Being a director or an officer of a company is a high risk profession. Directors and Officers work as the trustee of the company they serve and carry multitude of legal obligations that can result in loss exposures for any corporate wrongdoing. They can be held liable personally and financially for actual or alleged breach of duty in managing the affairs of a company and ensuring its compliance with the numerous laws and regulations that govern its operation.
The most relevant and frequent claims under the D&O policy made in India involve securities fraud, mismanagement of assets and employment practices in response to non-compliance, misrepresentations in public documents, non-conducive employment environment. Claims by employees, as well as other third parties, such as creditors and regulators, are also increasing in today's litigious environment.
Is there a Protection? Yes, the Directors and Officers liability insurance policy, shortly known as D&O Policy, provides indemnity to directors and officers for legal costs, damages and expenses incurred, arising from claims brought against them personally due to any wrongful acts in their managerial capacity. Wrongful acts include:
The policy provides protection for the company and its subsidiaries for claims brought in respect of negligent acts, errors or omissions in the performance of professional services. The policy is meant to pay for defense expenses and damages and includes amounts that the insured is legally required to pay because of judgments, arbitration awards or the like rendered against the insured, or for settlements negotiated in accordance with the coverage afforded by the policy.
Range of Risks Covered.
As many as 25,000 kidnaps are reported each year in over 40 countries, mainly in Latin America, Russia and Asia, with the average ransom payment doubling in the last few years and some payment demands exceeding USD 50 million. Whilst the most vulnerable companies are those that have employees based or travelling overseas; organizations which have high profiles, handle large amounts of cash, or work with sensitive information or technologies can be attached as well. Kidnap and Ransom Extortion Insurance not only protects against financial loss but also provides the services of leading crisis management and security consultants, to manage incident on the policy holder’s behalf.
Need for the KRE Policy - World over, terrorist activities have been increasing substantially over the last few years. Kidnapping for ransom money is also on the upswing. Any company of any size can be a target for extortion threats against the company and its employees. People tend to associate business extortion and kidnapping with global companies.
It Insures:
The Commercial General Liability policy is the ideal policy for organizations that are proactive in their approach towards Liability issues. This is a complete policy to provide seamless protection to the Insured, and covers Third Party Liabilities arising from various business exposures such as those arising from Premises, Products, Completed Operations, Advertising and Personal Injury and also provides supplemental payments, thus ensuring complete protection to the insured against Liability issues.
Legal liability generally arises from Premises, Products, Operations, Advertising and Personal Injury.
Who requires the protection of CGL Insurance? Whilst CGL like other stand-alone Public and Product Liability policies has universal applicability, the following types of organizations have greatly appreciated the availability of the CGL policy within India.
Product Liability Policy covers all sums for which the insured might become legally liable to pay as damages in consequence of accidental death/bodily injury or disease to third parties and/or loss of or damage to third party property arising out of any defects in the products manufactured and covered under the policy after such products have left your premises. The insurance company will, subject to the limit of indemnity, pay all costs, fees and expenses incurred with their prior written consent in the investigation, defense or settlement of any claim and your costs of representation at any civil inquest, inquiry, or other proceedings in respect of matters which have a direct relevance to an actual or anticipated claim against your falling within the terms of this insurance policy.
Covered Incident means the recall, removal, recovery of possession or control, or disposal of your product from a distributor, purchaser or user because the consumption of your product has resulted in bodily injury or property damage, or poses actual and imminent danger of resulting in bodily injury or property damage.
Cyber Insurance is an insurance product used to protect businesses and individual users from Internet-based risks, and more generally from risks relating to information technology infrastructure and activities. Risks of this nature are typically excluded from traditional commercial general liability policies or at least are not specifically defined in traditional insurance products. Coverage provided by cyber-insurance policies may include first-party coverage against losses such as data destruction, extortion, theft, hacking, and denial of service attacks; liability coverage indemnifying companies for losses to others caused, for example, by errors and omissions, failure to safeguard data, or defamation; and other benefits including regular security-audit, post-incident public relations and investigative expenses, and criminal reward funds.