Small Business Insurance

The ACRG 'Affective Computing Research Group' is working to prove a theory that computers can read facial expressions, measuring our emotions, like likes, dislikes, confusion etc. Rana El Kaliouby states " it will allow people to communicate in new different ways."

A new treatment for early stage prostate Cancer could bring fewer side effects than current ways of dealing with the results, which involved a targeted ultrasound treatment, reducing the risk of incontinence and impotence.

There are now at least 20/30 main line suppliers of Professional Indemnity Insurance policies and they still seem to keep appearing, there has to be a point when the market slows down. The traditional professions such as solicitors surveyors and accountants still have a limited supply of Professional Indemnity Insurance suppliers however, the other classes have many insurance companies offering covers. IT and software type risks being the most popular.
Ellie Hearsey business development director at Professional Insurance Agents Ltd said that over the year we have seen a steady increase of insurance providers for PII covers and premiums have dropped to silly levels now. What's needed is a few heavy claims to wake up the underwriters and get a sensible rate for covers.

It seems to be hotting up on the commercial online arena with new software providers popping up all over the place we all know the familiar names, iprism, acturis, powerplace, SSP, Professional Insurance Agents Ltd, and now a few new girls/boys on the block.

So have brokers and insurers finally faced up to the fact that commercial insurances could work online well the answer is some of them have. The main problem for new software providers is getting insurance companies to release their products out on other platforms.

CEO of Professional Insurance Agents Ltd Graham Hearsey said the hard work has all ready been done by these insurance companies who have realeased rates and quotation sets to favourite software providers but al lot more could be done to offer a wider distribution for them for products such as Shop insurance, Commercial Combined insurances for manufacturing and small factories, professional indemnity insurance and public liability insurance.

Although millions of patients have had hip replacements over 90,000 who have received hip prosthesis from depuy orthopaedics may need to get corrections on their surgery and the product. This may well lead to professional indemnity insurance claims or medical mal practice insurance claims together with claims against product recall insurance, both types of insurances may have problems and surgeons and product manufacturers may face claims in the near future.

Big insurance companies such as AXA, Aviva, RSA and o2 Zurich are once again reaching out for insurance brokers to place their business with them.
E-trading is one of those growth areas that can produce quick and efficient results.
RSA have invested in E-trading platforms and worked with some key brokers just as AXA and Aviva have.
Aviva now have 6 areas in the regions to go ahead with its idea of producing more insurance business from the corporate sector with policies like Professional Indemnity Insurance and Public & Employers Liability.

Otto Thoresen the Director General of the Association of British Insurers' responded to Caroline Spelman's comments about insurers looking for a subsidy to insure against flooding by stating, 'We are not arguing for a subsidy to benefit insurers. We want a long term solution, negotiated constructively with the Government, that will help the insurance industry continue to protect 200,000 at risk households. We are increasingly concerned the Government is putting far too much store on the potential benefits of a fund for low income households which would benefit only a fraction of the 200,000 high risk households at risk of losing their cover.'
The ABI are campaigning to highlight the scale of the flood risks faced in the UK, and to try to reach an agreement with the Government, as the existing statement of principles agreement runs out in June 2013.
A new long term solution needs to be reached that will ensure that Insurance companies can continue to offer home insurance, office insurance, property owners insurance and other insurance policies that include flooding damage.

A revolutionary operation that involves transplanting stem cells from a human embryo has shown signs of success. Two patients with medical insurance who have received the transplants have shown promising signs of improving sight despite both being legally registered as blind.
Phase two of the clinical trial will involve different doses of stem cells being compared to assess the level that vision may be able to be restored. This is an exciting development and it is hoped that this will make for new developments in this area protecting people from losing their sight in the future.
Once the technique has been proven and become more widely available medical insurance, health insurance, therapist's liability insurance and medical mal-practice insurances will potentially need to consider these new treatments in their policies.

After in dept survey of who is buying SME insurance online some very interesting figures have emerged. The aggregator sites at present still have not spent or look seriously at the commercial insurance markets but preferred to use broker systems already in place such as Simply Business and Power Place. The strange thing is that a massive amount of the insurance business traded in the UK is SME 15-80% of insurances placed is with small business who's turnovers are unlikely to exceed £5million.

Products purchased range from Public Liability insurances for companies like Builders, electricians, plumbers to the professions such as architects, accountants, solicitors who would buy insurances such as professional indemnity insurance and office insurance.

The insurance industry as a whole has really neglected this area but the point is this business is much easier to retain than chasing the big premiums and larger corporate companies that could change their brokers at the drop of a financial director.

SO from a broking view SME really does give you a more solid re-renewal book as the ford company used to say "stuck them high" sell it cheap.

Will Smart phone apps be used for commercial insurances Smart phone apps for insurance has been around for some time, although their applications are very limited and mainly used for a domestic market such as car insurance and travel insurance.
However, very few insurance companies have developed their Smart Phones apps in the commercial insurance market and across all the different types of Smart Phones. There are a few free apps that now can offer quote and buy on blackberry and android Smart Phones and iphone apps are well on the way, offering such products as Professional Indemnity Insurance, Directors & Officers Insurance and public Liability Insurance, the key here is that these commercial insurance products, apps can really be useful to businesses particularly to Directors or principals who need to obtain terms out the office or indeed abroad

Professional Indemnity Insurance policies provide cover in two areas, the first is legal costs to defend any allegation made against a business or person for being neglectful, the second area of cover is in the event that they be found guilty of being neglectful in their duties to their client. If they are found to be negligent thenthe policy will cover them for damages awarded up to the level of indemnity that they have chosen.

After the recommendation by Sir John Vickers in his banking report re-forms, the chancellor George Osborne will speak to MP's and announce that he intends to legislate for the spilt of the banks into clear areas.
This will avoid future claims against Professional Indemnity Insurances which has seen a massive amount of claims being laid against the banks for bad selling of protection plan and investments.
The idea will be to separate retail bankey from the more risky investment activities. Vince Cable the business secretary that the government would accept the "Vickers" report in full.

What will a cyber liability insurance policy offer extra than standard Professional Indemnity Insurance might not cover things such as damage caused by viruses or malware that could have been transmitted unintentionally via email or the internet.

Where staff have perhaps abused the use of their e-mail, contents on your website, blogs which could have defames or libels to another party.

Other areas where cyber liability may help protect a business is against things like security breaches, where perhaps confidential data may have been stolen, financial losses, brought about by failure of a company website, computer hackers or internet providers. Many of these covers are not standard on a normal Professional Indemnity Insurance policy but may very well be negotiated as extra endorsements to the insurance policy.

If you work with clients or go to client sites then you really do nee to take out public liability insurance to cover yourself for any claims brought against you due to negligence and / or damage caused.
A public liability insurer will defend an insured against a claim either through their in-house lawyers or an appointed outside law firm, they will also pay any amount up to the limit of indemnity if the policy holder is found liable.
There is an additional cover which is sometimes included in a public liability policy and this is for products liability and is for any compay that supplies or manufacturers good.