No business owner wants to believe their employees are capable of dishonesty, yet employee fraud happens everyday. Most small business owners think of their employees as family and trust them implicitly. Unfortunately, according to a major insurance company, $3 billion dollars of business profits are lost every year due to employee fraud. Your business can suffer severe financial damage and sometimes even end up in bankruptcy. The one-time theft is usually not so damaging but the long-term ongoing schemes can result in a huge loss for the company.

What can a business owner do to protect themselves? Most business advisors will recommend a two-fold strategy – institute a loss prevention program and purchase an

employee dishonesty insurance policy to provide coverage for any potential losses. In general terms, an employee dishonesty policy protects an employer from financial loss from the fraudulent activities of one or more employees. The coverage includes protection for loss of money, securities, and other property of the insured.

Given that explanation there is often some confusion regarding the extent of employee dishonesty coverage regarding outside vendors. Businesses, whose premises are serviced on a regular basis by outside persons or vendors, often think if the servicing company has an employee dishonesty policy they will be covered if one of these people steals property from them. In this case, business owners are confusing eemployee dishonesty insurance with liability insurance. The servicing company will usually have had to have purchased a separate endorsement to cover what happens on their client’s premises.

Business owners also need to understand that coverage from the servicing company’s employee dishonesty policy only applies to loss of money, securities, and other tangible property. If the case of any potential theft concerns electronic data, an intangible, no coverage will apply. For example, if an employee of one of your vendors downloads one of your trade secrets and sells it to a competitor, you are not covered.

If you deal with outside vendors on your premises, to minimize your risk you should inquire as to what their employee dishonesty insurance actually covers. Get more help with business insurance policies and small businesses.

And of course, compare insurance quotes online!

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