Wedding Planner Liability Insurance
Liability insurance, usually sold as a general liability or public libaility policy and professional liability policy is a primary inclusion in the wedding planner insurance programs of many carriers. The sections below explain how each type of wedding planner liability insurance works.
Wedding Planner General Liability Insurance
It’s very problematic if you’re held liable for the injuries or property damage sustained by clients, guests, vendors, and other third parties. Consider the following situations:
A poorly installed tent crashes on the guests and causes injuries
Equipment malfunctions and the instruments of the musicians you hired for the wedding got damaged
The catering service you hired poorly prepared the food for the wedding, resulting in the guests getting sick
A technician you hired experienced an accident while installing equipment
The clients came to see how things were going in the venue. One of them tripped over something and sustained injuries
Insurance companies include general liability insurance in tailored wedding planner insurance. This kicks when you’re sued for personal injury claims and property damage claims resulting from any covered exposure. Here’s how general liability insurance works in a nutshell:
If you’re responsible for personal injuries, general liability insurance will cover or reimburse the medical expenses of clients, vendors, and other affected third parties up to the limits stated in its terms
If you’re liable for property damage, general liability insurance will reimburse the losses of clients, vendors, and other third parties up to the limits stated in its terms
Some insurance companies offer general liability insurance for wedding planners having optional products and completed operations coverage and advertising injury coverage:
Products and completed operations coverage-Products and completed operations coverage will cover attorney fees, settlements, administrative costs, and other legal expenses if you’re sued for personal injuries or property damage after planning the wedding of a client
Advertising injury coverage-Advertising injury coverage will cover expenses if you’re sued by a third party for slander, libel, copyright infringement, and other related offenses
Legal expenses-General liability insurance provides the money you can use to cover attorney fees, administrative costs, settlements, and other legal expenses
General liability insurance for wedding planners provides $1 million - $2 million coverage for personal injury claims and property damage claims. Sub-limits apply if it has optional policies. But sometimes, insurance companies implement a combined single-limit.
You can also find insurance companies underwriting a wedding planner general liability insurance having $300,000-$500,000 coverage for personal injuries or property damage. Examples are NEXT and CoverWallet.
Wedding Planner Public Liability Insurance
Some wedding planners find general liability insurance obsolete. And so, they decide to get public liability insurance instead.
Public liability insurance also covers costs if a personal injury claim or property damage claim is filed against you by clients, guests, vendors, and other third parties. The coverage this insurance provides is $1 million - $2 million.
Note that public liability insurance is more limited in terms of scope. This is because you can’t add optional policies to its terms.
Wedding Planner Professional Liability Insurance
Wedding planners like you have to provide services with finesse and observe the highest degree of professionalism when dealing with clients.
Personal injuries and property damage aren’t the only reasons for you to be sued. Committing errors or failure to observe practices that any reasonable wedding planner should've done is a cause too. General liability insurance can’t take care of this peril. And so, get professional liability insurance.
Professional liability insurance reimburses the losses of the aggrieved clients and pays for legal costs if you’re sued after committing or allegedly committing the following:
Missed deadlines
Providing unsatisfactory output
Negligence
Breach of contract
Violation of fair dealing
Violation of confidentiality
Other acts considered errors and omissions
Professional liability insurance provides $1 million - $2 million coverage. Also, this is available as a claims-made policy or occurrence policy:
Claims-made professional liability insurance-A claims-made professional liability insurance only provides coverage if you file a claim during the time a covered peril happened
Occurrence professional liability insurance-An occurrence professional liability insurance provides coverage regardless of when you decide to use it. The only thing important is that the covered peril happened while the policy is active
Other Inclusions In Wedding Planner Insurance Programs
You can decide to only have professional liability and general liability or public liability insurance. However, if you want to cover other business exposures aside from lawsuits, then consider adding the following business insurance policies to your wedding planner insurance plan.
Commercial Property Insurance
Purchase commercial property insurance if you rent, own, or lease an office. This type of wedding planner business insurance covers:
Building destruction-Commercial property insurance will cover reconstruction costs or reimburse losses if your office is destroyed by fire or extreme weather
Building damage-You can use commercial property insurance to recover the costs of damages that resulted from fire, theft, vandalism, hail, storm, and other covered perils
It’s a good idea to include add-ons to commercial property insurance. Such add-ons are stocks and contents coverage and business equipment and tools coverage:
Stocks and contents coverage-Stocks and contents coverage recoups losses if office documents, furniture, lighting, and other valuable items become damaged or lost due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils
Business equipment and tools coverage-Business equipment and tools coverage will cover losses if computers, generators, and other office equipment become lost or damaged due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils
Understand that commercial property insurance won’t provide coverage if covered properties are destroyed or damaged by earthquakes, mudslides, floods, or fire you deliberately caused.
Wedding Planner Workers’ Compensation Insurance
Workers' compensation insurance is a requirement if you’re employing one or more people or if you’re in a state where independent professionals must have the coverage. The function of this insurance is to cover the cost of work-related injuries or diseases. Particularly, expenses covered are:
Medical expenses- Workers' compensation insurance will cover ambulance fees, surgeries, therapies, and other medical expenses if you or an employee sustains a work-related injury or disease
Hospitalization-If you or an employee is admitted in the hospital, workers' compensation insurance will cover hospital bills
Medication-You or an employee can use workers' compensation insurance to buy prescription medicines needed to treat a work-related injury or disease
Rehabilitation-Workers compensation insurance covers rehab expenses if you or an employee sustains temporary or permanent impairment due to a work-related injury or disease
Lost income compensation-Workers compensation insurance covers lost income by providing a weekly allowance equal to two-thirds or 67% of the average weekly wage. This will be received until you or an employee is fit enough to work or the duration/amount stated in the policy’s terms is satisfied
Death benefits- Workers' compensation insurance covers funeral expenses and gives an allowance to dependents if you or an employee dies due to a work-related injury or disease
Workers' compensation insurance is expensive. Its monthly cost is $1.50 per $100 of the projected annual average payroll. For example, if your employee earns $50,000 per year, then workers comp is $750 per month.
We suggest you go for a pay-as-you workers compensation insurance. Unlike the usual worker's comp, pay-as-you-go workers' compensation insurance takes the average monthly payroll into account when determining costs. And so, the rates you’ll get are more affordable and accurate.
Wedding Planner Commercial Auto Insurance
Commercial auto insurance is also useful. Purchase this one if you’re using your car for business purposes - hauling supplies, meeting clients, fetching employees, and more. Commercial auto insurance provides the following protections:
Auto liability coverage-Your commercial vehicle will cause an accident and injure third parties or damage properties. The job of auto liability coverage is to get injured third parties treated and hospitalized. It will also reimburse the owners of damaged property. If aggrieved third parties decide to press charges, auto liability coverage will also take care of attorney fees, administrative costs, and other legal expenses
Physical Damage Coverage-Physical damage coverage will take care of the damage your commercial vehicle sustains. This has two forms: collision and comprehensive. Collision physical damage coverage will pay for parts repair or replacement if the vehicle you’re using as a wedding planner collided with a vehicle or object and incurred damage. On the other hand, comprehensive physical damage coverage will cover parts repair or replacement if your commercial vehicle incurred damage due to fire, theft, vandalism, hail, storm, and other covered perils
Hired/non-owned auto coverage-Hired/non-owned auto coverage will cover expenses if you caused an accident while using a rented or borrowed commercial vehicle
Rental reimbursement coverage-Rental reimbursement coverage will refund expenditures if you need to rent a commercial vehicle because the one you own is being repaired
MedPay/personal injury protection-Vehicular accidents don't only injure third parties but you too. The purpose of medical payments coverage (MedPay) and personal injury protection is to cover medical and funeral expenses. But note that unlike MedPay, personal injury protection covers compensation for lost income, after-hospital visits, and more
Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage-Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage will cover costs if you got involved in a vehicular accident and the other driver isn’t insured or doesn’t have enough insurance
Employee Dishonesty Insurance
An employee can commit a crime against you. Recover the resulting losses through employee dishonesty insurance. Employee dishonesty insurance provides coverage if an employee or a group of employees commits the following:
Steals the funds for the wedding
Steals materials for the wedding
Steals commercial property and money
Fraudulent refunds
Unauthorized use of business credit cards
Manipulation of financial records
Employer’s Liability and Employment Practices Liability Insurance
Employment practices liability insurance will cover legal costs if an employee sues you for sexual harassment, missed work benefits, wrongful termination, and discrimination. On the other hand, employer’s liability insurance will cover expenses if you’re sued for negligence because an employee sustained a work-related injury or disease. Both employer’s liability and employment practices liability insurance can be optional inclusions in workers' compensation insurance.
Rented Equipment Insurance
A few wedding planner insurance companies underwrite rented equipment insurance. As a wedding planner, it’s inevitable for you to rent tents, sound systems, chairs, tables, and other equipment. Rented equipment insurance will refund the owner if the equipment you hired is damaged or lost due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils.
Wedding Planner Business Owner’s Policy
If you don’t know what types of business insurance to get as a wedding planner, decide to go for a business owner’s policy because it always provides comprehensive protection.
The vast majority of BOPs are made up of two components: liability insurance policy and commercial property insurance policy. A liability insurance policy can either be a general liability policy or a public liability policy, though general liability tends to be more popular because it can protect businesses in more situations.
The other most common component of a wedding planner BOP is a commercial property insurance policy with rented premises coverage, which will typically apply to the venue where the wedding is being held. It comes as no surprise that wedding venues tend to sustain damage throughout rowdy celebrations, so it’s always good to be protected.
However, BOPs aren’t only restricted to these two kinds of insurance, though they are the most common. Many insurance carriers offer additional options that you can implement into your BOP for a relatively affordable price, including contents cover, business interruption coverage, and more.
Wedding Coordinator Insurance
Wedding coordinator insurance may be offered separately from wedding planner insurance, though both of these kinds of coverage amount to the same thing in most cases. Some insurance companies may use these terms to delineate different policy limits or more expensive/affordable policy premiums.
In these cases, you may end up paying less for wedding coordinator insurance because the insurance company is using this kind of coverage for smaller, more low-key events. However, the terms are also interchangeable depending on the company that you’re working with, so be sure that you do your research.
