A reader is attempting to locate a professional association that supplies general liability and errors and omissions insurance to dating services. I would think the larger dating sites have insurance underwriters, is this the case?
This is not something I have spent a lot of time thinking about, and raises a lot of questions about what the dating industry as a whole is doing to protect itself from a legal standpoint. Leave a comment if you have any information to share on the topic.
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I don’t know what it’s like in the States, but it’s brutal here in Canada. Insurers don’t want to touch dating sites or anything which involves people meeting. There is too much potential downside for their liking.
The same is true for loss of data, e.g if your servers were destroyed or damaged or stolen or whatever (of course, if you have them in a secure facility of any major bandwidth provider, the likelihood of them being damaged or stolen is remote).
The best companies can hope for is a typical office insurance policy which covers general liability situations, e.g. the FedEx guy trips on your carpet and splits his head open on the corner of a desk. But, what are the odds of that happening? Hence, the reason such a policy is pretty cheap.
Hi all,
I am founder and CEO of Linx Dating LLC. We are an offline dating venture yet under development with a strong online presence. I am perplexed how difficult it is to get insurance and actually in the past week have just gone through this for Linx. Many conservative companies like, State Farm, would not even hear me out. Their underwriters automatically said NO, when I tried time and time again to explain the types of clients I work with. I explained how Linx is offline, referral based, based on a trusted network of my friends, how I interview all candidates, how everyone signs a legal doc to become a member, etc. They simply said “No, we do not want to be liable for any stalker situations.” I was perplexed and amazed how they did not even care, nor rationally tried to take into account my members are not some freakizods who have never been screened, as well as, most are CEOs and founders, with MBAs (so point in not bottrom feeder types). State Farm said NO, as well as, a few others. I then got an insane quote from an insurance broker who my real estate agent mentioned. This guy finally got my co some good coverage but the cost was abolutely awful, about 3K for general liability. I am thankful I Googled “general liability insurance” for companies and found a co called CalNorth. They are very professional and dilgent in wanting to get my co a good rate. The quote I got is under $500 and covers a ton.
I also learned if you run a dating or social networking company, if it be offline or online, communicate and “spin” it in certain ways to the insurance cos, ie, “I set people up sometimes, “I throw an occasional party”, “I like to set my friends up” versus “I run a dating service.” They simply won’t give it to you. This is also why it is critical to legally structure your co the correct way, i.e., LLC, or INC.
In any case, good luck, I hope this helps you.
Regards,
Amy Andersen
Founder & CEO
Linx Dating LLC
http://www.linxdating.com
Are you linked?
This clinet is obviously insane. The CGL (commercial General Liability) coverage does not provide coverage for Professional Liability. What you are in fact looking for in a dating service insuranc epolicy is Professional Liability. The Commercial general Liability policy will automatically exclude any “stocker” of likewise situations.
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I was told also that general liability is not what I need — that’s only good is someone hurts themself on your premises or something similar. But I agree that it is virtually impossible for a small business dating service to get a reasonable rate for any miscellaneous professional liability insurance or E&O insurance. I think maybe the best thing is to make sure you have a fair and reasonable attorney who structures your application and terms of use agreement to try to cover and include possible scenarios in your contract. I will look up CalNorth for my general liability and see what it covers. Thanks.
If you are still interested I specialize in insuring internet companies including dating websites. I’ve written for Website Magazine and I’m speaking at the Internet Dating Conference in January. Basically you need internet liability, but there’s some endorsements that dating sites really need to have. Please contact me at alcohn@wwfins.com or 305-666-6636.
My site is almost done, but not sure if I need insaurace or not. Do you need insurace to run a dating site?
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