Cosmetology Insurance

Many people think personal injury coverage is the same as liability insurance. However, these two are distinctly different from one another. Unlike professional and general liability coverage, which primarily handles claims related to bodily injuries, personal injury insurance helps cover claims NOT associated with physical harm. Don't be confused, we'll explain. 

Personal injury coverage does not cover property damage or bodily harm but is all about other forms of protection. Personal injury claims may be psychological or intangible. For example, suppose you are accused of causing psychological damage, harming someone's reputation, invading someone's privacy, publishing false materials, or making false claims about another individual. In that case, that's where personal injury insurance would step in. 

While this may seem like a small distinction, it significantly affects your coverage. As part of our complete package of cosmetologist liability insurance, we include personal injury protections. We understand the risks many of our members might encounter throughout their careers. To provide the best coverage possible, including personal injury insurance in our policy was a no-brainer. 

Other insurance companies are ignoring this pivotal protection or charging extra for it. Not us. You can trust we'll protect you from as many threats as possible. 

One area other insurance companies often overlook is advertising liability coverage. This critical component of a full-bodied insurance plan helps guard against a litany of potential hazards and risks beauty professionals and cosmetologists may encounter over their careers. 

At its core, advertising injury coverage involves non-physical injuries you could be accused of as a cosmetologist. Such harm includes invasion of privacy, false claims that could hurt a third party's reputation, slander, or libel (published false material that could hurt one’s reputation). 

Protecting our members from advertising liability claims is a high priority for BIP. Our members should know we have their backs and will protect them from every angle. We include advertising liability protection in our cosmetologist liability insurance policy to add a layer of safety for our policyholders. 

As an esteemed BIP member, you can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with our extensive and comprehensive coverage. While other companies are late to the game when it comes to providing advertising liability coverage, we were leading the charge. We've always wanted what's best for our members and won't stop until they have the best cosmetologist liability insurance available at an affordable rate. 

So, every claim is unique and has its complicating factors. Examining a few common lawsuits filed under cosmetologist liability insurance can be helpful. We've been in the insurance game for quite some time and have seen every claim under the sun. Let's look at three examples of common professional insurance claims for beauty.

1. General Liability Claim Example

General liability refers to incidents that are not directly related to cosmetology. These are universal risks that may be present in any industry or work environment. Slips and falls are typical examples because they are the most common types of general liability claims. 

Consider Judy, who had a client slip on some spilled water from the hair rinsing station. Because her client had to seek medical attention for a broken wrist, Judy's general liability insurance stepped in to handle the cost of the client's injuries. 

2. Professional Liability Claim Example

Professional liabilities are errors or mistakes that professional cosmetologists make. These claims relate to the services you performed on a typical day at the salon that went wrong, and someone got hurt. 

For example, there's Daniel, who had a client claim they suffered a puncture wound during a trim. Unfortunately, Daniel wasn't paying attention as he should have been and accidentally slipped with his scissors. The puncture wounds required stitches and left a small scar on his client's face. Daniel's professional liability insurance could cover the cost of his client's medical expenses, legal fees, and other related costs. 

3. Product Liability Claim Example

Our third example evolves product liability coverage, which involves the shampoos, equipment, dyes, and treatment methods used for cosmetology. 

Carissa used a different hair dye than her typical brand one day. Unfortunately, this new hair dye had an ingredient that her client was allergic to, causing a burning and irritating sensation. Carissa's product liability insurance could help cover the cost of her client's irritation caused by the allergic reaction. 

Although these are all fictional examples, they are common types of claims we've seen filed under cosmetology liability insurance.

Our members deserve the best we can give them, so we've stacked our member benefits package to the brim. We've included more than just your grandma's bonuses and gone beyond the basic package. As a BIP VIP, you will enjoy member benefits such as:

• Access to affordable healthcare plans to keep yourself well

• Steep discounts on business services and stores, like Office Depot and UPS

• Discounts on travel from Hotel Engine and BonusDrive

• Technology discounts on software and hardware, like Lenovo laptops 

• A free professional website to promote your business, interact with clients, and educate your customers

• So much more!

The best part is we include all these Plus Perks at no additional cost ever. You can enjoy all these bonuses and benefits as a part of your liability insurance policy.

As a member of BIP, you can enjoy occurrence form protection, the industry-preferred type of coverage. This type of coverage is the best value for professional liability insurance because it protects you long after your policy expires. Unlike claims made insurance, which requires an incident to occur AND the claim to be filed during the policy life, occurrence form coverage has no time limit on when the claim can be filed. 

With occurrence form coverage, you're protected from incidents that happen while the policy is active, even if the claim is filed past the policy's expiration date. This relieves the pressure of ensuring your lawsuit is filed right away after an incident and helps provide peace of mind for lifelong coverage. 

Why is this type of coverage necessary for cosmetologists? Well, several situations could delay the filing of a claim. For example, if an injured client is still in recovery from their injuries, they may neglect to file a lawsuit right away. Alternatively, they may simply forget to file the right paperwork, delaying the claim. Most of these situations are outside your control as the policyholder, so you shouldn't have to worry about the other person's legal team getting the claim filed on time. 

Other insurance companies don't offer this type of insurance because they could potentially save money by not providing coverage if the claim is ineligible. However, we included it at no extra charge as a bonus perk to our members. 

Once you dip your toes into all that BIP has to offer, we make it easy to renew your policy and stay covered for years to come. If you're a returning member, the simplified renewal process can take less time than a quick wash-and-rinse. The entire method can be done online without any hassle or worry. If you have any updated information, just let us know. Other than that, it's as simple as one, two, or three. 

Since we already have your basic information, there's no need to rehash every detail of your coverage. Instead, you can instantly renew your policy for another year or two, depending on which plan best fits your budget and career status. 

Naturally, if you prefer speaking over the phone, that's also an option. We're at your disposal whether you need to renew your policy, file a claim, ask a question, or reach us for anything. Our dedicated staff makes you our highest priority anytime you need us. If you have any concerns or questions, we’ll help get you the answers you need to make the best decision for your unique beauty journey. 

Secure great coverage at a low rate of only $169 per year. To save even more, opt for the two-year plan option which drops the annual rate down to around $149 per year. Beauty Insurance Plus also offers part-time and monthly payment plans. Our part-time policy is $149/yr 15hrs or less. If you are a student still in beauty school, you can get a specially-created student insurance program at the heavily discounted rate of $49 for a full year of professional-caliber insurance coverage.

If you compare the cost of coverage versus the cost of a potential claim against you, the math shows that professional liability insurance is a cost effective tool for managing risk. For cosmetologists providing hands on services to clients, all it takes is one client asserting that your services caused their injuries or other damages for a claim to be filed. Unfortunately, baseless claims abound in today’s society but even a claim without merit can be costly to defend. Cosmetologist insurance provides coverage for the two most common categories of liability - professional liability and general liability. Our program provides stout limits for these two liabilities and goes further to provide a truly comprehensive liability insurance program with product liability coverage, advertising coverage, and identity theft protection.

To help members make the best decision for them and their business, we offer a comparison of the various components of our policy side by side with leading competitors in the field of insuring beauty professionals. Taking a moment to compare the different providers’ cosmetology insurance programs shows how our program provides the best available coverage options, the best policy features, great limits, and some of the lowest rates available on the market today.

Many providers of cosmetologist insurance will cover only a few select services within their plans and if they cover additional services will typically charge an added premium for these. We would rather professionals be able to employ whatever suite of services is most beneficial to their clients and the most profitable for their business so we offer coverage for more than 500+ different beauty, health, and wellness modalities.

We love reading SO much great feedback from the professionals we insure, which is why we have two primary platforms for our members' reviews: the independent, third-party review gathering platform TrustPilot. and Google!

If you are renting space in a salon, most salon owners will require proof of insurance before they will allow you to conduct services on clients. Being self employed means you hold the liability for yourself and your business. This means that professional liability insurance should be carried the moment you decide to embark into this career and provide services to clients. With student plans available, you can protect yourself and your business from the moment you enter cosmetology school and throughout your entire career.

We have seen many instances where a lawsuit names both the salon and the employee in a claim for injuries and/or damages. While your salon may afford a basic level of protection, it may not be adequate to cover a claim leveled against you which is why having your own cosmetologist insurance policy provides the best level of protection.

Limits are the most amount that your insurance provider will pay for a given claim or all claims total during your term. Limits need to be adequate enough to cover the many different forms of liability that can present themselves during a cosmetologist career but should never be more than what’s needed. Some programs will showcase really high limits but the odds that you will ever come anywhere close to needing that much coverage is very small. At Beauty Insurance Plus, we set limits at appropriate levels based on our many years within the cosmetology insurance industry.

 A really cool aspect of our online membership portal is that as soon as you complete the application, choose the payment plan that works for you, and check out, you’ll enjoy immediate coverage with access to all of your important plan documents - including certificates of insurance. This has come in handy for our members more times than we can count for events such as a workshop or tradeshow that required insurance unbeknownst to our soon-to-be member. Even at the door to the event, with just a few clicks you can get full insurance with proof of coverage. Fill out our online application and have the protection of full coverage in place within just a few minutes.

Absolutely. In the insurance realm being able to move your insurance policy from job to job, from state to state, and even to over 500+ different services is called ‘portability’. If your insurance provider does not offer portability, you are risking losing coverage should your career necessitate a change in location.

The very best resource for all cosmetology licensing related questions is always the state board for cosmetology in the state/region in which you plan to provide services to clients. Requirements can change so be sure to stay abreast of all the regulations needed to keep a current license. While your insurance policy follows you within all 50 U.S. states, you will need to check with your new state board about their specific requirements for transferring your cosmetologist license.

Our identity theft protection program provides up to $25,000 in identity recovery services should your identity be compromised. We have partnered with Identity Fraud, Inc. to provide this ancillary protection to our members. For full details, please visit Identity Fraud’s website.

Renting a booth at a salon means you are more than likely being employed as an independent contractor. As an independent contractor you have the ability to make your own schedule, take on whichever clients you choose, and generally make most decisions concerning your business. The flip side of the coin is that you also hold the majority of the liability when conducting services for clients. This makes cosmetology professional liability insurance not only practical, but necessary if you want to avoid the possibility of having to pay for a future claim out of your own pocket. When costs for treatments of injuries can run in the tens of thousands of dollars, one claim is all it can take to severely impact personal finances and career aspirations.

Occurrence form coverage provides coverage for claims covered under the provisions of your policy as long as the claim event occurs while the policy is still active. Claims made policies do the opposite and only provide coverage for claims that are filed while the policy is active. This means once the policy expires, even if the claim event was during the active period, a claims made policy will not provide coverage.

Yes, in order to purchase an effective policy you need to have met all of your state’s cosmetology educational and licensing requirements. Operating without a license is illegal in many states and we cannot provide coverage for an illegal activity.

General liability is so-named because of the general nature of the events that might present a liability, i.e. something you’re financially responsible for. You’ve probably heard this called slip and fall insurance because something as commonplace as this type of event can mean a multimillion-dollar suit against a business owner. Most times, the injured party is claiming some form of negligence on your part contributed in whole or in part to them receiving the injury and/or damages. With our program, cosmetologists are covered all the way up to $2 million for each individual occurrence, up to $3 million total for the year for third-party claims of injuries or property damage.

Conversely, professional liability is related to the activities that you perform in a professional capacity. Coverage for this is also called “malpractice insurance” because it relates to the services you provided that then led someone to assert a claim against you for injuries and/or damages. For example, you are applying some highlights that end up giving the client chemical burns for which they turn around and file suit for their injuries and hospital bills.

If you’re looking for a free website to jumpstart your career as a cosmetologist, you’ve come to the right place. Not only can you get all-encompassing professional liability insurance coverage for cosmetologists, but on day one you also get a whole bag of additional benefits including a free professional website designed just for those in beauty and wellness. With a professional website, you can build out all the information about your particular brand of services so that those in your area looking for that can be steered right to your site to learn more about what you offer.

We wanted to make our insurance for cosmetologists as accessible as possible so created an online insurance platform with an easy to navigate application process that can be completed 100% online. In minutes, you can get full and complete insurance coverage for your career in cosmetology from anywhere in the world where you have an internet connection.