Some of the main types of business insurance you should consider if you’re an event planner are:
Public liability insurance
Public liability insurance is essential for anyone responsible for planning or holding an event, whether it’s an ongoing booking or a one-day event. Whether you’re a wedding planner or organising a charity fundraiser, public liability insurance will protect you against claims that your business or charity activity caused injury to a member of the public, or damaged the property of a third party in some way.
This insurance can offer between $5 million and $20 million worth of coverage and is compulsory for many event planners. In addition, many councils and private landlords insist on seeing proof of public liability insurance before hiring out halls, venues or council-owned public areas.
What it covers:
- Third-party personal injury claims
- Damage to a third party’s property
- Legal fees to defend yourself
Professional indemnity insurance
Professional indemnity insurance covers you against claims that the advice, recommendations or service you provided were either negligent or incorrect. It’s an important type of insurance to have for event organisers or wedding planners who offer advice about event management and organisation to multiple members of the public. Cover is available starting from $250,000 up to $10 million or more.
What it covers
- Payment of compensation if there’s a successful claim against you
- Payment of court-awarded damages to the litigant
- Cover for your legal defence costs
- Cover for the cost of any investigations into an accident by any statutory authority
Business equipment insurance
Equipment insurance is a type of business insurance which covers the things you use every day in your business to make money. For example, this might include trestle tables and chairs, umbrellas, marquees, wedding arches and all sorts of other equipment an event organiser may need to make that special day run smoothly.
It will cover the cost of repairing or replacing your equipment if your business should happen to suffer an insured event such as a fire, storm, theft or impact. It not only covers items you own, but also rental equipment you may have hired.
What it covers
- Plant, tools and machinery
- Computers
- Fixtures and fittings of a business premises
- Goods held by you which belong to others (such as hired equipment)
- Business books, records and other vital paperwork
- Electronic equipment such as point of sale terminals (EFTPOS machines)
Cyber liability insurance
Unfortunately, there are many criminals online trying hard to get their hands on personal information. Cyber liability insurance can protect your business from a variety of forms of cybercrime if you find yourself the target.
What it covers
- Data breaches including theft of client information
- The cost of a forensic investigation into the cause of the breach
- Data recovery costs
- Cyber extortion and denial of service threats
- Crisis management costs
- Advertising and communicating with customers
- Legal costs including any fines and penalties imposed