Welcome to the Georgia Church Insurer Blog by RH Sims Church Insurance Agency. We created this blog to share our 25+ years of experience working with Christian ministries and churches. Our mission is to empower our readers and partners with the information, skills, and necessary information to safeguard your ministry, your people, and your property. We sincerely hope you enjoy this post.
God bless, the Team at RH Sims Insurance Agency, Inc.
High insurance limits make it easy for one to rest, well, easy at night, knowing that if something unfortunate were to happen on your church’s campus, you would be protected from catastrophic financial damage - damage that could doom your ministry. However, based on your church’s unique liability exposures, you may be paying for coverage that you would never conceivably have need for.
How can you really know? Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- Is your campus open to walk-thru traffic?
- Do you serve a large homeless or poverty level population?
- What is the average age of your church member?
- In your estimation, is the amount of coverage "reasonable and prudent" should there be a need to compensate an injured party?
Based on your answers, you may find that your total exposure may be higher or lower than your current coverage would show.
For example, a popular coverage option, medical payments, is a great way to resolve frivolous lawsuits, providing insurance companies a way to pay out small claims without getting into who, specifically, is at fault. But, there are many instances of abuse by those who would seek an easy pay day by taking advantage of this goodwill coverage.
You may be surprised to learn that with a Medicare and/or state-run plan may require you to file an insurance claim, regardless of your church’s culpability and regardless of the injured party’s desire to take legal action.
What that means to a church is that the medical payments limit (typical range of $500 to $25,000) before the Medicare/Peachcare would even come into effect, rendering that type of coverage more harmful than helpful.
So what limits should you carry? Short answer -- it depends very much on your unique situation. So talk to your insurance advisor about these questions.
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Written by RH Sims Insurance on Jul 15, 2015