Typical Workplace Torts

• Sexual Harassment
• Wrongful Termination
• Discrimination
• Breach of employment contract
• Employment-related misrepresentation
• Wrongful failure to employ
• Wrongful failure to promote
• Wrongful discipline
• Wrongful deprivation of career opportunity
• Wrongful failure to grant tenure
• Negligent evaluation
• Employment-related defamation
• Employment-related infliction of emotional distress
• Employment-related invasion of privacy
• Employment-related false imprisonment
• Employment-related coercion

Some people can rely on disability benefits from their employers and/or government. But, for a great many people, income stops when work stops. Individual disability income insurance is designed to replace income when illness or injury stands in the way of earning a living.

Disability income insurance provides you with income should you become sick or injured and unable to work. It helps protect against family financial catastrophe by giving you an income to meet daily expenses.

Disability income insurance comes in two major forms:

• A variety of employer-paid and government sponsored programs, generally cost-free to the recipient, covering certain categories of workers.
• Private policies (paid for by individuals) that protect income when there are no applicable employer or government programs or when those programs do not adequately meet income needs.

No laws require employers to offer long-term disability (LTD) insurance but it is estimated that almost half of mid-size to large employers provide long-term benefits for at least five years. Typical group long-term disability benefits replace about 60 percent of salary, start when short-term benefits are exhausted, and continue anywhere from five years to life. Often, group long-term disability insurance is fully paid for by the employers without contributions by the employees. (That is why employer-paid disability income benefits are subject to income tax).

Check with your employer's benefits office to see if you are covered and, if so, what is available to you. Find out how long you must wait before benefits begin and how long payments will continue during your disability. Find out, too, whether your employer's plan takes other disability coverage (such as government programs) into account when calculating your long-term disability pay. Ask for a booklet describing the disability coverage your company offers.

Social Security disability payments can be an important part of your income should you suffer a disabling illness or injury. Contact your local Social Security Administration office for an estimate of the disability benefits you would be entitled. Also ask for a booklet explaining disability benefits, limitations and tax liabilities.

• Worker's Compensation benefits, if you are injured or suffer an illness resulting from your employment;
• Veterans Administration pension disability benefits, for eligible veterans;
• Civil service disability pay, for federal or state government workers;
• Black lung program for miners;
• State vocational rehabilitation programs;
• Group union disability coverage;
• Automobile Insurance, if disability results from an automobile accident;
• Private insurance, such as credit disability insurance, that makes monthly loan payments when you are disabled;
• Supplementary Security Income (SSI) for persons with low income or limited assets;
• Medicaid, also for persons with low incomes and limited assets.

1. How is disability defined? Inability to perform your own job or ANY JOB?
2. Does the policy cover accidents? Illness?
3. Are benefits available to total disability? For partial disability? For Residual disability? Only after total disability?
4. Are full benefits paid, whether or not you are able to work for loss of sight? Speech? Hearing? Use of limbs?
5. The maximum benefits will replace what percentage of income?
6. Is the policy non-cancelable; guaranteed renewable or conditionally renewable?
7. How long must I be disabled before premiums are waived?
8. Is there an option to buy additional coverage, without evidence of medical insurability, at a later date?
9. Does the policy offer an inflation adjustment feature? If so, what is the rate of inflation? Is there a maximum?

Whether you are an employee or an employer, Insurance Associates can help analyze your sources of disability income, determine waiting periods for various benefits, and determine whether additional coverage would be wise.

The most recent economic survey by the American Intellectual Property Law Association shows that the average cost to litigate a patent infringement lawsuit is in excess of $1 million. While somewhat inflated due to fees developed by large scale patent infringement cases, legal fees associated with preserving intellectual property rights represent a significant financial risk. Emerging companies and non-profit organizations are at a particular disadvantage against a larger and financially stronger adversary.

From an insurance perspective, although there has been limited coverage afforded for copyright, trademark or trade dress infringement under the advertising injury coverage section of the comprehensive general liability insurance policy, claims for patent and trade secrets have for the most part been denied by insurance companies as outside the intended scope of coverage.

With court decisions broadening the insurer's responsibility for defending and indemnifying claims for intellectual property violations, a trend is growing to add specific endorsements to liability policies excluding intellectual property claims beyond the copyright and trademark infringement associated with the advertising exposure, such as:

1. copyright, other than infringement of copyrighted advertising materials;
2. patent;
3. trade dress;
4. trade secrets; or
5. Trademark or service mark or certification mark or collective mark or trade name, other than trademarked or service marked titles or slogans.

Policy exclusions include willful or intentional infringement (insurer must show knowing disregard of another's patent rights), litigation initiated by the insured (except preemptive litigation with insurer's consent), claims by government entities (except to enforce patent rights they hold), punitive damages and pending or prior litigation.

In the future, the marketplace will find other insurance companies wishing to participate in insuring intellectual property exposures and each will have a unique approach to providing coverage. There are presently a handful of companies who can provide copyright and trademark infringement coverage and these may be more appropriate for some clients than the policies reviewed above (where the primary emphasis is on patent infringement).

As companies review their insurance programs and risk management strategies, coverage for intellectual property exposures should be considered as an important component. This is especially critical where a company has outside directors and/or is publicly traded, as a number of suits have been brought against directors and officers personally for intellectual property infringement.

• Lower, predictable costs
• Single point of contract for all service needs
• Superior service and increased coverage
• One anniversary date for all equipment
• Complete inventory and tagging of all equipment
• Centralized dispatch services
• Quality control of all repairs

American business is undergoing a fundamental change in human resource management, and the PEO industry is one response to market demands for change. The expertise required to manage the human resource elements of business today has outgrown the experience and training of many entrepreneurs who started their businesses. The PEO industry is "demand driven" as business owners seek solutions to the increasingly complex "business of employment".

Someone with a long physical illness, a disability, or a cognitive impairment (such as Alzheimer's disease) often needs long-term care. Long-term care helps one live as he or she lives now, and may include services such as help with activities of daily living, home health care, respite care, adult day care, care in a nursing home, and care in an assisted living facility.

Long-term care can be expensive. The cost depends on the amount and type of care needed and where you get it. In 1997, the average cost was more than $46,000 for a year of nursing home care.

People pay for long-term care in a variety of ways. These include:

• Using your or your family's personal resources (including savings, investments and liquidation of assets);
• Long-term care insurance;
• Some Medicaid assistance. State Medicaid programs pay about ½ of the costs of nursing home care nationally. Medicare supplement insurance, and the major medical health insurance you may have at work usually will not pay for long-term care.

You should NOT buy Long-Term Care Insurance if:

• You can't afford the premiums for life;
• You have limited assets
• Your only source of income is a Social Security benefit and Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
• You often have trouble paying for utilities, food, medicine, or other important needs

• You have significant assets and income
• You want to protect some of your assets and income
• You want to pay for your own care
• You want to stay independent of the support of others