In today's increasingly competitive marketplace, managing risks can be pivotal to success for any software and computer-related services business. Some things you can control. Let The Hartford help with what you can't. Here's just a sample of the insurance for software companies we offer:

• Data Breach Coverage. Provides coverage for expenses and legal liability if customer data is stolen or lost. It also provides access to services to help your company comply with regulatory requirements and address customer concerns.
• Computer-Based Crimes or Cyber-Extortion Insurance. Helps cover expenses incurred as a result of a computer-based extortion.
• Electronic Data Liability Coverage. Provides coverage with no sublimit for the loss of, loss of use of, damage to, corruption of, inability to access, or inability to properly manipulate electronic data that results from physical injury to tangible property.
• FailSafe® Product Suite. This suite offers flexible coverage that can be tailored to meet the professional liability needs of software and information technology companies. FailSafe provides protection against a broad array of exposures to loss including E&O, Security, Personal Injury, and Intellectual Property.
• Pay-As-You-Go Workers' Compensation. We help you manage your cash flow and mitigate audit surprises by basing your premium payments on actual, not estimated, payroll – one pay period at a time.

In addition to these coverages and services, The Hartford works with you as a true partner, providing access to a wide array of professionals, educational opportunities and on-site training.
To learn more about The Hartford's insurance for software companies, contact your Hartford agent today.
All coverages and services may not be available for all businesses or in all states. For details on what coverages and services are available to you, contact your agent at The Hartford today.

A type of insurance designed to cover consumers of technology services or products. More specifically, the policies are intended to cover a variety of both liability and property losses that may result when a business engages in various electronic activities, such as selling on the Internet or collecting data within its internal electronic network. 

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there is a 70 percent probability that an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or larger will strike the San Francisco Bay Area during the next 30 years. However, while Californians live with earthquakes, roughly 12 percent of California homeowners purchase earthquake insurance.

Nonetheless, Californians buy the most earthquake insurance in the nation. According to National Association of Insurance Commissioners, quake insurance premiums in California totaled more than $966 million in 2008. That was more than six times the earthquake insurance business done in any other state, and more than half the national total of $1.82 billion.

Insurers in California are required by state law to offer earthquake insurance to their homeowner insurance customers. These policyholders can decide not to purchase earthquake coverage or to purchase it from another source.

Prior to 1994, approximately 28 percent of Californians carried earthquake insurance. Traditional policies carried a 10 percent deductible and provided unlimited coverage for contents and additional living expenses. The policies were offered by the homeowner insurer, and sold as an endorsement to the homeowner insurance policy.

On January 17, 1994, the Northridge earthquake shook Southern California. The magnitude 6.7 quake caused an estimated $15 billion dollars in insured damage – more than anyone expected from an earthquake of that size. The insurance industry sustained dramatic losses, paying out more in Northridge claims than it had collected in earthquake insurance premium in the preceding 30 years. While no licensed insurer went insolvent due to the catastrophe, some came very close.

In order to recover surplus, and to protect against another earthquake, insurers began limiting their earthquake exposure by reducing their volume of new homeowner policies. In addition, most insurers filed for rate increases, coupled with increases in the deductible from 10 percent to 15 percent or higher.

In 1995, the state Legislature passed Assembly Bill 1366, which authorized insurers to offer a “mini” earthquake policy with substantially reduced policy limits to comply with the mandatory offer of earthquake insurance. In essence, the traditional earthquake insurance policy became a catastrophe policy designed to get homeowners with severe earthquake damage back into a safe home.

The mini policy was the first step toward the establishment of the California Earthquake Authority. The CEA was established in 1996 to make basic earthquake coverage available at an affordable price. It is now the world’s largest provider of earthquake insurance.

Copyright 2014 Insurance Information Network of California . All rights reserved.

If you are ever sued, your standard homeowners or auto policy will provide you with some liability coverage, paying for judgements against you and your attorney's fees, up to a limit set in the policy. However, in our litigious society, you may want to have an extra layer of liability protection. That's what a personal umbrella liability policy provides.

An umbrella policy kicks in when you reach the limit on the underlying liability coverage in a homeowners, renters, condo or auto policy. It will also cover you for things such as libel and slander.

For about $150 to $300 per year you can buy a $1 million personal umbrella liability policy. The next million will cost about $75, and $50 for every million after that.

Because the personal umbrella policy goes into effect after the underlying coverage is exhausted, there are certain limits that usually must be met in order to purchase this coverage. Most insurers will want you to have about $250,000 of liability insurance on your auto policy and $300,000 of liability insurance on your homeowners policy before selling you an umbrella liability policy for $1 million of additional coverage.

ROLE OF PROPERTY INSURANCE

Insurers are in the unique position of having encyclopedic information about the many different ways your business property could be damaged or destroyed, from fire and flooding to embezzlement. Property is also vulnerable as a result of a variety of other events such as electrical surges, accidental activation of a chemical sprinkler system or a computer virus.

Because insurers know so much about what can go wrong, they can provide your business with the insurance coverages your particular type of enterprise requires. Without appropriate insurance, property losses can easily cause the entire enterprise to fail.

The purpose of property insurance for the small business is to provide critical financial assistance in the event of a loss, so that the enterprise can continue to operate with as little disruption as possible. 

Property insurance alone is seldom enough, however. It should be but one part of an overall risk management and disaster recovery plan. On average, businesses that devote resources to risk reduction and risk control have fewer insurance claims. Firms with a good record on claims generally have more insurers competing for their business, so that they are able to find coverage more easily and often at a lower price than companies that have more losses.

We cover here, in a general way, many of the more common types of property coverage. You can obtain full information about your particular policy by reading the policy itself and discussing your coverage needs with your agent or insurance company.

PROPERTY INSURANCE POLICIES

Insurers offer small businessowners a huge variety of property insurance policies. There are  policies that cover only a single peril, or cause of loss, such as a fire insurance policy, a crime policy or an electronic equipment policy. The particulars of the policies vary from insurer to insurer.
And there are policies that include several different coverages in a single “package.” The majority of small businessowners find it more convenient and economical to purchase a package policy, which provides protection against many types of loss in a single policy. Insurers may create their own insurance policies. Many rely in part on a package policy format from ISO. This policy is generally referred to in the insurance industry as the Businessowners Policy (BOP). The BOP is revised periodically. The discussion here is based on provisions of the 2004 revision to the BOP.