Secretaries play major roles in nearly every Canadian industry. These professionals are the glue that holds some businesses together. Without great secretaries, Canada’s most prominent professionals, government entities, nonprofit organizations, supermarket chains, and corporations would struggle to keep up with demand.
Whether you are a licensed or soon-to-be secretary, you are preparing to become a prominent figure in your workplace. While you are preparing for your new secretarial position, you need to get insured to the fullest extent. Professional Liability Insurance (PLI) protects clerical secretaries and secretarial services from financial loss associated with third-party claims and lawsuits.
Why Is Professional Liability Insurance A Recommendation
Professional Liability Insurance, also known as PLI, Errors & Omissions, and E&O, was created specifically to cover expenses related to negligence claims and lawsuits. If you are unfamiliar with these issues, you should do your homework. It is crucial every Canadian secretary and clerical secretarial service know their risk exposures. Yes, you are exposed to risks, regardless of your level of awareness.
The solution to avoiding financial damages caused by negligence claims and lawsuits is PLI, an E&O insurance policy. Professional liability insurance helps protect certified and non-certified secretaries from bearing 100 percent of an out of court settlement and monetary court judgment.
While no secretary wants to be forced into a third-party negligence claim, sometimes it is impossible. If you are like most secretarial service providers, you offer your clients a 100 percent customer guarantee. Such guarantees protect consumers from fraudulent public services like clerical and secretarial.
When consumers are disappointed with a specific public service provider, they immediately contact the provider to file a verbal complaint. However, there are a few consumers who go to the extreme when they feel wronged by a public service provider. These individuals do not even bother contacting the service provider, they go directly into claim mode. No matter how much you would like it, there is no way to avoid such consumers. But, you can surround your clerical firm with a powerful wall of protection – professional liability insurance.
What Is Professional Liability Insurance – How Does It Work?
It cannot be stressed enough, the importance of PLI for secretarial and clerical services. The risk exposures for these services include grammatical, numerical, documentation, and execution errors. It is possible to avoid all of these risks from one day to the next. But, they are bound to catch up with you over time. When the day comes, you better hope you have some form of protection like professional liability insurance.
Professional liability insurance covers most or all the financial damage related to third-party negligence claims and lawsuits. It kicks in following a thorough investigation of a third-party claim when the professional is determined to be at fault.
PLI also covers out of court settlements and monetary court judgments. Unfortunately, PLI does not cover emotional and physical damage. But, the mere fact, it does cover monetary damages associated with negligence claims and lawsuits can help to reduce stress and anxiety.
If the client files a negligence claim against your professional liability policy, your insurer will be responsible for the investigation. A negligence investigation is to help insurance companies determine the legitimacy of the claim. Hundreds if not thousands of frivolous negligence claims are filed by consumers each year throughout Canada. Thanks to the professional liability insurance companies, companies have much less to worry about when it comes to client claims.
How To Become A Liability Insurance Policyholder
To become a PLI policyholder, you will need to complete and submit an application to ProfessionalsCoverage, a Canadian insurance expert. An experienced professional liability insurance agent will be designated for your case. The agent will review your application, validate your professional licensure, and determine if you qualify for a professional liability policy.
Once the application process is complete, you will be notified by the designated ProfessionalsCoverage agent. If you qualify for a PLI policy, the agent will go through the process of getting your account set up. You will be required to answer a few important questions to determine which coverage is more suitable for your secretarial profession.
The agent will then explain your payment options and you will be asked to sign the PLI documents to complete the process. In most cases, the applicant will immediately start receiving PLI coverage when all of the paperwork is filed.
PLI Premium And Payment Options
Professional liability policy premiums are determined by several factors. These factors include profession or industry classification rating, the value of your clerical firm, business tenure, assets value. All Canadian insurers have a unique rating system to ensure fairness on all levels when calculating premium rates.
If you have questions about your premiums, now is the perfect time to ask. Your designated ProfessionalsCoverage expert will gladly answer your questions and solve any issues to push your application forward.
The payment options will vary from one insurance company to another. But, most Canadian insurers accept credit cards, checks, and other payment forms.
Filing A Negligence Claim
Canadian consumers have the right to file claims against any company, professional, government entity, and nonprofit organization. Filing a negligence claim is pretty straightforward. In this case, you will simply file a negligence claim against your professional liability insurance policy.
Once the claim is received, ProfessionalsCoverage will designate an agent to oversee the process. The initiation of an investigation is the first step of the process. This is necessary to determine the legitimacy of your client’s claim. The agent will determine if you are at fault or innocent, with the latter being the most popular.
If the claim is determined to be frivolous, you will not be required to pay the client. If the claim is determined to be legitimate, ProfessionalsCoverage will initiate the payout to the plaintiff.
It is crucial to know how much professional liability coverage you have in advance. If you do not have enough coverage, you will be required to cover partial payment of the client’s payout. If this is something you want to avoid, be sure to alter the coverage amount accordingly.
ProfessionalsCoverage – Canada’s Professional Liability Experts
ProfessionalsCoverage is one of Canada’s reputable E&O insurers. With agents working around the clock, ProfessionalsCoverage can process your PLI application and claims in a timely manner.
ProfessionalsCoverage offers all clerical secretarial services operating within the Canadian borders free professional liability quotes. The quote response varies between 24 and 48 hours, in the meantime, you can contact the company directly via landline or email.
These insurance experts are here to help you customize an E&O policy to match or exceed your liability insurance needs. A qualified insurance agent will go over the basics of a PLI policy, offering recommendations when necessary.
Clerical Secretary Disability Insurance
You biggest asset in life is your earning ability. If you are unable to work, you will need to rely on either your savings or borrow money to sustain your lifestyle. When these unfortunate circumstances occur, dependents and spouses are also impacted financially and emotionally.
Disability insurance coverage will provide you a monthly income benefit, usually totaling 70% to 80% of your income, when you are unable to work for a period of time due to injury or illness.
Types of disability insurance
- Long-Term Disability Insurance (LTD)
- Short-Term Disability Insurance
- Key Person Disability Insurance
- Self Employed Disability Insurance
- Mortgage Disability Insurance
- Temporary Disability Insurance
- Supplemental Disability Insurance
Need coverage in effect? Compare the market!
FAQ before purchasing Clerical Secretary Liability Insurance
- How much professional liability insurance do I need as a clerical secretary?
- How do I get a clerical secretary insurance policy?
- What does clerical secretary professional liability insurance cover?
- What is the difference between claims made & occurrence form of coverage?
- When will I need to be insured as a clerical secretary?
- What other professions need this type of insurance?
Other useful posts you should also read
- Canadian insurance companies that provide professional liability insurance for clerical secretaries
- How does the claims process work if I get sued because of my clerical secretarial services?
- What is the cost of clerical secretary liability insurance?
- How do I apply for a clerical secretary professional liability insurance policy?
- How do I qualify for coverage as a clerical secretary?
- What is the purpose of getting insured as a clerical secretary?
- How long will it take to get an insurance quote for my clerical secretary business?