Broadform Liability or more commonly known as General Public Liability Insurance, covers your legal liability for accidental damage to third parties or damage to their property arising from your business operations. For example, you incur liability as a tenant for damage to the office you rent, or you visit a client and accidentally break something of theirs and they hold you liable for the cost. 

Statutory Liability covers legal defence costs and certain fines/penalties if you unintentionally breach some New Zealand statutes (e.g., Fair Trading Act 1986, Privacy Act 2020, Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009).  

Under the Health & Safety at Work Act 2015 fines and penalties are prohibited from being insured, however associated defence costs and reparations are covered.   

Claims or investigations by the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) supervisor into your conduct or duties are excluded under the Professional Indemnity Insurance policy. Statutory Liability provides defence costs and  pecuniary penalties arising from the unintentional breach of the AML/CFTA Act. 

Employers Liability covers you against claims by employees for work-related injuries/illnesses not covered by ACC. For example, an employee develops a gradual process injury (e.g., repetitive strain injury from computer work) not covered by ACC and sues your Practice for damages. 

Directors & Officers Liability protects your Practice’s directors and officers against claims of wrongful acts made in the management of the Practice. Claims can come from clients, regulators, creditors or competitors with allegations of breach of duty, trust, misleading statement or breach of authority or warranty. 

The policy includes an Outside Position where the appointment is held with the knowledge and consent of the Justitia member Insured. Outside Positions in companies that are publicly listed or domiciled outside of New Zealand or an entity that is a financial institution of financial services company are excluded.  

Crime covers direct financial loss from an employee, acting alone or in collusion with others, for any dishonest act, theft or fraud, or a Criminal Act committed by a third party. For example: theft of money, securities or property belonging to the Practice by an employee; theft of property caused by manipulation of computer hardware or software programs or systems; or theft of money taken from an account maintained by the Practice at a financial institution by fraudulent electronic means and criminal damage. 

Consequential Loss covers financial loss the Practice sustains during the indemnity period as a result of an Occurrence (interruption or interference to the Practice) caused by an event under the NZI Liability One Broadform (Public) Liability, Statutory Liability or Employers Liability.  

Prosecution Legal Expenses covers your Employee for legal expenses incurred to defend a prosecution arising from accidental injury or death of any person that occurred in the normal course of the employee’s duties as an employee of the Practice. 

Employment Practices Liability covers legal costs and damages for employment- related disputes (e.g., wrongful dismissal, harassment) where you are found to have liability. Coverage includes claims from current, former or prospective Employees. 

 Allegations might include breaches of Employment Contracts, breaches of provisions under the Human Rights Act 1993 or Privacy Act 2020. Legal costs incurred in the defence of Injunctions or Applications for Reinstatement brought against Employers by current, former or prospective Employees.  With this type of policy, it would be in the employer’s interests to engage with their insurer prior to taking any sort of action against any employee. 

Aon NZI Cyber Ultra Liability Insurance covers losses arising from cyber events including Data breaches, Systems damage, Cyber extortion, Business interruption and Third party liability. 

The policy provides protection and support to the practice in the event of cyber incidents, helping mitigate the costly repercussions of data breaches, ransomware attacks and other cyber threats.  Below is a Cyber claims scenario which illustrates the importance of having this cover. 

The practice encountered a significant data breach event.  Entrusting their client data to a cloud provider, a cyber-attack stemming from a software vulnerability within the provider’s system occurred.  Despite utilising a third-party service for data storage, the practice remained accountable to their own clients for the security of their information.  This incident underscores the susceptibility of cloud systems to cyber threats and emphasises the continued responsibility of professionals to safeguard client data, irrespective of outsourcing storage solutions. Another common source of cyber claim is your employee is tricked by a phishing email into transferring funds to a fraudster. The policy covers the loss and the costs of investigating and responding to the incident. 

Extended Trustees Liability Insurance indemnifies each insured (trustee, protector, or the practice as a trustee) for loss from claims first made and notified to the insurer during the policy period, arising from any wrongful act committed in the insured’s capacity as a trustee or protector of a trust. The Limit of Indemnity is determined by the number of Trusts held and the Professional Indemnity insurance policy limit. 

The policy compliments the Professional indemnity insurance which provides the primary Trustee liability and Outside Trusteeships cover.  Extended Trustees covers some of the residual commercial risks that may fall outside the scope of Professional Indemnity cover as a “difference in conditions” to augment the Professional Indemnity cover (e.g. to cover the liability you may have for the “wrongful acts” of the other Trustees and/or other matters that may fall outside the scope of Professional Indemnity Cover) 

An additional advantage in having Extended Trustees Liability is the additional limit provided for trustee liability claims, thereby ring-fencing the indemnity available for such claims under this policy rather than eroding the Professional Indemnity policy. 

It will be a case of whether you feel the Professional Indemnity cover is sufficient, or whether you would prefer separate cover for trustee management issues.