RISK INSIGHT: Deadly Weapon Protection
Frequent active shooter/deadly weapon events have pushed companies to (rightly) place an enhanced focus on risk management activities that can help prevent and mitigate these events from happening.
However, there is another important aspect to consider: how your corporate insurance program can respond and help at the time of a crisis. If properly designed, your corporate insurance policies can provide vital resources and funding at the time of an incident.
Then: Multiple policies for deadly weapon protection
Historically, an active shooter event has triggered coverage under multiple insurance policies which were not specifically designed to respond to this type of event.
Depending on the event, you could be looking to find coverage under your general liability, workers’ compensation, property, umbrella, and employee benefits/EAP plans. This can lead to suboptimal coverage being in place, and, in the event of having your policies spread across multiple carriers, can lead to finger pointing and a delay in the ability to marshal the necessary resources.
Some of the concerns with this set up can be mitigated through careful conversations with your insurance broker and your carriers to make sure you understand how certain policies would respond, what limits are available, and what other resources your insurance company can provide in the event of an incident.
Now: Comprehensive solutions
However, in response to the rise in deadly weapon events and in acknowledgement of the potential inadequacy in coverage and resources provided by a traditional insurance program structure, insurance companies are putting together more comprehensive solutions to include coverage in one place on a standalone policy, which responds on a primary basis and provides the necessary risk management and crisis response services.
Some of the benefits of this separate policy are:
- Protect the limits of your standard insurance policies for your usual industry risks
- Flexibility of coverage design – Can purchase high liability limits to protect against 3rd party actions or scale back coverage for expenses and risk management services only
- Enhanced Coverages
- Trauma Counselling Services for Employees and/or Customers
- Funeral Expenses
- AD&D
- Medical Expense Coverage
- Crisis Response Service Costs
- Specialized Risk Management & Crisis Response Resources
Now is the time to take a look at your current programs and determine how they would respond during a deadly weapon/active shooter event. Working with a broker like M3 who has dedicated experience not only on the risk management and rapid response side of active shooter scenarios, but also in the insurance policy and program design side, will ensure that your programs are keeping up with the times, and can respond appropriately to protect your organization and your employees.
Key Takeaways
Just like the design of your incident response plan for a deadly weapon event, your insurance coverage must have an intentional and thoughtful program structure that allows your organization to best respond to an incident.
Reach out to an M3 account executive today to discuss your current structure, and how it would respond in the event of an active shooter or deadly weapon scenario.
