It seems like every month there’s a national news story highlighting sexual misconduct in a spa setting. They almost always involve a male technician and a female client and most commonly occur on a massage table. We’ve seen all types of claims in our 25 years: some clients are genuinely assaulted, and other clients’ claims involve little more than an accident.
For spa owners, don’t for a second think the client will solely target the massage technician. Such a claim will be delivered directly to you, targeting your business. The massage technician will likely have his career ruined and eventually be dragged into both criminal and civil court. Claims for sexual misconduct tend to be well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It can absolutely cripple your business financially and could ruin your spa’s reputation and brand, something you’ve put so much time and effort into building.
Business Tips:
There have been so many of these claims, that many insurance providers have begun to exclude sexual misconduct all together. Others offer severely capped coverage, carrying a very high premium. Luckily, Allied Beauty Experts has not had as many of these claims as other spa insurance providers have. As an association, we are a bit more selective with who becomes a member. We detail our Sexual Misconduct Rider and why it’s beneficial during the approval process. Our Sexual Misconduct Rider runs $200, and $65 for each additional technician. Used for defense only, members get a $100,000 per occurrence limit and $300,000 aggregate limit. In the event of a claim, ABE offers Claim Navigation as opposed to merely passing you along to a third party like most insurance agencies do.
ABE Sexual Misconduct Rider
The rapid growth of the spa industry over the last decade has also resulted in the growth of the number of insurance claims. Spa owners and individual technicians should always have proper liability coverage. Make sure to read through your current policy and take advantage of ABE’s free Coverage Analysis to find out exactly what your current policy covers. Call us at 800.444.7546 if you have any questions or want to learn more about ABE’s Sexual Misconduct Rider.
