Let’s assume you’re an owner-managed agency, based in the UK. We sit down over a coffee and you run through what you insure

Before you speak, I’ll be confident you have Employers Liability, as you’re obliged to under law, and well, no one wants to get prosecuted.

I would also expect you to have Professional Indemnity, as its mandatory in so many contracts, and we all want to pick up those interesting projects

However, when it comes to Directors & Officers, I could roll a dice… and sometimes it feels that is what agency directors are doing

Whilst Employers Liability and Professional Indemnity protect the business, it doesn’t step in when the legal action is against an individual director or manager.

What if an investor, shareholder or even another director, claims financials have been misrepresented, or that the business has been run negligently, maybe even trading when technically insolvent?

What if an aggrieved party sues you in your personal capacity for making defamatory comments on your twitter feed?

Or even worse, what if a member of staff dies while working for you, or even kills someone. Maybe they’ve been working a little too hard for too long; exhausted they crash their car en-route to a pitch. Enter the HSE, a prosecution for failing to provide a safe system of work, and maybe even an action for manslaughter.

Imagine the cost of suitable legal counsel to defend you

D&O is not particularly expensive, usually costing hundreds rather than thousands of pounds.

Furthermore D&O is commonly incorporated into a suite of covers, called Management Liability, including other valuable protection, such as Employment Practices Liability and Corporate Legal Liability

When protecting your business don’t forget to protect yourself

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash