Insurance to cover contractors abroad

[techperson]

I'm slowly moving from contracting to running my own business that will use services from contractors abroad and I was wondering if anyone has experience dealing with insurance to cover these people abroad? I've contacted a few business insurance providers and it seems most of them do not offer this type of cover. I was wondering if you guys have come across this before?

[cojak]

No idea. I guess you’re going to have to find a different forum for that kind of business.

[courtg9000]

You need to find a niche broker for stuff like this. Warning it can quite expensive. These sorts of guys will walk around the halls at Lloyds for example and find someone to underwrite for you. I don't have a recommendation unfortunately but I have been directed this way in the past for specialist insurances and have been warned that it can get very expensive very quickly.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

The cost will depend on what you need cover for, and where of course, neither of which appear in the OP.

[ConsultingTechArchitect]

I'm slowly moving from contracting to running my own business that will use services from contractors abroad and I was wondering if anyone has experience dealing with insurance to cover these people abroad? I've contacted a few business insurance providers and it seems most of them do not offer this type of cover. I was wondering if you guys have come across this before?

I have two contractors working for me out of another country. I use them to provide assistance due to have too much work on my hands (they are known to my clients).

I can only speak from the perspective of my insurer; Hiscox.

1. If you are hiring contractors (sub-contractors), they should have their own insurance
2. If you are hiring employees, they can be under your insurance but they have to he employed by your UK LTD company
3. I'm not sure if you can hire someone abroad under your UK LTD, you might need a local entity in which case your UK insurer will not cover a foreign business

What I do:

1. I have two contractors in $country$.
2. Both contractors have their own insurance which I pay for
3. I selected their insurer and their policies

They should really be in charge of getting their own insurance etc but I just didn't trust they would do a good job, that's way I chose for them, that's why I pay for them.

My operating model:

• I advise and design migrations from legacy software platforms to more contemporary solutions along with operating model and tech strategy
• I offer to provide operational support post go-live.
• My offshore guys do most of the day-to-day support while I work on other clients or drop in part time to provide advisory or design and planning

What are you doing that requires sub-contractors? Always keen to hear about other peoples operating model/exotic contracting setups.

[eek]

I have two contractors working for me out of another country. I use them to provide assistance due to have too much work on my hands (they are known to my clients).

I can only speak from the perspective of my insurer; Hiscox.

1. If you are hiring contractors (sub-contractors), they should have their own insurance
2. If you are hiring employees, they can be under your insurance but they have to he employed by your UK LTD company
3. I'm not sure if you can hire someone abroad under your UK LTD, you might need a local entity in which case your UK insurer will not cover a foreign business

What I do:

1. I have two contractors in $country$.
2. Both contractors have their own insurance which I pay for
3. I selected their insurer and their policies

They should really be in charge of getting their own insurance etc but I just didn't trust they would do a good job, that's way I chose for them, that's why I pay for them.

My operating model:

• I advise and design migrations from legacy software platforms to more contemporary solutions along with operating model and tech strategy
• I offer to provide operational support post go-live.
• My offshore guys do most of the day-to-day support while I work on other clients or drop in part time to provide advisory or design and planning

What are you doing that requires sub-contractors? Always keen to hear about other peoples operating model/exotic contracting setups.

Surely your insurance needs to cover the fact that end client will sue you first and you then need to recover from their insurance.

And given that you are paying for the insurance I can see a really big problem there were the customer to claim for the insurance given that you that customer was the one who paid for it.

[ConsultingTechArchitect]

Surely your insurance needs to cover the fact that end client will sue you first and you then need to recover from their insurance.

And given that you are paying for the insurance I can see a really big problem there were the customer to claim for the insurance given that you that customer was the one who paid for it.

Yeah, you'd think so. Hiscox do not agree though.

It looks like the prime (you) take the hit then claim off the subs insurance. I'll talk to Hiscox in more detail then report back in a few days. It's clear that they won't insure your contractors though, especially if they are offshore.

Regarding paying for their insurance, I actually get them to pay for it and they expense it back to the business. I'm not sure if this causes a conflict of interest or not. I'll ask around about that too.

[techperson]

I have two contractors working for me out of another country. I use them to provide assistance due to have too much work on my hands (they are known to my clients).

I can only speak from the perspective of my insurer; Hiscox.

1. If you are hiring contractors (sub-contractors), they should have their own insurance
2. If you are hiring employees, they can be under your insurance but they have to he employed by your UK LTD company
3. I'm not sure if you can hire someone abroad under your UK LTD, you might need a local entity in which case your UK insurer will not cover a foreign business

What I do:

1. I have two contractors in $country$.
2. Both contractors have their own insurance which I pay for
3. I selected their insurer and their policies

They should really be in charge of getting their own insurance etc but I just didn't trust they would do a good job, that's way I chose for them, that's why I pay for them.

My operating model:

• I advise and design migrations from legacy software platforms to more contemporary solutions along with operating model and tech strategy
• I offer to provide operational support post go-live.
• My offshore guys do most of the day-to-day support while I work on other clients or drop in part time to provide advisory or design and planning

What are you doing that requires sub-contractors? Always keen to hear about other peoples operating model/exotic contracting setups.

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I do very similar work as you do, migration from legacy to cloud, modernise business structure to better utilise these tools, support and management of their platform.

I'm planning to further expand my operations so I'm planning to mix contracting people in the UK and abroad as necessary. I just need to understand how well insurance in these countries work if one day it is needed.

[techperson]

You need to find a niche broker for stuff like this. Warning it can quite expensive. These sorts of guys will walk around the halls at Lloyds for example and find someone to underwrite for you. I don't have a recommendation unfortunately but I have been directed this way in the past for specialist insurances and have been warned that it can get very expensive very quickly.

Sounds like expensive indeed, I guess so far getting the contractors to have their own insurance more plausible, as long the insurance works in that country