Event insurance guide for planners

You’re planning important events for your clients, and you want them to go off without a hitch. Unfortunately, even the best laid plans don’t always pan out. The unexpected can happen and in situations like this, you’ll want your clients to be financially protected. This is why event insurance can help.

In fact, the financial loss can be so overwhelming that many venues are requiring liability insurance from their clients which spreads out the risk between involved parties should damage to their property occur. As an event planner, you also want to protect yourself. By requiring your clients to secure special event insurance, you could potentially decrease your own business liability risk.

Let’s look at what type of events Markel can offer coverage for:

There are two types of special event insurance to consider: event liability and event cancellation insurance.

Event liability insurance covers:

Injury and damage during the event—event liability insurance can help protect your clients from financial loss if they are held legally responsible for property damage to the venue or bodily injury to someone injured at the event.

Liability policies are available for events scheduled to take place in (or cruise ships departing from) the United States and territories/possessions and Canada.

The cost of event liability insurance starts at just $75 and goes up from there depending on coverage limits and coverage options chosen. Liability limits start at $500,000 and your client can choose to exclude liquor liability coverage if there is no alcohol being served at your event. Event liability policies have a $1,000 deductible for property damage.

Event cancellation insurance covers:

Non-refundable deposits—many vendors such as photographers, caterers, entertainment, and florists, may not offer refunds regardless of the reason for a cancellation or postponement.

Cancellation costs—cancellation can occur for many unforeseen circumstances, including extreme weather conditions (hurricane, tornado, blizzard, tropical storm) and accident or illness of host, honoree, or immediate family member.

Unreliable vendors—event insurance can cover the cost of vendors who are no-shows, cancel at the last minute, or have gone bankrupt.

Cancellation coverage is available for events that are scheduled to take place in (or cruise ships departing from) the United States and territories/possessions, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and the Caribbean (excluding Cuba).

Event cancellation insurance starts as low as $130. The cost is based on the event budget, so your clients can help determine if they have the right coverage for all their deposits and expenses.

Event cancellation policies have a $25 deductible for each area of coverage.

Now that you have a better understanding of event insurance, it’s a good idea for your clients to purchase a Markel policy as soon as they begin to pay deposits to help ensure they could be covered from early on.

Markel offers event liability insurance to hosts and honorees, protecting from incidents such as property damage to the venue or injury to a guest. Up to $2 million in event liability insurance can be purchased by your client from Markel any time at least 1 day before the event. Policies start as low as $75.

By offering event insurance, it will not only protect your clients, but it can also protect you by potentially decreasing your own business liability risk for accidents due to negligence of the event host or honoree. Markel Specialty's event insurance is an easy and affordable solution for your clients – a free event insurance quote takes only a few minutes online or on the phone – that will help protect your clients (and you).

Free client materials! We can provide you with free brochures to help raise your clients’ awareness of the benefits of event liability insurance.