Wellness Coach Insurance in Missouri

When you provide wellness coach services to the public in Missouri, wellness coach insurance is essential for your business strategy.

Without proper insurance, you could be exposing your savings as well as your reputation when something unexpected or out of your own control happens.

Being in business in Missouri involves risk, but wherever you can, you should minimize the risk level, which is what wellness coach insurance can do for you.

It isn’t possible to plan for uncontrollable and unpredictable events, no matter how good you are at performing your specialist services as an wellness coach in Missouri.

Wellness Coach Insurance in Missouri, MO

How can you manage your risks when you provide wellness coach services in Missouri?

The first thing to do is fully understand what hazards any wellness coach faces.

According to Wikipedia, “Hazard is intrinsic in any business undertaking, and danger management is a fundamental part of maintaining a fruitful business…. different dangers are largely outside the ability of management to control.”

You will understand from this that you aren’t able to completely control everything that could happen while you conduct business.

Things happen accidentally or deliberately that are beyond your control, and may even be totally unpredictable. 

When you are providing wellness coach services in Missouri, you need to concentrate on what you do well, providing the services that your customer wants, and not having to spend your limited time trying to manage things that are fundamentally outside of your own control.

The need for wellness coach insurance coverage in Missouri

Basically, all service providers need insurance to protect themselves from unexpected events.

Any well-run wellness coach business needs budgets, forecasts, and projections, but these can only be based on the things that you can foresee and control.

When everything goes according to these plans, then you can reach your goals. However, there can always be a “however”. 

Accidents can happen to customers, your workers, your place of work, your equipment, or you on the way to work and on the way home.

The weather in Missouri can turn wild, and rip off your roof, or flood your office. People can be injured when they trip and fall and blame you.

A customer could claim that a product you advised them to use or supplied was the cause of some disease. Suddenly you are facing enormous bills for medical treatment, hospitals, rehabilitation and more.

A business that provides services to the public is at risk of being sued. There are several specific risks relevant for any wellness coach:

  1. A claim of inadequate or improper provision of your wellness coach services
  2. Accidental injury to a member of the public visiting your place of work
  3. Accidental damage to someone’s property when they are with you

These three possible risks are all due to the laws of Missouri that require you to exercise proper care in conduct of your activities.

If any of these happen, a court can decide that you were liable and rule that you must make a payment to the person who was harmed. To protect yourself, you need to have Liability insurance.

When you have invested your own money in physical assets, like buildings, equipment, inventory, vehicles and all the other stuff that you need to conduct wellness coach activity, then you should protect the value of all of these with Asset insurance.

Something entirely outside your control in Missouri like an earthquake, a natural disaster, or a fire in the buildings around you could potentially wipe out all of the value and you will either have to replace them or stop working. 

Liability Insurance for wellness coach in Missouri

The particular hazards for your wellness coach business come from the level of interaction with members of the Missouri public.

The nature and purpose of your activity is to bring people into the place where you will work. In such an environment, your risk is higher because there is a high level of traffic through the area.

Also, the people are not familiar with your location. They are doing something that is not part of their usual routine.

The possibilities in such a case are for accidents to happen. It could be something minor, such as someone bumping into a misplaced tool and cutting themselves or ripping their clothing.

 It could also be a more significant incident such as the breakout of a fire. It’s important to understand that as the wellness coach service provider, you carry the responsibility under the laws of Missouri, and you are the person who is going to be sued.

To protect yourself, you need to take out general liability insurance. Liability insurance helps protect you from any claims where there was some accidental bodily injury or property damage to a third party, and they sue for compensation.

The kinds of legal damages people may sue for are:

  • Compensatory damages: claims of a financial loss suffered directly due to your wellness coach activity including future losses in case of incapacitation.
  • General damages: indirect losses the injured party claims to have suffered, such as “pain and mental anguish.”

Any wellness coach must be aware that the work that you perform is delivered immediately to your customers so that they can judge the results of whatever you are doing and react very quickly.

Unfortunately, a friendly client can turn into an angry claimant in front of a judge in a Missouri court if there is any dispute about anything about the service you provided.

In such a case, where a customer claims that you were negligent in your task, and that they suffered some monetary damage, you should have E&O insurance, (also known as professional liability insurance). Otherwise, if a judge rules in favor of the claimant, you would have to pay out of your own pocket. 

When clients ask you about products, you have a “duty of care” to give proper advice. Suppose they claim that your actions breached that duty and that this directly contributed to any injury or loss. In that case, a judge can award damages. To protect yourself, you should have product liability insurance.

For all three of these liability risks, one particular benefit of the insurance protection coming from the liability policies is that the insurance company in Missouri is obliged to defend the case in any lawsuit.

 It doesn’t matter if you were at fault, unless it was a criminal activity. It means that you do not have to pay the settlement awarded by the court, as well as the legal costs of the case.

Asset Insurance for wellness coach business

Commercial property insurance

Any wellness coach that owns or leases space in a building or works in a private home in Missouri should take out commercial property insurance. It will cover structures in case of fires, storms, vandalism, or any kind of natural disaster. 

The costs for commercial insurance will depend on several individual factors that relate to your location. Some of these are the insured value of the property (IV), any current mortgages, levels of public access, the state of protection such as security, fire prevention through alarms, sprinklers and extinguishers, the types of materials stored in the location by yourself and other tenants.

As well, the general condition of the property and its location inside Missouri (such as where are the nearest fire & police stations and emergency services.)

Commercial vehicle insurance

If you are using a vehicle in Missouri for any activity in your wellness coach operation, then make sure that you have the proper auto insurance.

Commercial vehicle insurance is different from private auto insurance. You are almost not covered by a private auto insurance policy if you use your personal auto for commercial activity.

Commercial vehicle cover also provides higher levels of protection than private insurance in case of a major claim, up to as much as $500,000 to $1 million.

Income protection

Suppose you are reliant on the income flow from your wellness coach business. In that case, you can protect yourself if anything happens that stops you from working.

 A business interruption insurance policy provides this. Such cover provides cover for a break in income in case of closure because of personal injury or sickness.

Can multiple insurance covers be combined into one policy?

Some insurers in Missouri combine multiple covers into a single policy covering general liability, commercial property and equipment.

This is known as the Business Owners Policy (BOP) for wellness coach insurance. Its benefit is that total premiums are lower than for individual policies.

As well, it is easier to administer, since all of the renewals will be administered through the one insurance broker, agent or company and in one step.

How much cover do you need for your wellness coach business?

Insurance levels depend on many features of your own wellness coach business, such as the volume of business, where in Missouri it is located, your own claims history and many more.

In this table, we have some guides that we can suggest, based on our own experience dealing with service provider businesses, such as Home Staging, wellness coach, Esthetician, Teeth Whitening, wellness coachs, Body Sugaring, Permanent makeup, Tattoo Parlors

The following are the suggested levels of cover recommended, with approximates of the costs for annual premiums:

Insurance limits Price Range
Professional Liability
$60,000 full year
$30,000 single claim
$370 – $1005
Commercial Property
Per $500,000 value
$110 – $285
Product Liability
$1 million single incident
$515 – $1885
General Liability
$2 million total for one year
$1 million single incident
$735 – $1250
Equipment
Per $50,000 in value
$125 – $380
Commercial vehicle
Based on the vehicle’s value
$1340 – $1640

FAQ

Can you get short-term insurance in Missouri ?

Insurance for special periods in Missouri may be a good option for an wellness coach business where there are times of the year when volume of business either increases or decreases compared to other times in the whole year.

Most insurance companies sell their policies and charge premiums on an annual basis. Some insurance companies have begun to offer special cover for wellness coach businesses where you can nominate a period when you want to be covered and only pay premiums for the period of cover you need.

The key features of short-term insurance are that you pay for the cover for a specific and defined period – like a few months starting on the specified date. Short-term coverage gives all the usual protection from risk that regular annual cover provides for a fraction of the cost.

Must all wellness coach businesses have Workers Compensation insurance?

In Missouri, the local laws set out the number of employees, part-time workers and contractors for which you are obliged to take out Workers Compensation cover. Consult with a local insurance broker or agent to find out whether your wellness coach business is responsible for this cover.

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