Definition:Crime insurance
🔒 Crime insurance is a type of commercial insurance that protects businesses against financial losses resulting from criminal acts such as employee theft, forgery, fraud, robbery, burglary, and computer-related crimes. Unlike property insurance, which primarily covers physical damage from perils like fire or storm, crime insurance focuses on the loss of money, securities, and other tangible property caused by dishonest or illegal conduct — whether committed by the insured's own employees or by third parties.
📋 Policies are typically structured using standardized forms, such as those published by the ISO under the commercial crime program, and offer several insuring agreements that can be selected individually or combined. Common coverage forms include Employee Theft (covering losses caused by dishonest acts of employees), Forgery or Alteration, Inside the Premises — Theft of Money and Securities, Outside the Premises, and Computer and Funds Transfer Fraud. Each insuring agreement carries its own limit and deductible, and the policyholder selects the combination that matches its exposure profile. Underwriters evaluate factors such as the company's internal controls, employee count, industry, and prior loss history when pricing the policy, and may require evidence of segregation of duties and regular audits as conditions of coverage.
🏢 For businesses of every size, crime insurance fills a gap that other policies leave open. General liability and property forms typically exclude losses arising from dishonest acts, and fidelity bonds — while related — serve a narrower function. The rise of sophisticated schemes involving social engineering, invoice manipulation, and electronic funds transfer fraud has expanded the relevance of crime coverage and prompted insurers to develop specialized endorsements addressing these newer threats. As cyber insurance and crime insurance increasingly overlap in areas like funds-transfer fraud, brokers must carefully coordinate the two lines to avoid coverage gaps or disputes over which policy responds first.
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