Who Needs Business Crime Insurance in Calgary?
Any business owner, from mom-and-pop convenience store owners to big corporations, should have business crime insurance in Calgary. It provides vital protection for your business in the event that a theft occurs—including forgery, inside and outside robbery and more. Without this coverage, you may find yourself financially crippled after a theft occurs. If the theft is serious enough, you could be looking at closing your business without this coverage.
Any business owner of any size should consider purchasing business crime insurance to protect their business. For instance, industries that should have business crime insurance include:
- Construction and contracting
- Oil and gas/energy sectors
- Health and beauty
- Home based business
- Restaurants
- Sports and fitness
- Retail
- Home service industries
- Manufacturing companies
- And more
When you partner with Krywolt Insurance, one of our skilled brokers will work with you to create a customized business insurance policy that is right for your needs. We offer personalized coverage for your business, so you can choose what level of coverage is best for your needs. Each of our Krywolt Insurance brokers will take time to fully understand your business operation and work with you to develop an insurance policy designed for your unique needs.
Every part of your unique insurance policy is custom-tailored to address the specific needs and interests of your company. Our brokers will take into consideration a multitude of factors that are specific to your business. This could include the value of your business assets, the volume of business conducted, the scope of client interaction and the range of your business. We'll also look at risk factors, such as how likely you are to be robbed in the area your business resides.
When you choose to partner with Krywolt Insurance, you choose to work with a team who focuses on understanding your business and ensures you are presented with all the pertinent information to make informed decisions about the type and level of business theft coverage you need. Our goal is to help you achieve the best possible insurance for your unique situation.
What is Crime Insurance?
Also known as fidelity insurance, business crime insurance protects business against property, stocks or securities stolen by employees or third-parties. Furthermore, if your company is legally responsible for clients' money or property, this coverage can protect against that loss of money.
It is possible to include crime coverage in your commercial business insurance policy. However, depending on the nature of your business you may be required to purchase a stand-alone policy. Whether or not you can add-on crime insurance to your existing policy or need a stand-alone policy depends on the nature of your operations and if there is an increased risk of crime claims in your industry. Different insurance companies have different policies, so it's best to speak with your Krywolt Insurance broker to make sure you have the right commercial crime coverage for your needs.
Why Does My Business Need a Crime Insurance Policy?
Whether you own a small company or a large, multi-faceted business, it's possible you may be the victim of a crime at any time. From fraudulent activities to employee theft and other crime-related losses, it's important that you have coverage that will help you recoup these financial losses and help your business recover. Issues like employee fraud can go undetected for years, while quickly draining your business of its financial assets. White-collar criminals are highly adept at fooling even your most loyal employees. As an added benefit, crime coverage can help cover the costs associated with the crime itself, such as the investigation process, repairing financial records and restoring data.
Business Crime Insurance Coverage Options
Criminal activities can be devastating for any size of company. And while you should have preventative measures in place to mitigate the chance of a crime occurring, a clever criminal can circumvent these proactive measures to sabotage your business. That's why you need crime insurance—to protect your company from the unexpected.
There are many types of coverages that can be included in a commercial crime policy in Calgary. It's important that you review your policy with your Krywolt Insurance broker, so you're aware of what is and is not covered in the policy. Outlined below are a few of the coverages that may be included with your commercial crime insurance policy.
Employee Theft Coverage
This aspect of your business crime insurance policy in Calgary helps to cover the loss of money, securities and other property unlawfully taken by employees. This could include anything from fraud to a till robbed of all its cash by an employee. Employee theft coverage can also be extended to third parties to cover situations where an employee may steal from a customer.
Premises Coverage
This type of coverage covers a loss due to the disappearance or destruction of money and securities from your premises by a third party. For instance, this includes theft of money you have on-site, or if said money is destroyed because of vandalism or arson.
Money Orders and Counterfeit Currency Coverage
If you own a restaurant and one of your employees accidentally accepts counterfeit money. This type of coverage will cover the loss due to this mistake.
Forgery or Alteration Coverage
Should an employee or a third-party take it upon themselves to forge drafts, cheques and other financial instruments at our place of business, this type of insurance coverage will offer you financial remuneration for the loss from forgery sustained.
Depositors Forgery
This type of coverage protects you in the event that your bank accepts business cheques that were stolen and used for fraudulent purposes.
Automated Teller Card, Debit Card, and Credit Card Fraud
This coverage will protect you from any losses incurred as a result of falsification or alteration of any document required when using a credit card, debit card or automated teller card issued under your name. This part of your crime insurance policy also protects you against credit card forgery.
Computer Fraud Coverage
This type of coverage will protect you financially in the event of a hack to your computer system by a third party that gives them control of your computer system. This control could result in money or property being fraudulently transferred to a place or an account that is not a part of your business.
Telephone Fraud Coverage
Thousands of Canadians are victims of telephone fraud every year—and your business is no exception. Phone scams are a very popular "phishing" activity and it's all too easy to fall victim to these types of scams. Protect yourself with telephone coverage included in your crime insurance policy.
Social Engineering Coverage
When a third-party impersonates a client, vendor or an employee in order to deceive you and try to get you to send money to them, this is considered social engineering fraud. Often, social engineering fraud takes place online, which is why this type of coverage is sometimes included in a cyber crime insurance policy.
Transfer of Funds Fraud Coverage
Funds transfer fraud coverage covers the financial loss when a third-party gains access to your banking credentials, uses them to access your bank account, and instructs your banking institution to send money from your account into theirs. This type of coverage is also sometimes included in a cyber insurance policy.
Professional Fees
This part of your Calgary crime insurance policy provides coverage for all necessary and reasonable professional fees that were used to help establish the amount of the loss. For instance, paying a third-party accountant to review your financials after a dishonest employee commits fraud.
What's Not Covered By Business Crime Insurance in Calgary?
As a rule of thumb, most crime insurance packages do not include coverage for non-material losses caused by external events like war or destruction by the authorities. Also, in the context of crime insurance, "crime" refers to acts of theft and forgery. It does not extend to acts of violence committed in the workplace. That said, some Calgary crime insurance policies will include the option to add-on insurance for kidnap and ransom, depending on the insurance provider. It's also important to note that any fraudulent, intentional and illegal acts committed by the policyholder will not be covered under a Calgary business crime insurance policy.
Other Types of Coverage to Consider
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have questions about Calgary crime insurance policies? Continue reading to see if we've answered them below. If not, we invite you to reach out to our licensed and qualified brokers at any time. We can be reached at 403-879-8660.
Do I Need Crime Insurance?
If you own a business, whether big or small, then you should consider purchasing crime insurance. Consider the ramifications of a crime being committed at your place of business. You could find yourself struggling to stay afloat without any support offered to remunerate your losses. Even the legal costs and investigative costs alone can be financially crippling without the proper coverage.
What is the Difference Between Business Crime Insurance and Cybercrime Insurance?
While there may be some overlap between a business crime and cybercrime insurance policy, generally the difference between the two is that a crime policy covers the direct loss of funds due to theft of physical property, employee dishonesty or social engineering. Meanwhile, a cybercrime policy covers economic damages from a network security failure. For instance, this would include phishing scams, email and internet fraud, identity fraud and cyber extortion.
How Much Does Crime Insurance Cost?
There are many factors that influence how much your unique crime insurance policy will cost. Thus, it's best to talk to your Krywolt Insurance broker to establish your insurance premiums. Some of the factors that affect your insurance rates include:
The size of your business. This includes the number of employees you have and your revenue. Essentially, the more employees you have, the higher chance one of them may steal from you. Also, criminals are more likely to target companies that have more money to be stolen—thus why your revenue is taken into consideration.
Security protocols. Insurers will want to make sure that you're taking security seriously. That's why it's essential to have proper procedures and controls in place to mitigate the risk of a crime taking place at your property. For instance, you should invest in security technology and ensure you're making use of proper cyber protections.
Financial controls. It's very important that your business has strong financial controls in place. This includes having clear procedures for depositing money and cheques, writing cheques, inventory management and more.
Property and equipment value. The more valuable your business' property is, the more costly your insurance rates will be. Items that have direct cash value and that are easily accessible to employees, like cellphones and jewelry, will also impact the price of your coverage.
Coverage limits. Naturally, the higher limits you have the more you'll pay for coverage. Yet, the more coverage you will receive, as the coverage limit represents the maximum amount you'll receive in a claim. It's important to note that if your losses exceed your limit, you won't be compensated for any costs that exceed your limit.
Claims history. Risk is always the most important factor when establishing insurance rates. If you've made numerous past claims, have lax financial controls and have higher-than-normal crime related losses, your premiums will be higher.
Policy deductible. Your deductible is how much money your company will have to pay out-of-pocket before coverage starts. Usually, the higher the deductible, the lower the premium.
How Can I Get a Business Crime Insurance Quote?
If you're interested in learning more about business crime insurance in Calgary, then reach out to our expert brokers today. At Krywolt Insurance, we're dedicated to helping you find the best coverage for your business' unique needs. Our team can be reached at 403-879-8660. You can also inquire about a quote by filling out the form below.
