What is Directors and Officers insurance?
Directors and Officers insurance or D&O protects your top-level staff from the financial impact of legal actions alleging wrongful acts committed in the course of their duties. Individual directors will often want to take out a policy to protect them across multiple directorships, as this avoids any risk of actions against other directors exhausting the policy limit, leaving them unprotected. Spouses and heirs can also be protected under an individual D&O policy.
Who needs Directors and Officers insurance?
In an increasingly litigious world, no director or senior manager is safe from the risk of facing a legal action alleging wrongdoing. Such actions may come from a wide range of third parties including clients, employees, investors, and shareholders. Even if claims are unfounded, defending them without the benefit of D&O insurance costs both time and money. Directors and Officers insurance is increasingly seen as a must-have.
Isn’t Directors and Officers insurance just for larger firms?
There was a time when D&O cover was mostly confined to larger firms. But with legal actions proliferating, D&O insurance is now widely purchased, right down to SME level. Investors will often insist on firms putting adequate Directors and Officers cover in place before they commit funds. Directors themselves are more aware of the risk of exposing their own assets and will often be looking for D&O cover as a condition of employment.