Commercial crime insurance for employee theft, fraud, and money-movement risk.

What commercial crime insurance is

Commercial crime addresses certain theft, fraud, and dishonesty losses that other policies leave open. It can be written as a standalone policy, a coverage part, or an endorsement, depending on the business and carrier, and it is best reviewed alongside cyber, property, professional liability, and your own internal controls. The through-line is money movement: what happens when funds, securities, or client property leave through theft or a manipulated process.

Employee theft and employee dishonesty

Employee dishonesty coverage may respond to theft of money, securities, or property by employees. The details decide a lot: limits, discovery periods, and how the policy defines an employee. Coverage for temporary staff, leased employees, volunteers, or independent contractors should not be assumed, since a narrow employee definition can leave real people outside the coverage. Trust is not a coverage strategy. The conversation is about what happens if a trusted process fails.

Forgery, money, and securities

Forgery or alteration coverage may apply to certain checks and financial instruments. Money and securities coverage may be limited by location, custody, and cause of loss, so a cash-handling business should review its premises, transit, safe, register, and deposit exposures rather than assume a single limit covers all of them.

Funds transfer fraud and computer fraud

These are where the money is today. Funds transfer fraud and computer fraud may be handled under crime, under cyber, or under both, depending on the wording. Social engineering, where someone is tricked into authorizing a payment, and voluntary parting exclusions create the biggest problems, because the loss looks authorized. Verification procedures like callbacks and dual control may affect both underwriting and whether a claim pays. Worth asking: does the policy include funds transfer fraud, does it include computer fraud, is social engineering included or excluded, are there sublimits, and what verification procedures are required.

Crime versus cyber

Cyber insurance may address data breaches, network security, privacy liability, ransomware, and certain cybercrime events. Crime insurance may address theft of money and securities, employee dishonesty, forgery, and computer fraud. A single funds transfer loss can sit in the overlap between them, which is exactly why the two should be read together before you rely on either.

Crime versus property

Property insurance may cover damage or theft of business property in certain situations, but money, securities, employee theft, and fraud are commonly excluded or tightly limited under property forms. Crime coverage is purpose-built for those specific exposures, which is why a property policy alone usually does not answer the money-theft question.

ERISA and fidelity bonds

An ERISA fidelity bond is not the same as commercial crime coverage. Businesses with employee benefit plans may have a separate bonding requirement, and that bond protects the plan, not necessarily the business as a whole. Having one does not mean you have the other.

What we review

To give you a read we look at your current crime coverage or endorsement, the employee dishonesty limit, the funds transfer and computer fraud wording, any social engineering wording, the money and securities limits, your client property exposure, how it coordinates with your cyber and management liability policies, and how employees, volunteers, and leased workers are defined. This applies across restaurants, professional services, real estate firms, and nonprofits.

When to review it

Good times to review include hiring bookkeepers, controllers, or finance staff, handling cash or client funds, managing property or rent collections, adding online banking or wire transfers, growing payroll or opening locations, signing contracts with fidelity requirements, operating as a nonprofit, or a renewal after any change in finance procedures. If you want it side by side, start a coverage review.