Business Contents

This is called a lot of different things by insurance people, but we’re talking about your stuff, your gear – all of the things you use to run your business such as cameras, computers, desks and lighting equipment. It can also include leasehold improvements which are changes or alterations you’ve made to a space. It’s sometimes phrased as ‘contents of every description.’

This type of coverage is usually subject to a deductible, commonly $1,000. The deductible is the amount of the claim the you agree to pay first. It helps ensure that frivolous claims aren’t put through and keeps premiums low.

For example, if someone steals your $1,000 dollar laptop, you’d have to pay $1,000 to file the claim, which you of course wouldn’t do. However, if someone stole your $5,000 lens, you’d pay the first $1,000, and the insurance company would pay $4,000. You’d probably want to claim that.

Again, we’re mainly concerned with fire or theft. Importantly this isn’t a warranty plan, it doesn’t cover ‘at-fault damage’, or damage resulting from your actions or those of your employees. If you drop a camera, or if you leave a window open and it rains, soaking a bunch of your gear, that’s not covered.

This coverage can be a requirement if you’re renting gear. And your personal policy isn’t sufficient. Personal insurance won’t respond to commercial claims. So you go into your local rental shop, and they make you sign a rental agreement. Part of that agreement is that you have liability insurance and enough property insurance for whatever you’re renting. You say great! I have condo insurance which will cover this – no, not great. Your condo insurance won’t cover claims from business use.

Theft is the big issue here – it can take seconds for someone to grab an expensive camera or lens. They can also be stolen out of a car, or if you’re loading your gear into a venue. 

So it’s important to keep that car locked. But it’s also important to have theft coverage, just in case.

Liability

There are two main types of liability insurance that photographers and videographers should have – Commercial General Liability (CGL) and Tenants Legal Liability (TLL).

CGL protects you if you’re found legally liable for property damage or bodily injury. These incidents can occur on your premises, or off-site on a customer’s premises, an or event venue. 

One of the most common hazards we see that leads to claims are trips, slips and falls. It’s so easy for someone to trip over a cord or slip on some ice or water. These types of injuries can add up to big costs if you’re not covered.

Property damage is also worth talking about. Some examples are, if you’re shooting in a corporate venue or high-end space and someone knocks a painting off the wall causing damage. Or  maybe a tripod gets knocked over and beaks a marble floor. You would have to pay for these.

Every business and everyone who’s being paid for their photography should, at a minimum, have CGL insurance. We recommend $1 or $2 million, but $5 million is also common. Even if your customers are your friends, we sometimes hear “I only work with friends and family, they’d never sue me.” In reality, once someone is injured, all bets are off.

Importantly, property you rent or that is in your care, custody and control is excluded from CGL. Which which brings us to Tenants Legal Liability insurance. This covers damage to premises that you’re renting or occupying. This could be a studio space, or an exhibition hall for example. It is often required as part of a lease or exhibitor agreement.

Data & Media

Data and media are often excluded. Some policies will cover the cost to recover data if the loss is caused by an insured peril. For example, if your hard drive is smoke damaged from a fire, the data may be recoverable by an expert, there may be coverage available.

There’s another part of media that photographers should consider, which are media liability and advertising injury. If you’re publicly posting a lot of your work, especially if you’re working with corporate clients, media liability coverage is a must.

This covers libel, slander and copyright infringement. If you post a picture that contains another’s copyrighted material, you could be sued and your CGL policy wouldn’t respond.

For example, if you’re giving a presentation on insurance, and you use a LaCie hard drive picture without permission, you could be in trouble. Not really… but let’s say this was a more high profile presentation, and I defamed LaCie…then they might sue me. Good thing I have insurance.

Legal Expense  can cover a range of legal costs that CGL might not respond to like criminal charges, contract disputes, a police investigation or an occupational health and safety investigation, CASL or CRTC proceedings and fines. Claims made, which means it could even be from an incident stemming from before insurance was in place.

Cyber is a relatively new coverage which can address data and media as well. This can cover a range of cyber exposures:

• Privacy breech and notification, mandated by government
• Legal IT services
• PR response
• Hacking and cyber extortion – ransomware
• Regulatory defence