insurance

I am starting a small corp. that offers companion services for the elderly. No medical involved although every one I hire has elderly care experience. This involves things like laundry, cooking, cleaning giving prescribed meds, etc. What kind of liability insurance do I need if everyone will be working as a subcontractor? What kind of insurance are they required to have? Any information you have on this subject would be helpful.

1,000,000 at least i would up it to 2,000,000 it doesn't cost that much more. protect yourself fully or you will be sorry.

Well, YOU are responsible for liability for your uninsured subs, and you are ALSO responsible for their workers comp, if they don't have their own policies.

And I seriously doubt they are true subs - if they are the ones that have to show up, they are EMPLOYEES. Calling them subs, does NOT get you off the hook for liability or workers comp.

So. Most likely, if no licensing is required, the only coverage you need by law, is Workers Comp (unless you're in TX). But, keep in mind that if you have no general liability, and your subs/employees have no general liability YOU can be held responsible to write the checks for any damage done by your subs/employees. Even if you call them subs.

Just like, if they're injured on the job, YOU are responsible for their medical payments and lost wages - even if you don't have a workers comp policy. The general is ALWAYS responsible for uninsured subs as if they were employees.

You would require commercial general liability coverage as a minimum. This would protect you for any bodily injury and property damage caused by your employees/subcontractors. If they are true subcontractors then they should be carrying their own commercial general liability policies (these policies are not cheap, therefore you better be prepared to pay these "subcontractors" well if you're going to convince anyone to sign up for this scheme). One thing to keep in mind is that sexual molestation and abuse are excluded under any liability policy. Any venture that involves working with the very young or the very old opens themselves up to this type of risk more than other types of businesses, therefore you may want to speak to an experienced commercial broker about either having this exclusion removed or finding a carrier that will provide this coverage separately. Another big exposure is if your employees/subcontractors steals money or securities from your clients. No liability policy will cover this act. You would need some sort of crime coverage with an extension/endorsement that would cover criminal acts against your clients (normally this coverage protects against criminal acts against yourself).

Minimum business liability is $1 million.