Marx Layne

Reputation insurance: Are you covered?

If you own a business, chances are you’re insured for major catastrophes like fires and floods, product liability and professional malpractice. What you are far less likely to have insured is your good name, even though damage to your reputation can be every bit as costly as any other disaster.

A story in Bloomberg stated that 75 percent of a company’s value is tied up in its reputation.

Yet, there has never been a bigger threat to your respectability than there is right now. Thanks to the immediacy of news and social media­—and citizen journalists with smartphone cameras—it’s become commonplace for incidents involving disgruntled employees, or the occasional rogue or incompetent manager, to be recorded and posted online even before the incident is considered newsworthy, and far before the first news crew arrives on the scene at your company.

The fallout can cause irreparable damage to your brand equity and shareholder value. It’s a disaster for which few business owners are prepared.

In Deloitte’s 2014 global survey, Reputation@Risk, executives reported feeling most prepared for risks that are within their controls, such as employee misconduct. But even then, they admit that they don’t feel adequately ready to respond to incidents that have the potential to damage their reputations; only 68 percent said they were prepared.

Further, London-based casualty insurer Ace European Group surveyed executives in 2013, and more than 90 percent responded that damage to reputation is more difficult to manage than any other specific risk category. More than half stated that social media has greatly increased exposure, and two-thirds reported feeling inadequately covered from an insurance perspective.

Because of the risk involved, it’s surprising that insurance companies—which are already accustomed to selling policies to nonprofits, privately and publicly held entities and governments—do not offer more policies to cover the costs incurred by such incidents.

There are a few insurance carriers offering reputation protection and crisis management policies to cover those costs incurred involved with media monitoring, social media strategy and media outreach. Managing the crisis can also include communicating with internal audiences such as staff and management, government and public authorities, civic leaders, donors, shareholders, customers and vendors.

The costs almost always include working with the organization and its attorneys to develop messaging related to the crisis. They may include interaction with municipal officials and police. The public relations agency must also serve as an intermediary between the company and the throngs of media aggressively seeking information. The agency may identify and media-training a spokesperson, or in some cases, a public relations professional will serve as the client’s spokesperson.

The best-known insurance providers that cover communications services are DeWitt Stern’s Reputation Risk Insurance, AIG’s Reputation Guard, Zurich’s Brand Assurance and Munich Re’s Reputation Insurance.

But those policies can be expensive. For example, Zurich Financial Services offers a policy that costs $5 million a year, and will cover up to $100 million for public relations, brand monitoring, communications and media relations services.

Keep in mind when you are shopping for insurance, these reputation-related catastrophes can happen to any company, and they can happen with no warning. As you have insurance to cover other disasters and the associated legal fees, property damage and cleanup, it’s crucial to ask your insurance broker about policies to ensure you’re protected and have coverage to cover the complex process of rebuilding trust in the aftermath of an incident that tarnishes your reputation.

Though coverage is somewhat uncommon now, it won’t be—and shouldn’t be—for much longer, as long as social media and cell phone cameras are not going away.