New age covers

INSURANCE: Insurance companies offer covers for professionals, weddings and a lot more.

There are some interesting products in the non-life insurance sector that are there for the people to use for getting covers against unusual situations. For instance, a doctor can get insurance to cover the death of a patient during the operation.

Similarly, lawyer, accountants, company directors and other professionals can have dedicated covers, depending on their job profiles.

Even, weddings can be insured now. Surprised? Welcome to the world of 'Miscellaneous Insurance'. Here we look at some of the interesting policies that are available under this head

Wedding Insurance
Marriages in India are often, an elaborate and expensive affair. That is why marriage insurance covers have been launched to cover any losses due to postponement or cancellation of the event. This policy covers

1.Advances paid
2.Expenses incurred for the marriage hall
3.Decoration
4.Videography
5.Catering
6.Hiring of musical troupes,
7.Loss on cancellation of travel tickets and even,
8.The cost of the pundit

The only condition in this policy is that the wedding should be postponed or cancelled due to extraneous circumstances, and not due to disputes between the bride and bridegroom's family or wilful negligence or criminal misconduct on their part.

Fidelity Insurance
This is a policy taken out by employers to insure themselves against wrong doing by employees. Generally, a blanket cover can be taken out by an organisation on all the employees and the list can be altered by informing the insurer on induction of new employees or departure of existing ones.

This policy covers employers against fraud, embezzlement, forgery, misappropriation of funds and damage to property by employees.

Credit Insurance
This is a very useful policy for businessmen or exporters to cover bad debts during the course of their trade. Such policies provide them covers against losses due to default or non-payment by buyers who are sold goods on credit.

Personal Liability Insurance
In this, reimbursement is provided for losses to third parties due to damage of property, personal injury and subsequent litigation costs, due the actions of the insured, up to the limit of the cover.

This policy covers all such third party liabilities, except for motorcar related accidents, which are covered separately under motor insurance and professional indemnity insurance.

Professional Indemnity Insurance
This is cover for professionals like doctors, lawyers, accountants, architects, investment advisors, etc., and covers risks of claims by clients, due to negligence or inadequacy in services by these professionals, which leads to clients facing monetary or physical losses.

Business Liability Insurance
This covers risks due to losses to property or injuries sustained by third parties due to the running or the business, or while visiting the business premises. There is a separate policy available, called Product Liability Insurance. This covers losses or injuries incurred by customers due to defect or contamination in the products of the business entity.

Directors and Officers Liability Policy
This policy covers the senior officials of the company from litigation by the various stakeholders of a company including like shareholders, creditors, employees, customers, and others due to reasons like negligence, causing the company to suffer losses which might lead to erosion of shareholder value.

This policy also covers the litigation costs as well as any monetary penalties the directors and senior officers may have to pay due to their negligence in discharge of duties.

The writer is, director Touchstone Wealth Planners

Options available

Doctors, for death of patients during operations

Lawyers, for loss due to negligence

Employers, for frauds, embezzlement by employees

Company directors, for losses incurred by the company because of wrong decisions