Crime insurance is more of a broad term that is applicable to the insurance coverage protection to either an individual or a business from either damages or loss of property as a result of a crime.

Crime insurance will often include the losses that are a result of intellectual property as well as the theft of physical property. Intellectual property theft would be something like an employee securing and then selling a client list or a program in development to the competition. In order to file any type of a claim the crime must be listed as covered in the terms of the insurance contract.

Employers

There are many employers that are going to maintain at least some type of crime insurance at all times. This is definitely true for a business if they should operate in more than one country. With companies that are international they’ll often secure a national crime insurance policy in each country where there is a physical corporate presence.

You don’t have to be a large company to obtain commercial crime insurance though as even a small business can obtain this coverage and provide themselves protection against any situation; such as, the employee stealing the daily deposit rather than dropping it off at the bank.

Scope of Coverage

Crime insurance coverage is going to vary in scope dependent upon both the level and the type of coverage that is desired by the insured. While you’ll find that just about any crime insurance policy covers the theft of machinery essential to the function of the business; such as, furnishing, computers, etc… it doesn’t always cover intellectual property and you’ll often need to be sure to request such coverage.

Smaller businesses might not foresee the need to purchase anything other than just a basic crime insurance package for equipment theft it’s at least worth the time to at least consider which of the small businesses intellectual property could be stolen and cause damage to the company before writing off the coverage. Things that aren’t considered intellectual property but are and can be covered are things like:

• Client lists
• Accounting files
• Any other information to internal company functioning

As a small business owner intellectual property theft can hurt you too.