Commercial Crime Insurance

A Hiscox commercial crime package as part of a business owner's policy (BOP) provides up to $10,000 in coverage for dishonest acts of your employees, including damage to business personal property and theft of money and securities.

Here’s an example. In a retail store, an employee was found to have failed to properly ring in sales, pocketing the cash paid by customers, and to have stolen merchandise from the store. The employee was fired, and the company’s commercial crime coverage paid for the costs associated with the theft.

Your company can be protected for up to $25,000 in losses due to computer fraud and funds transfer fraud, including phishing, ransomware and other scams that involve the use of a computer to fraudulently transfer money, securities or other property.

Consider this situation. A new administrative assistant at a financial services firm received an email that appeared to come from the company’s CFO, requesting an immediate wire transfer of funds. The admin processed the request, only to find out later that the email was fraudulent. The company’s commercial crime insurance policy covered the cost of the fraudulent transfer.

A business owner’s policy can include crime coverage up to $2,500 for losses resulting from the forgery or alteration of a check or other financial instrument. The commercial crime upgrade increases this limit to $10,000.

For example, the bookkeeper of a construction company was found to have altered checks after they were signed by the president, making them payable to an account they controlled. The company had a Hiscox business owner’s policy with a commercial crime upgrade, which covered the cost of the altered checks.

Hiscox commercial crime insurance covers the loss of money and securities used in your business, whether the theft occurs at your business, bank or home. Theft or disappearance of securities is covered up to $10,000 at your business or bank, and up to $5,000 away from your business premises.

Suppose a graphic designer noticed that his checking account was frequently overdrawn, even though he was sure there should have been enough money in it to cover the checks he was writing. He went to the bank to discuss the overdrafts and discovered that a bank employee had been siphoning money from his account. His commercial crime package covered the stolen funds.

Hiscox commercial crime insurance covers losses up to $5,000 in the event that one of your employees steals your client’s property, including money or securities, from their premises. This coverage is not available in all states.

As an example, suppose the owner of an IT consulting company gets several phone calls from customers who say that items have been missing from their offices. The owner notices that all of the complaints are coming from customers who had their computers fixed by a new employee of the company, who later admits to taking the items. The company’s commercial crime package covered the costs to replace the customers’ stolen property.

We won’t cover dishonest or criminal acts committed by you or your partners, or acts committed by your employees with the aid of one of your partners.

We will only cover your losses due to the events described. The policy does not provide coverage for any liability you may have to a third party due to such losses.

Hiscox will not cover losses that are due to your accounting errors.

Our commercial crime package is not available for attorneys, claims adjusters or those in the financial industry.