Communities, organizations and businesses regularly hold events to appease stakeholders, promote products, foster networking opportunities and for countless other reasons. Inevitably, unforeseen circumstances can force event holders to cancel gatherings, leaving these entities into sticky situations. Fortunately, event cancellation insurance can protect entities from financial losses when things don’t go as planned.

The Basics of Event Cancellation Insurance

Events like music festivals, trade shows, sporting events, conventions and concerts are expensive to hold. Organizers diligently look out for trends, weather conditions and other circumstances that could hamper attendance or prevent shows from happening. Although diligent in their efforts, organizers aren’t psychics — they can’t predict everything.

Special event insurance covers expenses associated with event cancellation and can even safeguard policyholders’ expected revenues. Leader property endorsements, a type of special event insurance, are sometimes included with these policies.

Businesses and organizations that organize events are the most common buyer of these policies. However, by no means are event cancellation insurance policies restricted to organizers. Vendors, suppliers, sponsors and promoters are all able to purchase special event insurance.

Put simply, if you’re involved with putting on an event in any way, you’re probably eligible for special event insurance.

Event cancellation insurance doesn’t just cover cancelled events. These policies also guard policyholders against the financial losses caused by interruptions and delays.

What Are Leader Property Endorsements?

Professional football stadiums, for example, draw tens of thousands of fans to games. People who attend sporting events often plan their whole day around them. They’ll go sightseeing before games, plan to eat at well-reviewed local establishments and check out the bars and nightclubs near stadiums.

Without a doubt, NFL games stimulate local economies. Stadiums lead attendees to local businesses. If these stadiums incur substantial physical damage, teams couldn’t hold games. They might temporarily play at neighboring stadiums.

Leader property endorsements cover businesses from damages incurred by nearby properties that inhibit their own earning capacity. They’re often tagged onto special event insurance policies. Organizers rarely purchase leader property coverage without first buying event cancellation coverage.

Understanding Coverage Types

Countless unforeseen circumstances can force organizers to cancel events. When most people think of event disruptors, natural disasters like hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes and tornadoes usually come to mind.

What things, however, do special event insurance policies actually cover?

Most Policies Only Cover Specific Causes of Cancellation

In the insurance world, standardization is common across most areas of coverage. For example, insurers routinely extend health insurance policies with the same terms and conditions to all of their clients.

When it comes to event cancellation insurance, however, policies are typically tailored to meet policyholders’ individual needs. In other words, there aren’t one-size-fits-all event cancellation policies.

Most event organizers have certain concerns in mind before approaching insurance companies. In consulting insurance agents, they’ll only ask for coverage against these few items, not for comprehensive risk protection. Thanks to their limited nature, specific cause of loss policies often aren’t expensive.

Comprehensive Risk Coverage

These policies, often known as all-cause or all-risks coverage, cover virtually everything that could disrupt an event.

Keep in mind that all-cause event cancellation insurance policies may include certain exclusions. Make sure to read your policy’s fine print before adopting them. Don’t be afraid to ask insurers to remove contact clauses you don’t like.

How a Special Event Cancellation Attorney Can Help Your Claim

Insurance companies’ goal is to protect individuals, businesses and other entities from unexpected losses. Although they do, in fact, help millions of policyholders through tough situations, insurers are profit-oriented businesses. Insurance companies have incentive to limit payouts on claims and to find reasons to deny them outright.

To be fair, most insurance adjusters, agents and representatives genuinely want policyholders’ losses to be covered under their policies. Many people in the industry are exceptionally good-hearted individuals.

Getting an attorney to fight a denied event insurance claim can improve your chances of being approved.

1. Establish Clear Legal Grounds for Filing Claims

Insurance policies are extremely common in today’s world. Roughly 95 percent of Americans have home insurance and all states except two legally require drivers to cover their vehicles with car insurance. Like most forms of insurance, these policies cover physical damages.

Event cancellation insurance is unique in that it covers event holders when planned gatherings don’t happen.

When filing an event cancellation insurance claim, you’re likely to be denied without thoroughly documenting your side of the story. Attorneys specializing in event insurance are well-versed in providing deeply-documented explanations to insurance companies.

2. Proving Your Mitigation Efforts

As an organizer, you’re constantly on the lookout for things that could disrupt your events. Unfortunately, however, you can’t predict the future.

Insurance providers include clauses in event cancellation policies that require policyholders to mitigate financial losses of delayed, postponed or canceled events. In other words, you’re required to protect your financial interests from event disruptions even if you don’t foresee them.

Delayed and postponed events are notorious for lower attendance rates. If you’re forced to put off an event, why not cancel it altogether? After all, going through with a shindig may cause you to lose even more money.

Insurance companies’ mitigation requirements are intended to reflect organizers’ inherent interest in minimizing their losses. However, proving that you genuinely attempted to mitigate financial losses from canceled events can be difficult. Attorneys know how to prove that you took steps to minimize these downsides.

3. Insurance Companies Respect Attorneys

The average Joe doesn’t have a solid grasp of law. Unless you’ve attended law school yourself, you probably don’t, either.

Insurance companies don’t give attorneys the runaround. Simply having an “Esq.” behind their names gives them negotiating power that non-lawyers don’t have. If nothing else, you’ll benefit from the respect insurers show attorneys.

Event cancellation insurance can be a lifesaver, but not when your claim is denied. Getting an Event cancellation insurance attorney to fight a denied event insurance claim can help you rebound from the financial losses of a disrupted event.