Fiduciary Liability Insurance
Fiduciary Liability insurance is designed for startups that create, manage, and administer employee benefit plans.
If current or former employees claim their assets weren’t invested properly or they received misleading plan advice, they may sue whoever is responsible. Fiduciary coverage can protect your startup in the event of such a lawsuit.
Fiduciary Liability coverage often goes hand in hand with Employee Benefits Liability coverage, which covers mistakes and oversights in benefits administration, like failing to enroll an employee in health insurance. Both help protect your startup once you introduce employee benefits.
Who
If you run a startup, have employees, and offer them a benefits plan (like a 401(k)), you’re likely a fiduciary.
What’s more, if you don’t have a dedicated employee to manage benefits administration, you’ll have to fit that work in around your many other duties as a founder, which can mean it will get less attention than it deserves.
Fiduciary coverage helps mitigate your risk exposure by covering legal expenses in the event of a covered employee lawsuit.
And because Vouch was designed specifically for startups, you’ll be able to apply for our Fiduciary coverage in less than 10 minutes and get covered within 24 hours – without printing or faxing a single document.
When
You should consider getting fiduciary coverage if you have any of these employee benefit programs in place or plan to in the near term:
Don’t offer benefits? You may want to. One survey found that 66 percent of workers consider a good benefits package the biggest determining factor in deciding whether or not to take a job.
In other words: to attract the best talent, you need to offer benefits. And if you do, you’ll need Fiduciary coverage. Get it here.
401(k)
Employee stock ownership plans (ESOP)
Welfare plans
Why
The short answer: It protects you if you make a mistake managing the benefit plans and get sued for it. It also protects you from lawsuits for most benefit disputes including wrongful denial and improper change in benefits.
The long answer: Even if you act in your employees’ best interests, they might misinterpret your benefits advice. An employee might claim they were advised to make an investment that cost them money. Even if their claims are unsubstantiated, they can sue – and defending yourself in a lawsuit costs money.
And Vouch’s Fiduciary Liability insurance in particular is designed specifically for startups, meaning you won’t pay for more (or less) coverage than you actually need.
What
A Vouch Fiduciary Liability insurance package can cover defense costs if an employee sues your startup over…
Misleading advice on investing employees retirement funds.
Poor investment decisions.
Poor or negligent investment practices, including failure to offer diversification options or charging excessive fees.
Poor communication in administering health and other welfare plans that result in lost benefits.
Mistakes in computing or administering plans (late enrollments, terminations, etc.), that result in lost benefits.
Want to learn more? Send your questions to hello@vouch.us.
While Fiduciary Liability insurance can help your company manage some risks associated with offering employee benefits, it can’t cover cases of dishonest acts or fraud, which are covered by an ERISA Bond.
Fiduciary Liability insurance also doesn’t cover…
Damage to your business property or losses caused by your product, which can be covered by a Business Owner’s Policy.
Claims that your professional work caused a financial loss, which are typically covered by Errors & Omissions insurance.
Employee injuries, which are covered by Workers’ Compensation.
Non-benefits-related employee lawsuits, which may be covered by Employment Practices Liability or Employee Benefits Liability insurance.
Data breach-related costs. These may be covered by Cyber insurance.
Why Vouch
As a startup founder, you have insurance needs, but you also have a lot of other things to get done.
Vouch was created by two founders who know how complicated insurance can get, so they made it simple for other founders.
You don’t want to pay more than necessary to manage your startup’s risks, especially after building an employee benefits program – which is a sizable investment in the future of your company. Vouch helps you protect that commitment to your employees in a hassle-free way.
How
Instead of a few weeks swapping PDFs with a broker, you can…
Apply in just 10 minutes.
Get covered within 24 hours.
Handle everything online.
Explore additional startup coverages
Foundational protection for the risks of running a startup.
Protection from disaster and theft.
Protection for your founders, officers and board members.
Protection for bugs in your product that cause financial losses.
Protection for mistakes with employee benefit plans.
Protection for allegations of wrongdoing in the workplace.
Protection for the damages caused by data breaches.
