This story appears in the
June 2005 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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A sole proprietorship, a partnership or even a closely held
corporation is usually very dependent on its owner's personal
credit rating. If your credit rating is damaged, even temporarily,
the impact on your company could be devastating. What's more,
identity-theft victims can spend hundreds of hours getting their
records cleared up--hours that should be spent working on their
businesses.
One solution is identity-recovery insurance, says Rick Boettner,
property and casu-alty underwriting manager with Capitol Insurance
Companies in Madison, Wisconsin. The coverage is relatively new
and varies by carrier, but typically, the insurer works to clear
the victim's credit history and reimburse costs incurred to
resolve problems resulting from identity theft.
"We give our insureds an option," says Boettner.
"We assign a case manager to all of our insureds. We will
allow the insureds to handle the process themselves with guidance
provided by the case manager, or we'll have the case manager
work on their behalf and take over the process, calling credit
bureaus, writing letters, rewriting credit reports and keeping
records."
Adding identity-recovery insurance to an existing business
policy will run about $30 per year, Boettner says. It covers
business owners, partners and corporate officers who own 50 percent
or more of the company.
Jacquelyn Lynn is a freelance business writer in Orlando,
Florida.