very important needs along with them.

One of these needs is of course insurance.

Today, Frans Du Plessis and the Grace Insurance Team in Landsdale, talk all things insurance for coffee shops.

So, if you’re a coffee shop owner in Perth or the northern suburbs, and don’t have your insurance sorted, you really need to read this.

Why do Coffee Shop Owners need Insurance?  

Think about all the people who come into your coffee shop each day. What if one of them were to become injured or make a complaint about your coffee or food? And what about your staff members? Last but not least, don’t forget about yourself. What would you do if you became ill and couldn’t work? Could you afford to run your business, let alone pay your rent or your staff?

This is precisely why coffee shop owners need insurance.

When would a Coffee Shop Owner need to make a claim?

Still can’t understand quite why you would require insurance?

We’ve compiled some coffee shop insurance claim examples to help:

• A staff member injures themselves whilst cooking

There are chefs and kitchen hands rushing around, along with hotplates, flames and boiling liquids – this area is virtually a recipe for disaster.

• Your fridge or an important piece of machinery breaks down

Even the most well-maintained piece of machinery or equipment can break down.

• A customer complains that some food you served made them ill

You can take all the necessary precautions possible to ensure food is delicious, healthy and fresh, but this doesn’t remove the possibility of it making a customer sick (or least a customer stating it made them sick).

• A fire starts in the kitchen

No matter the business, fire is always a risk. In the hospitality industry, however, a fire in the kitchen is far more likely.

• Your coffee shop is robbed

Although unlikely, robberies do happen.

• An employee steals from you

Unfortunately, dishonest employees do exist

Claims like this, could cost you thousands and thousands, or in some cases, millions of dollars. Could you afford to pay for all the repairs and any legal expenses? (that could just be the beginning).

Coffee Shop Insurance claim

Still not sure you need it? Here’s a real-life example to get you thinking:

A coffee shop owner in Melbourne discovered the importance of insurance recently when a severe thunderstorm hit. Torrential rain entered the coffee shop through the roof, causing water to build up come leak right through to the floors – this impacted the power-boards and electrical appliances as a result. The impacted items included fridges, freezers and cooking equipment.

Over $10,000 in stock was lost due to being left unrefrigerated for several hours. Along with this, the flooring had to be replaced, as the water caused significant damage to the tiles.

Luckily for the coffee shop owner, the right insurance cover was in place and they were able to claim over $10,000 for loss of stock, $2,000 for cleaning of the premises and $13,000 to replace floor coverings.

That’s $25,000 worth of damage. Do you have a spare $25,000 lying around? How would you pay for all that without insurance?

Another thing to consider… The coffee shop wouldn’t have been open during the cleaning and repair process, and we haven’t even mentioned the potential loss in income here. See the impact lack of insurance could have?

What type of insurance do Coffee Shop Owners need?

Now can you see why insurance is so important?

With so many different types of insurance available though, it can be confusing and difficult to know which type of insurance you need. That’s where we come in.

Here’s a quick and easy guide to the insurance you will need as the owner of a coffee shop:

• Public Liability Insurance

Public Liability Insurance protects you and your business against the financial risks of being found liable to a third party for death or injury, loss or damage to property.

• Business Interruption Insurance

Business Interruption Insurance, also known as Consequential Loss Insurance, is business insurance that covers the turnover lost from unexpected events such as this, so you can recover and rebuild without the extra stress of income loss.

• Machinery Breakdown

Machinery Breakdown Insurance covers the unforeseen and sudden breakdown of insured items including cool rooms, refrigerators, and coffee machines.

• Workers Compensation

A form of insurance payment to employees if they are injured at work or become sick due to their work. Workers’ compensation includes payments to employees to cover their wages while they’re not fit for work, medical expenses and rehabilitation

Is Insurance for Coffee Shop owners a legal requirement?

Some insurances are an option.

The following insurances, however, are a legal requirement for coffee shop owners in Australia:

• Public Liability
• Workers Compensation (if you have employees)

How much does insurance cost?

The cost of your insurance will depend on your needs and requirements, level of cover, insurer, payment frequency and more.

You can request a quotation here.

How do I obtain insurance?

When obtaining insurance such as these, it’s vital they are set up correctly to suit you, your business and your requirements.

This is why we recommend talking to a professional insurance broker for assistance. Not only will they ensure you have the right insurance policies in place, but they will also be there to advise and support you, should a claim ever arise.

Don’t risk your business. Protect yourself financially and safeguard your coffee shop, staff and valued customers, with the right insurance.

At Grace Insurance in Joondalup, north of Perth, we have many years of experience in providing the right insurance for coffee shop owners.

Contact Grace Insurance to find out how we can help you today.

The post Your Guide to Coffee Shop Insurance appeared first on Grace Insurance.

As a person who hires staff to assist in the business, it’s important you’re aware of the answer to these questions. Why? This ensures you’re prepared for any responsibility you may have in the event of a workplace injury.

What is workers compensation?

In the unfortunate event of an accident while ‘on the job’, leading to sickness or injury, workers compensation insurance covers loss of wages and associated medical and rehabilitation costs.

What’s an employee?

According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, generally, an employee is any person paid to do a specific job, on an ongoing basis, works set hours under the direction of their boss and comes under an industrial award. Along with this, a person who doesn’t provide their own tools or equipment and has no financial interest in the business.

Employees are entitled by law to paid-leave and superannuation, their employer deducts tax and are protected by unfair dismissal legislation.

So, if you have employed staff under these conditions, then yes, you do have an obligation to provide workers compensation insurance.

What’s an independent contractor?

Conversely, an independent contractor has an ABN, invoices the business for a specific task and pays their own tax and superannuation. They’re not entitled to any paid-leave and decide, through negotiation, when and where the work will be carried out. In addition, the tools and equipment required to perform the task belong to the contractor.

In this situation, it’s not a requirement for businesses to provide workers compensation insurance. Therefore, the onus is on the contractor to have their own personal injury insurance cover in place.

As you can see, there are several factors that determine the difference between employees and independent contractors. When necessary, a definitive answer can be provided on a case by case basis within the court system.

Still unsure? Business.gov.au has developed the  Independent Contractors Decision Tool to help you ascertain the category your staff come under.

How do I know which workers compensation insurance to get?

OK, so you’ve decided that the staff member is actually an employee and that, therefore it’s your responsibility to provide workers compensation insurance.  Now what?

Navigating the large number of insurance companies and their products can be quite overwhelming.

Thankfully there is a regulatory body in each state:

• Australian Capital Territory: WorkSafe ACT
• New South Wales: State Insurance Regulatory Authority (NSW)
• Northern Territory: NT WorkSafe
• Queensland: WorkCover Queensland
• South Australia: ReturnToWork SA
• Tasmania: WorkCover Tasmania
• Victoria: WorkSafe Victoria
• Western Australia: WorkCover WA

Each body provides comprehensive information and advice on the ins and outs of workers compensation insurance. There’s a convenient list of approved insurers too.

Now that you know the difference between an employee and a contractor and where to access more detailed information, you’re on your way to complete peace of mind, knowing that you and your staff have cover in the unfortunate event of an accident or illness in the workplace.

At Grace Insurance in Joondalup, north of Perth, we have many years of experience in providing workers compensation insurance for employers, employees and contractors.

Get a worker’s compensation insurance quote here.

Contact Grace Insurance to find out how we can help you today.

The post Employee vs Contractor & what this means for Workers Compensation appeared first on Grace Insurance.

One of these needs is of course insurance.

Today, Frans Du Plessis and the Grace Insurance Team talk all things insurance for real estate agents.

So, if you’re a real estate agent and you don’t have your insurance sorted, you really need to read this. Think of this as your real estate insurance bible, if you will.

Why do Real Estate Agents need insurance?

Real estate is serious business. Think about it. You are the intermediary between those buying and selling properties. You prepare important documents and contracts, you help determine the price of a property, you advise on selling and buying property, you manage rental properties and this is just the beginning.

As a real estate agent, you are dealing with people’s money and livelihood on a regular basis. Whether you like it or not, this equates to risk. With this in mind, you need to be responsible, reliable and organised and this includes your insurance.

Whilst you can’t foresee what’s going to happen in the future for your business or the housing market, you can at least ensure you and your real estate business are protected.

When would a Real Estate Agent need to make a claim?

Still can’t understand quite why you would require insurance?

Here are some real estate claim examples to help:

• A client claims that you provided them with incorrect or bad advice
• A tenant is injured in an accident in a rental property you manage
• You failed to follow legal requirements or company guidelines
• You neglected to inform a client of important information
• Poor decisions were made due to failing to forecast the market trends correctly

Whilst you may not have actually committed any of the above or at least intended to.  This doesn’t stop anyone from making a claim against you and your business or employer. And claims like this could cost you or your employer thousands and thousands, or in some cases, millions of dollars.

Could you afford to pay for all the legal expenses? (that could just be the beginning).

Real Estate Agent Insurance claim

Management of rental properties is one of the common activities which real estate agents are involved. These properties may be commercial properties or residential.

What you may not know. If a tenant is injured in an accident on the premises of a rental property, it’s common for them to take legal action against the managing agent.  

The Courts have held that a claim against a real estate agent arising from the management of a rental property is a professional indemnity claim. See Suncorp Metway Insurance Ltd v Land ridge Pty Ltd (2005) 

This is why it’s so important to make sure that your policy is established by an experienced insurance broker, so they can ensure your policy is set up correctly and does not contain an exclusion for personal injury or property damage. Otherwise, you may not be covered.

What type of insurance do Real Estate Agents need?

Now can you see why insurance is so important?

With so many different types of insurance available though, it can be confusing and difficult to know which type of insurance you need. That’s where we come in.

Here’s a quick and easy guide to insurances for real estate agents.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

The most important insurance for real estate agents is Professional Indemnity.

This insurance provides essential financial protection against potential losses arising from acts, errors and omissions by professional services, including:

• Breach of duty of care
• Negligence in rendering professional services
• Allegations of misrepresentation or of creating a misleading impression
• Breach of statutory provisions in various laws
• Poor property management

Public Liability Insurance

Have an office in which your clients visit you, as well as visiting their properties?

What if a third party were to have an accident or injury resulting from you going about your business?

Public Liability insurance will protect you from financial losses arising from a claim by a third party.

Business Insurance

If you have an office and rely on computing equipment and servers, or anything else to run your business, then you may need to consider business insurance too.

Business insurance may cover you if your business is rendered out of action temporarily due to an insurable event, such as a fire. Business insurance will ensure your business expenses are covered during this time.

Cyber Insurance

Not only are you being provided important and highly confidential information by your clients, but you’re also storing it too.

What if something were to happen to all this data? What if there was a breach of privacy and it was all stolen?

Cyber insurance will ensure your business is covered against the expenses and legal costs associated with such an event.

Management Liability

Management Liability Insurance offers cover for a range of managerial risks including staff exposure, allegations of mismanagement, employment-related claims, crime losses, statutory fines, and more.

Is Insurance for Real Estate Agents a legal requirement?

Each state in Australia has different legal requirements. In Western Australia, the requirements for Professional Indemnity Insurance for real estate agents are as follows:

• Legislative: Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978 – No requirement
• Professional Association: REIWA Membership – Minimum of $1 million

Although it’s not a legal requirement for every real estate agent, we still don’t recommend going without it.

Any professional who gives advice or offers a service is at risk of having claims made against them if their client feels they have caused them financial loss or injury by their actions, either directly or indirectly.

How much does insurance for real estate agents cost?

The cost of your insurance will depend on your needs and requirements, level of cover, insurer, payment frequency and more.

You can request a quotation here.

How do I obtain insurance?

When obtaining insurance such as these, it’s vital they are set up correctly to suit you, your business and your requirements.

This is why we recommend talking to a professional insurance broker for assistance. Not only will they ensure you have the right insurance policies in place, but they will also be there to advise and support you, should a claim ever arise.

Real estate is serious business. Don’t risk it. Protect yourself financially and safeguard your reputation with the right insurance.

At Grace Insurance in Joondalup, north of Perth, we have many years of experience in providing the right insurance for real estate agents.

Contact Grace Insurance to find out how we can help you today.

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You own a drone and you fly it on a regular basis. You capture some incredible footage and create some amazing images and videos – your Instagram following is huge because your followers love the quality content you create.

What if something were to happen to your drone? What if one day it simply didn’t return back to you? Could you afford to buy another?

With consumer camera drones ranging from $500 – $3,000 and professional camera drones ranging anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000, they’re not exactly an impulse purchase. So, this begs the question: Do you need drone insurance?

Drone Insurance – do you need it?

When it comes to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, you don’t need insurance at all – at least according to the law. If you are using a drone for commercial purposes, you must be licensed and certified by the government to operate that drone to avoid getting fined.

Just because it’s not a legal requirement though, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider insurance for your drone.

Is your drone covered under your Home and Contents Insurance?

The good news is that most insurance company policy wordings would cover a drone in the same way they could cover your personal property or contents, that is if your drone is used for personal use only. It’s important to check the wording very carefully though and ask your insurance broker first.

The bad news is that some insurance companies will not cover drones under your home and contents insurance policy (even if it used for personal use). It’s not all bad though, because you have other options if your home insurer doesn’t agree to insure the liability of your drone, such as Public Liability insurance.

What about Travel Insurance for your drone?

Chances are you take your drone travelling, to capture all that incredible footage. Wouldn’t your travel insurance cover it then?

In many cases, no, travel insurance will not cover your drone. Some wording in travel insurance policies state that: “Liability arising out of the use or ownership by you of any aircraft, drone, firearm, waterborne craft or mechanically propelled vehicle is not covered.”

Some Travel Insurance policies do though, so talk to your broker to find out more.

Drone accidents happen

You may have been really lucky with your drone so far, but the truth is, drone accidents happen, a lot.

Many of them involve accidents when the drone runs out of power and plummets down to earth or incidents where the operator loses control of the drone. These are not all situations caused by reckless operation. Not only could you lose your drone. Some of these accidents may even injure you, others, or their property.

Public Liability and Personal Accident for drones

Can’t get your drone covered by your Home and Contents or Travel Insurance policies?

Then you may want to consider the following:

• Public Liability – coverage for third-party bodily injury or property damage as a result of a drone activity related accident.
• Personal Accident – covering you if you are injured by paying out either a lump sum or weekly benefits for temporary total disablement arising from the injury.

Drone accidents happen. Don’t risk yours not being insured.

Contact Grace Insurance in Joondalup, Malaga, Wangara, Whitfords and in the Perth northern suburbs today, to find out if your drone could be covered and which insurance you might need. Your local insurance broker.

If you looking for Drone Accessories Australia, please feel free to get in touch with them HERE.

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