EPLI

Definition

Cover for employment claims: wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment.

Why It Matters

The first year of new ownership is exactly when employment claims happen, because that is when terminations, schedule changes, and pay decisions happen, and the person making them is new to being the defendant. General liability excludes employment claims entirely, so without this policy a single wrongful-termination suit is paid out of the company. Carriers commonly bundle it with the rest of the day-one package, and the application asks for a handbook, which is worth having anyway.

In numbers: A business paying $3,000 a year for a $1M EPLI limit spends $30,000 over ten years of ownership, the figure to set against defending even one wrongful termination suit out of the company's own cash.