Counsel's Corners

   Reptiles, Birds & Rare Breeds Your bearded dragon is seven years old and has never needed a vet. Then one afternoon he stops eating, develops a head tilt, and you're told he needs a specialist neurological examination . The consultation fee alone is $280. The diagnostic imaging is $450. The treatment course runs $600 more. Total: $1,330 for a single illness episode — more than most cat owners see in two years of vet bills. Exotic pets are among the most underinsured animals in both the US and the UK. Around 5% of UK households now have reptiles — up 3.4% compared to 2023 — and exotic pet ownership has risen sharply across both countries as birds, reptiles, and small mammals have become mainstream companion animals. Yet exotic pets make up less than 1% of US pet insurance policies, meaning the vast majority of owners are absorbing the full cost of specialist veterinary care out of pocket. This guide explains what exotic pet insurance covers, what it costs across the...

  Remote Work & Workers' Comp: Multi-State Employees  According to Forbes, nearly one-fifth of the US workforce now works remotely. A staggering 98% of workers are interested in remote work , especially a hybrid model where they split their time between working in-office and remotely. For employers, this shift has brought real business benefits — access to talent nationwide, reduced office overhead, and greater flexibility. It has also created a workers' compensation compliance problem that most HR departments have not fully resolved. Workers' compensation is regulated at the state level. Every state has its own rules about who must be covered, which insurers are approved, what benefits are required, and how claims are administered. When an employer based in Texas hires a remote employee in Virginia, both states have a legitimate interest in that worker's coverage. When that employee then moves to California — as millions of remote workers have done — the compli...

  Key Person Insurance: Value Your Business Partners  Data Flow Solutions, a mid-sized software development firm, relied almost entirely on their lead engineer for a mission-critical enterprise product. When that engineer was diagnosed with a terminal illness at age 44, the company faced two simultaneous crises: an irreplaceable technical loss and a financial implosion. Their $2.5 million key person policy allowed them to hire two senior developers immediately at premium rates, bridge the 8-month client delivery gap, and fully recover — versus what was estimated as a 2-year devastation without insurance. A survey by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners revealed that over 70% of companies rely on key people for their success, yet only 22% have keyman life insurance policies . Without key person insurance, businesses face average losses of $1.4 million when key employees leave unexpectedly — including recruitment costs, training expenses, lost productivity, cu...

  Protecting High-Value Mobile Equipment: A general contractor leaves a trailer of tools on a secure job site overnight. When the crew returns in the morning, the site has been broken into. Thousands of dollars of equipment is gone. They file a claim under their commercial property insurance — and learn that their property policy only covers items at their fixed business address. The job site isn't covered. Neither are the tools in transit. This is the fundamental gap that inland marine insurance fills — and it is one of the most commonly misunderstood coverage gaps in contractor insurance. Standard commercial property insurance protects assets at a fixed, listed location. The moment equipment leaves that location for a job site, a storage yard, or transit, commercial property coverage typically stops applying. For contractors who move high-value equipment constantly — excavators, skid steers, laser levels, HVAC rigs, electrical tools — inland marine insurance is not a supple...

  Digital Asset Insurance: In January 2025, hackers stole approximately $1.5 billion in Ethereum from the Bybit exchange in what became the largest crypto theft in history. Bybit had insurance coverage. Clients were made whole. The exchange survived. In contrast, the 2022 FTX collapse — where customer funds were misappropriated rather than stolen by external hackers — left creditors facing years of bankruptcy proceedings and partial recoveries. The difference in outcome between insured theft and uninsured custodial fraud illustrates exactly why institutional digital asset insurance has moved from niche consideration to essential infrastructure in 2026. Bitcoin crossed $100,000 for the first time in late 2024 and has continued to establish itself as a permanent institutional asset class. The US Bitcoin ETF market , launched in January 2024, has accumulated hundreds of billions in assets under management. Corporate treasuries hold Bitcoin. Sovereign wealth funds are exploring ...