Swim team liability insurance

[Julian]

Love the fact that we have an amazing breadth of knowledge here....so taking a shot in the dark on this topic!

My wife is the manager of our subdivision summer league swim team. They are in the process of 503c incorporating and the topic of liability insurance came up. The team has never had any, and it is unlikely the hoa's insurance would cover them.

They have a waiver for parents to sign...do they really need insurance?

My concern is that my wife is the manager and with no coverage might they go after her?

Hate this sort of topic......

 

[Bruce]

I believe that insurance would protect "swim team inc." against liability. Generally speaking "swim team inc." shields the owners from liability by the nature of being incorporated. It is possible, but rare to break the corporate veil.

I am not a lawyer so this is a personal opinion. If you have a family lawyer I would speak to him or her but I believe such insurance would be a waste unless "swim team inc." developed assets worthy of protection.

 

[Julian]

Team has no assets....I also agree it would be a waste of money, but will need to look into this more to determine if we are at risk or not.

So you are thinking that being incorporated protects the "officers" better?

 

[Bruce]

So you are thinking that being incorporated protects the "officers" better?

Protection form liability is often touted as a reason for incorporation. I have been involved in one lawsuit where the corporate veil was broken and a company officer was found liable but it required a great burden of proof to get there.

 

[Chip F.]

When I was a Director and Treasurer in the United States Rottweiler Club. - we had Directors and Officer Insurance. Seem like it would be appropriate for what your looking at.

 

[Julian]

When I was a Director and Treasurer in the United States Rottweiler Club. - we had Directors and Officer Insurance. Seem like it would be appropriate for what your looking at.

For a tiny all vounteer operated swim team that operates 4 months of the year?

 

[Chip F.]

For a tiny all vounteer operated swim team that operates 4 months of the year?

I guess that's what needs to be determined. The premium for us was about 750 per year. We had events all over country with dogs doing bite work at them. It was worth it for us to have the piece of mind. People can be really stupid. It was considered an expense the club did not want to do without. I think the premium for a swim team would be much lower.
I also found this that goes over some of the things that could go wrong - off coarse their selling insurance but seems like reasonable situations that occur around a pool.
http://www.sadlersports.com/swim-club-liability-insurance/

 

[GTBRMC]

For a tiny all vounteer operated swim team that operates 4 months of the year?

I've been through a very similar situation. Don't recall all the details, but the final determination we made was to get the insurance.

This is one of those "low probability but very high potential severity" situations if something were to go wrong. If there were a drowning, a head or neck injury, or other serious problem, it is very likely the waivers would be completely ignored and all involved would be sued. Defense would still have to be mounted, at the defendant's expense, whether or not anyone did anything wrong. Those with assets or income would be at risk. Etc, etc, etc.

I dislike the US' "liability culture" as much as anyone, but it is a reality those of us in the US have to face. Strongly suggest you discuss this with an attorney if you are not sure what to do.

 

[Julian]

I hear ya. Just socks that every kids fees will go up to pay for this, and some insurance company's profits go up. Why signing away ones rights can't stick is what is crazy about this.

From the immortal words of "Airplane" the movie:

"They bought their tickets, they knew the risk, I say let 'em die!" LOL

 

[GTBRMC]

From the immortal words of "Airplane" the movie:

"They bought their tickets, they knew the risk, I say let 'em die!" LOL

 

[LTM1964]

When I was a Director and Treasurer in the United States Rottweiler Club. - we had Directors and Officer Insurance. Seem like it would be appropriate for what your looking at.

I am a member of a dog training club. The club has enough assets that liability insurance is very necessary. In addition to the club's liability policy, we recently purchased a policy to protect the club officers up to $500K. The research indicated that a lot of non-profits were purchasing such policies in order to retain valuable board officers that may have avoided serving if they were not protected from a lawsuit based on some decision or action taken by them. This policy cost nearly as much as the club's liability policy; that tells me that there has been enough claims against such policies to establish the price. It is sad, but this is probably necessary in our current environment.