COVERAGE - VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES

You are an active member of your community. Perhaps you help raise contributions for charity or have volunteered hundreds of hours and never gave a thought to the liability involved.

Suppose you serve as a board member and are sued for "breach of duty," "imprudent investments," "hiring discrimination" or "wrongful termination." Without insurance coverage, if something goes wrong, there is a gap between your responsibility and the plaintiff’s case. You need coverage.

Consider two important checkpoints: 

• First, you need to find out if the organization for which you volunteer is carrying insurance on its volunteer activities.

• Second, in the event the organization does not carry this type of insurance, check your own homeowner insurance to see if you are covered there.

When the organization is carrying the insurance coverage, ask the leadership for proof of insurance for general liability, directors and officers liabilities, and employment practices liability. Particularly, you should check to see if "volunteers" are covered, named as "additional insured."

Customarily, your homeowner policy provides coverage for bodily injury or property damage to others in non-business volunteer activities (such as injury to a child you are coaching, or injury or loss in a 4-H activity). You also are covered in legal actions such as libel, slander, false arrest, false imprisonment and others.

Your homeowner insurance policy does not, however, cover your volunteer activity if it is related to a business for which you are functioning as a representative (for example a union, trade or professional association) or if you are receiving any type of compensation for your services for that business.