Risks That Keep Producers Up At Night

Is Your Commercial Insurance Right For You?

Recently, Forbes ran an article about the top 10 risks business face. The article focused on some of the risks that are hard or impossible to insure through “standard” business or commercial policies. Business insurance is designed to cover unforeseen accidents to third parties, per the terms of the insurance policy. There are many risks that may keep a business owner or manager up at night, and we thought we might share our list with you.

We thought it might be good to address the risks producers and other entertainment professionals may lose sleep over.

Foreign locations.  Many productions are filmed outside of the USA. This can lead to safety, cultural and legal issues. Especially if the production is travelling with a full crew and production team.

High valued equipment, sets and wardrobes. If equipment, sets or wardrobes are damaged or destroyed, they must be replaced. Even under the best of situations, a few weeks’ delay can cost thousands of dollars.

Documentaries or other true stories can lead to creating errors in the truth. While there is always some defense in artistic freedom, it really depends on what was agreed to between the parties involved. Also, rewriting scripts during production can lead to errors in factual information.

Employment Liability. Now more than ever, employees know their rights. The State and Federal Governments are also creating new laws to protect employee’s rights. This increases the risk of being sued for many different reasons including; civil rights, discrimination, and even lawsuits from illegal workers. Employment Practices Liability insurance addresses many concerns business owners may have regarding their employment liability.

Regulatory Risk. Over the past 10 years, government has become more involved in regulating your business. Since the financial crisis in 2008, governments have stepped up their regulatory functions in setting and determining policies for businesses.

Event Cancelation can shut down your production company. Event cancellation insurance protects revenue or expenses from an event against cancellation or postponement of the event for reasons beyond the control of the event organizer.

The staff at John Hart Insurance has over 60 years combined experience in the field of entertainment insurance.  We focus exclusively on understanding the unique needs of motion picture, television, video, music and theatrical companies.  This knowledge base allows us to structure an insurance program specifically for each client that will be a balance of the best coverage and most economical solutions to help them manage the risks inherent to their unique businesses.