Do you want to know how much it cost to insure a life coaching business with an insurance company? If YES, here are 7 best insurance policies for life coaches.
Life coaches help people make the changes they want to see in their lives, whether those changes are related to their careers, health, relationships, or some other aspects of life. These coaches are always there to talk with clients about issues the clients have, help clients set motivating goals for themselves, navigate through important personal and professional decisions, and much more.
Even though most life coaches help coach clients in various aspects, they are always advised to specialize their coaching to an area they are really passionate and conversant with.
Insurance Policies for Life Coach
As a life coach, you entirely understand the power of peace of mind. Business insurance is essential to protecting your livelihood so you can focus on helping others improve their life and careers. The following are some of the most common life coaching insurance policies in the United States:
1. Professional Liability Insurance
Note that this form of liability insurance, also known as errors and omissions (E and O), helps protect life coaches when offering professional coaching advice and services.
The insurance strives to protect the cost of defending a negligence claim made against you and any damages awarded in such a civil lawsuit. Also have it in mind that this insurance coverage is provided for alleged failure to provide services either by error or omission resulting in a client suffering a financial loss.
For example, if a client came to a understand in a session with you that he didn’t like his job, told his employer and was fired, your professional liability policy would cover you if he came back and sued you for losing his job.
2. Commercial Property Insurance
Whether it is your office, your office equipment or your inventory, your coaching practice is bound to have properties that need to be protected. It would be an enormous setback to start over if something like a fire or a major theft happened to your office. That’s why having business property insurance you can count on is very crucial.
3. Cyber Liability Insurance
This type of insurance strives to protect your practice from the costs associated with a cyber – attack. A cyber – attack is more or less when hackers penetrate into your network to steal information or money from your practice. Hackers may be looking for personal information like SSNs that will allow them to steal the identities of employees, customers, and other people your practice has in its records.
4. Loss Of Reputation Insurance
This life coaching insurance applies when you, unintentionally, suffer a loss to your practice and good name after a lawsuit, complaint or other action by any third party. Note that you may require the services of public relations professionals to help repair the damage caused by such situations. This cover will pay for their services.
5. Umbrella insurance
In the United States, as a life coach, you sometimes require umbrella liability insurance to extend the limits of your general and other liability policies.
One of the basic advantages of incorporating an umbrella policy to your underlying policies is that you only have to pay a single premium for the extra business protection – even if you use it to extend the limits of more than one executive career life coaching insurance policy.
6. Information Privacy Insurance
In this modern era, people are overly conscious of their privacy. Most are aware of the protection they receive under various laws.
Note that this insurance coverage reimburses you for costs to notify clients of a breach of confidential personal information in compliance with privacy protection laws. It also takes care of fines and penalties that you become legally obligated to pay as a result of a covered proceeding.
7. Claims Made vs. Occurrence Coverage
When looking to acquire your life coaching insurance policy, you need to decide between two types of coverage. One is called a claims – made policy and the other is known as occurrence policy: A claims – made policy only covers claims if the claims – made policy is active, while an occurrence policy covers events that happened when the original policy was in force, even if the occurrence policy is no longer active.
Note that occurrence policies are move favorable because this policy will respond to claims that come in – even after the policy has been cancelled – as long as the incident occurred during the period in which coverage was in force.
Steps on How to Get Insurance Policies for Life Coaches
When searching for insurance for life coaches, you have to be ready with some basic information about your business to make the application process easier. As you begin your research and get quotes, stick with the following information and steps mentioned below.
i. Be Ready to Show Your Skills
When looking to acquire professional liability coverage for your coaching practice, the insurer needs to be able to analyze the level of risk your life coaching business has. If you have professional credentials and extensive experience—meaning you’re less likely to make a mistake – the chances of a lawsuit are reduced, so your policy should cost less.
Have it in mind that professional certifications differentiate coaches showing off themselves as experts, and those credentials may also indicate better training, meaning less risk to insurers.
ii. Get Various Quotes for Coverage
It is very pertinent to shop around with numerous providers to acquire life coach insurance. Indeed, you will want to find an affordable policy that offers you and your practice comprehensive coverage addressing all potential losses your business could face.
It is advisable to get at least three quotes for different policies, including general liability and professional liability insurance. Although price is always important, it shouldn’t be the only factor you consider, though.
iii. Understand Occurrence vs. Claims – Made Coverage
Just like it was stated above, professional liability policies provide coverage in one of two ways, and you need to effectively understand both. For instance, say a life coach has a one – year occurrence – based professional liability policy.
In that year, he makes an error that costs his client $40,000, but the mistake is only discovered after the policy has been cancelled.
Because it is an occurrence policy, the insurer will have to cover the claim even if it is reported five years after the incident. If the life coach had a claims – made policy, the insurer would not pay because the claim wasn’t filed before the policy lapsed.
Cost of Insurance Cover for Life Coaches
Insurance costs for Life Coaches are driven by a few factors, including a life coach’s operations, equipment value, and whether they own or rent their office space.
If you run your practice as a sole proprietor, your overall business insurance costs will be less compared to a business with multiple coaches or additional employees that need to be insured with workers’ compensation. However, the typical Life Coach Insurance costs include:
Professional Liability
- Premium Cost (Annually): $400 to $1,800
- Coverage Amount: $1 million per occurrence, $2 million aggregate
- Deductible: $1,000
General Liability
- Premium Cost (Annually): $300 to $1,300
- Coverage Amount: $1 million per occurrence, $2 million aggregate
- Deductible: $500
Commercial Property
- Premium Cost (Annually): $300 to $600
- Coverage Amount: $20,000, covers equipment only
- Deductible: $1,500
Cyber Liability
- Premium Cost (Annually): $500 to $1,500
- Coverage Amount: $1 million per occurrence, $1 million aggregate
- Deductible: $1,000 to $5,000
5 Companies and Providers That Offer Affordable Insurance Policies for Life Coaches
Obtaining life coach insurance is a great way to protect yourself while continuing to provide beneficial services to your clients.
a. biBERK
biBERK is a wonderful choice for career coaches that want a quick, easy, and customizable approach to business insurance. This company is backed by industry giant Berkshire Hathaway, biBERK provides an excellent BOP with an enormous range of limit and deductible selections, as well as add – on umbrella and cyber coverage.
Also note that this provider offers customizable professional liability coverage for purchase online. biBERK has one of the simplest online applications with the option to buy coverage online immediately.
b. Alternative Balance Professional Group
Alternative Balance Professional Group provides extensive coverage underwritten by leading insurers, including Lloyd’s of London, and tailored specifically to wellness coaches and other health coaching professions.
Alternative Balance offers one adequate package for general and professional liability under different policy levels if you’re employer, student, or sole proprietor. Note that the annual policy offers you membership into its professional group automatically, which includes benefits like trade resources and an affiliate program.
c. CPH & Associates
As a life coach in the United States who wants a policy with no deductible for professional liability coverage, CPH & Associates is the right choice for you.
CPH & Associates strives to focus specifically on professional liability insurance and provides a policy offering broad protection, including unlimited coverage for defence costs, as well as state licensing board defence coverage. The company is dedicated to ensure you’ll have full coverage for all expenses associated with responding to misconduct claims.
d. Hiscox
This company is a popular insurance provider that specializes in very small businesses like sole proprietors and micro businesses.
Hiscox is also renowned for its understanding of niche industries, such as therapy and life coaching, allowing it to offer tailored coverage for your specific risks. In addition, Hiscox has an easy online application that takes little time to complete and, in most cases, you can purchase your policy online too.
e. SimplyBusiness
This company, although an online broker, works with multiple top – rated insurance carriers, including CAN and Travellers, to bring policies to small business owners. Executive coaches who need affordable general liability and professional liability coverage should fill out the company’s online application.
It is easy to complete and often returns multiple quotes to compare, allowing coaches to easily choose the coverage that best suits their operations and budgets.
Conclusion
Life coaches face the potential for lawsuits from unhappy clients. There is also a risk of loss due to an accident that injures others or damages property. As a coach, a crucial component of your success is protecting your most valuable professional assets: your reputation and your financial security.
Just one claim, justified or not, can take significant time away from your practice and cost thousands of dollars in court and legal fees. Whether you work in an agency or in private practice, being adequately insured will give you the financial security you need to protect yourself against a claim.