Business Insurance

[Lisa Bradshaw]

Hi,

 

I would like to ask for some advice. I have a question about business insurance. My husband and I have formed an LLC (Colorado) for video production and multimedia. We have been offered a contract to create training videos for a corporation near Philadelphia. They are to provide the scripts, storyboards, and voiceovers. We will create the videos in our studio (in the basement of our home). No one else will be working there.

 

They started out offering us contracts as contractors, which I believe would have gone through their HR office, but we asked them if we could be paid through our LLC instead. They had a legal/accounting person send us a contract for "Consulting Services, Training and Development Support Services," with one of the items being a requirement that we have Comprehensive General Liability ($1,000,000 each occurrance) and Professional Liability -- Errors and Omissions ($1,000,000), naming their company as an additional insured under both policies.

 

My husband (a student) talked with one of his professors who has worked in the industry for years, and he asked several others in the field, and they've said that is not a common requirement for a video contract. The professor recommended we ask that it be waived.

 

Do you have any experience with this situation? From some forums I've visited, it seems like a good idea to get the General Liability insurance, but maybe not the E&O, especially if they provide the scripts, storyboards, and audio? What about the request to list the company as an insured on our policies?

 

If we do need to get those policies, any recommendations for an insurance company?

 

My State Farm agent has said they would cover the General Liability but not the Errors and Omissions.

 

Any advice would be welcome!

 

Thanks,

Lisa

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Hmm. . .I know, from my little dealings with these things, that E&O is pretty much so required for any type of distribution, but I would think that with this being created primarily in-house for them that it's not required. Don't take my word or ANY FORUM for gospel. Get some legal counsel to go over it. Even if it costs you a few, they will know far better than anyone else. Professors included.

[Jim Keller]

I'm assuming your client is a fairly large organization, as requests for these types of coverage usually come from bigger clients. None of the insurance requests the client made are unusual when dealing with corporate lawyers.

 

E&O policies are generally not very expensive, and serve to protect you individually should your company make a mistake. If you can afford it, I do recommend that you have one. But general liability is a must.

 

Any company that can provide you with the standard production insurance should be able to provide you with the works. If you pop over to the Production Department forum, there's a thread there that I started in which someone recommended a couple of decent brokers when I inquired...