Personal lines (auto, home, boat, personal items) policyholders can register to view and print policy documents, including auto ID cards. Directly billed policyholders can also view and print billing statements.
Directly billed policyholders can make a one-time premium payment online from your bank account or credit card using this feature.
Personal lines (auto, home, boat, personal items) policyholders can register to view and print policy documents, including auto ID cards. Directly billed policyholders can also view and print billing statements.
Directly billed policyholders can make a one-time premium payment online from your bank account or credit card using this feature.
If you are the officer, owner or director who makes the decisions about your company’s employee benefit plans, your personal assets may be at stake without the protection of fiduciary and employee benefits coverage.
You may already be familiar with fidelity bonds required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) that protects the employee benefit plans from theft by fiduciaries. However, fiduciary and employee benefits coverage helps protect the decision makers in areas that the ERISA bond does not cover: liability claims, mismanagement or errors and omissions made while administering employee benefit plans such as 401(k), Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and health insurance.
Fiduciaries could be the plan’s trustees, investment committee members or even responsible parties who appoint those people. Even if you hire other professionals to invest assets or administer the benefits plan for your business, you retain the ultimate responsibility for selecting, maintaining and monitoring the performance of those professional managers.
Fiduciaries also could be those you have hired or placed in authority for administering your benefit plans. And especially now that the Affordable Care Act has redefined our nation’s healthcare system, these plans are ever evolving and changing.
Your fiduciaries could make an honest mistake in a change of forms, coverage explanations or the employee’s transfer in and out of a plan, leaving your organization subject to lawsuits, fines and penalties. As the decision maker, you may be named personally in a lawsuit. Claims can be brought by plan participants, the Department of Labor or a participant’s legal estate and may include allegations of:
Consult your legal counsel and your company’s insurance professional to see if fiduciary and employee benefits coverage could help your organization cover the expense of litigation and the costs associated with these allegations.
Your organization can enhance your ERISA risk management program and limit your exposure by:
This loss control information is advisory only. The author assumes no responsibility for management or control of loss control activities. Not all exposures are identified in this article. Contact your local, independent insurance agent for coverage advice and policy service.
