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Insurance for your business

You've worked hard to get your business to where it is, so naturally you want to make sure it has the cover it needs, to shield you from any possible mishaps. We help with sorting things like your ACC, key person risk, shareholder agreements and insuring your tools.


Umbrella protecting an entrepreneur

There are a few types of insurance to ponder when you own a business

Working for yourself or running a business is great. But all businesses have their own set of risks. So whether you run a hipster-friendly cafe, an underwater pizza delivery service or you're a one-man/woman-band, there are a few things to consider covering:
Nine umbrellas

ACC

New Zealand has the highest number of small businesses in the world per capita. Pretty amazing right? At the same time, we are one of the most under-insured countries in the world. Many people in New Zealand rely on ACC for their income protection cover so it is really important they get it right.

If you’re self employed, you have the option to change your ACC plan to Cover Plus Extra. With this plan you agree a level of cover with ACC which makes claiming easier because you don’t have to prove income at the time of making a claim.

Many business owners get paid today for the work they conducted a month ago, so in this case their ACC claim would actually be offset with that income coming into the company.

Cover Plus Extra avoids this issue because the amount of cover has been agreed prior to the accident occurring so the business owner will only need to prove they were unable to work for 10 hours per week.

With Cover Plus Extra, business owners can opt for a low level of ACC Cover. By doing so, their total levy will be less but their level of cover will be low should they need to claim.

To speak to one of our insurance advisers and find out more, get in touch today.

Business workers
Woman writing on a whiteboard

Key person risk

You know who the key people in your business are, so it’s essential to think about how things would go if they were unable to carry on doing their job.

How would the business cope if your star employee was off work long term or, we hate to say it, passed away? Say you have a specialist salesman with important contacts and for whatever reason they're no longer able to work, it's crucial to think about what effect that could have, and what it might do to the value of the business.

Key person covers the business in either lump sum or monthly payments if a valued employee was  no longer able to work.

It can also provide money to get a manager in to prepare the business for sale. This can stop the value of the company decreasing rapidly once a key person is no longer able to be there.

Shareholder agreements

These are to protect you from gaining an unwanted business partner, in the event that something should happen to another shareholder. It’s a bit morbid to think about, but if another shareholder passed away would you want to then be in business with their wife, their smarmy son, or their lawyer?

If something happened to another shareholder and you didn't have the funds to pay out their share, you could end up in a sticky situation. What if the company has debt like a big mortgage, would you want that paid off?

When you have a shareholder agreement in place, the insurance will pay out the family of the deceased shareholder to the value of their shareholding; for example, if the shareholder has a 50% share in the business and the business is valued at $1,000,000 the family will be paid out $500,000 and the remaining shareholder will receive the 50%.

This way the other shareholders and the family of the deceased shareholder are treated fairly, and the business can carry on being run by those who are invested.

At the end of the day, insurance is about the price and the policy wording. What matters most is that you can successfully claim against the policy should something go wrong and our advisers will help you every step of the way. You can contact them here.

Typewriter

Vero products we offer

Whether you're a farmer, a tradie, a supermarket trolley repairer or something in between, we've got the right insurance product to get you covered.

What we can offer:

  • Tradies insurance, protects tools etc
  • Farmers insurance, protects damage from livestock etc.
  • Public Liability insurance, what happens if one of your employees damages someone else’s property.

We can help you get started, so get in touch with one of the team today.

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Knowledge is power

The more you know, the better business decisions you can make. Luckily we like to put pen to paper every now and then and share our knowledge, advice and thoughts.

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Odds and Ends (Miscellaneous)
Breaking down insurance barriers

Let’s be real and call a spade a spade. We all know that the topic of insurance can bring the inner cynic out of the...

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Odds and Ends (Miscellaneous)
Adviser insight: Why you shouldn't duck the cover

Let's get some insight into why tailored insurance is so important when you're getting a home loan.

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Squirrel tail, gumboots and umbrella
Odds and Ends (Miscellaneous)
ACC uncovered – have you got the right protection in place?

ACC has become such an important tool in protecting New Zealanders since its inception in the 1970’s. If you're a bu...

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Making a claim is easy

As well as arranging your insurance, we're also here for you if the time comes to make a claim. 

To keep the process simple for you, all you need to do is get in touch with us, let us know what's happened and we'll go in to bat for you and make sure you get everything you're entitled to.

There's a lot to take in. Sometimes it's easier just to chat.

Contact our insurance team

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