Insurance built around a membership, not sold to it.
Associations, unions and societies have two insurance problems at once: protecting the organization itself, and getting members something better than they can find alone. We build both, and we will tell you plainly which parts are worth doing.
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Directors’ liability, organization cover, events and member programs
Trade associations, unions, professional bodies and member groups
What your membership does, roughly how many, and what they ask for
What is a group or association insurance program?
It is an arrangement negotiated once, on behalf of a membership, that individual members can then use. Instead of every member shopping alone, the group’s size and shared profile are used to negotiate terms with insurers. The paperwork, the wording and the renewal are handled once, centrally, not repeated a hundred times.
If the board has no cover, a claim about a decision it made lands on the individuals who made it, volunteers included. Employment disputes arrive with legal costs from day one. The Province of BC describes the structure this kind of program sits on: “Unions have collective agreements that can define certain workplace standards for their members.” A body that negotiates on behalf of its members can negotiate insurance the same way. Read the Province on unionized workplaces (opens in a new tab).
It works when members genuinely have something in common: the same trade, the same equipment, the same contracts, the same regulator. It works badly when a group is simply a list of people.
The organization, and the membership.
Events, AGMs and conferences
Venue requirements, alcohol, exhibitors and the certificates every venue asks for.
Employment practices
Claims from staff about dismissal, harassment or discrimination.
Member programs
Negotiated arrangements members can buy into, with wording that fits what they actually do.
Certificates for members
The routine documents members need to work, handled centrally instead of one at a time.
What makes a member program actually work.
Plenty of association programs are announced and then quietly ignored by the membership. The ones that succeed share three things.
A genuine common risk
Members who do similar work can be underwritten as a group. Members with nothing in common cannot, whatever the brochure says.
Something better than they had
Broader wording, easier certificates, or terms they could not get alone. If it is only a logo, members will price-shop it in a year.
Someone answering the phone
Programs die on service. A named contact who knows the membership is worth more than the structure itself.
This is a growing part of our business.
So here is exactly what we bring, and what we do not.
What we bring: access to more than 20 insurers, real depth in construction, design professionals, manufacturing and habitational risk, a hard-to-place desk for the members other brokers turn away, and three offices your members can walk into. We are a member firm of the Insurance Brokers Association of British Columbia, so committees, member standards and the way an association actually reaches a decision are familiar ground to us.
What we do not bring is a shelf of pre-built programs waiting for a logo. We would rather look at your membership and tell you honestly whether a program is worth building. If your members are better served individually, we will say so.
How this can play out.
A former employee brings a claim about how a dismissal was handled. The board made the decision collectively. Without directors’ cover, the defence costs fall on the organization and can be pursued against individuals.
Groups with something genuinely in common.
What association policies quietly require.
An association is a moving thing to insure. Members, programs, events and the board all change. The wording expects the paperwork to keep up.
Programs added mid-year
A new member program added after renewal runs uninsured. Inspections, tours, training: none of it is covered until someone tells the insurer it exists.
The affiliate question
Chapters and affiliate groups may or may not be covered under the master policy. Everyone assumes they are. The wording decides.
Events run by enthusiasm
Events run outside the office are the ones that find the gaps: no contract, no certificate, no waiver. The policy expects the routine even when volunteers run the show.
Advice to members
Advice and standards published to members carry their own liability. The general policy never priced it. It is insurable as its own conversation.
The fix is one standing question on the board agenda: what changed since renewal. Ask it quarterly. The answer is never nothing.
What boards and executives ask us.
How many members do we need for a program to make sense?
There is no fixed number. What matters more is how similar the members are and how consistent their insurance needs are. A tight group of eighty contractors is a better program than a loose group of eight hundred unrelated businesses.
Do our volunteer directors need insurance?
Yes, it is worth having. Serving unpaid does not remove personal exposure, and employment decisions are where those claims often start. Ask what it costs for a society your size before you decide.
Our venue is demanding insurance for our AGM. What do we need?
Send us the venue’s requirement. Event certificates are routine, and the venue’s wording will specify limits and who must be named, which is what usually causes a rejection.
Will members be forced to use the program?
No, and they should not be. A program members choose because it is better will survive; one they are pushed into will not.
We already have a program with another broker. Is it worth reviewing?
Usually. Programs drift, the membership changes, the wording does not, and take-up quietly falls. We will review it and tell you honestly if it is already well arranged.
What does it cost the association?
Typically nothing to explore. Building and reviewing a program is work we do as part of the relationship, and we will tell you early if we think it will not work.
The questions behind the questions.
Running conferences or AGMs? event insurance.
Tell us about your membership.
What they do, roughly how many there are, and what they keep asking you for.
WE WILL TELL YOU EARLY IF WE DO NOT THINK A PROGRAM IS WORTH BUILDING
Registered as a society or charity? See Non-profits & societies.