Why Milestone Payments Go Uninsured

Almost every day I read about a company receiving a milestone or grant payment, but sometimes milestones aren’t met and it is not for lack of science. I often wonder how a company would be affected if the milestone or grant were not received because of a fire or some other natural event rather than the science simply not working? Even worse, how would a company and its shareholders feel if they knew this financial loss could be covered by insurance?

For many life science companies these payments allow them to continue operations or avoid having to raise additional money that will dilute shareholders. The financial loss of a missed milestone due to an event that is insurable but not covered by your insurance policy is inexcusable. For R&D companies where there is no cash flow, a missed milestone could put you out of business or significantly impact operations. Sadly, many clients never have the conversation with their broker regarding this important coverage. As you look through the chart below, how deep of a dive have you and your broker done?

Typically when I speak to new clients they have rarely gone deeper than the second question, “has your broker discussed what limit is appropriate?” Milestones and their applicable payment are usually well-known in advance so this is actually a rather straightforward coverage to determine the correct limit of insurance if the right questions are being asked. However, if you don’t know the coverage is available and your broker is not asking the correct questions it can turn into a costly coverage gap that is either uninsured or under-insured (limit is not adequate for the loss exposure).

If this is as deep as you have gone, what other coverage are you missing in your policy? If you think this is the only aspect of business income insurance commonly overlooked I am sorry to say you are mistaken. In future posts I will discuss other business income issues that are not often not covered properly or not covered at all.

If you have questions on whether your policy is correct, feel free to shoot me a message and I would happy to discuss.