Crime Insurance for Maryland Businesses

Most commercial property policies cover theft by outsiders. They do not cover theft by the people inside your building — the employees who handle your cash, process your invoices, and transfer your funds. Crime insurance fills that gap, covering the losses that your property policy was never designed to address.

What Crime Insurance Actually Covers

Crime insurance is broader than most business owners expect. It is not a single coverage for a single scenario — it is a policy designed to address the full range of ways money and property can be taken from a business, whether the threat comes from inside the organization or outside it.

A commercial crime policy typically covers:

• Employee theft — dishonest acts by employees that result in financial loss to the business, including theft of money, securities, or property
• Forgery and alteration — forged checks, altered payment instruments, or fraudulent signatures used to transfer funds
• Computer fraud — unauthorized computer instructions used to transfer funds or property
• Funds transfer fraud — fraudulent payment instructions, including business email compromise (BEC) schemes, that cause the business to send money to an unauthorized party
• Robbery and burglary — theft of money or securities from your premises or in transit
• Money orders and counterfeit currency — losses from accepting fraudulent instruments in the course of business

The Coverage Gap Your Property Policy Leaves Open

Commercial property insurance covers theft of business property by outside parties. That is where its responsibility ends. Employee theft, forgery, and fraud-based losses are explicitly excluded from standard property policies — they require a standalone crime insurance policy to be covered at all.

This distinction matters because the most common source of theft losses for small businesses is not a break-in. It is someone already on the payroll. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that U.S. businesses lose 5% of annual revenue to occupational fraud each year, and small businesses are disproportionately affected because they typically have fewer internal controls.

Wire Fraud and Business Email Compromise

Funds transfer fraud is now one of the fastest-growing categories of commercial crime claims. The typical scenario: an employee receives an email that appears to come from a vendor, executive, or financial institution, containing updated wire transfer instructions. The payment is sent. The funds are gone. The email was spoofed.

Business email compromise losses are covered under the funds transfer fraud provision of a crime insurance policy. This is a coverage that does not exist anywhere in a standard commercial property or general liability policy. For any business that processes wire transfers, ACH payments, or vendor invoices by email — which is most businesses — this coverage addresses a real and growing exposure.

Industries That Carry the Highest Crime Exposure

Crime insurance is relevant to any business where employees handle money, process payments, or manage inventory. Certain industries carry a higher concentration of these exposures and benefit most from reviewing their crime coverage carefully.

• Medical offices — billing staff with access to accounts and patient payment processing
• Nonprofits — bookkeepers and finance volunteers with access to donor funds and operating accounts
• Restaurants and retail — cash-handling employees and point-of-sale access across shifts
• Property managers — employees handling rent collection, security deposits, and vendor payments
• Professional services firms — staff processing client payments, trust accounts, or vendor disbursements
• Any business sending wire transfers — vulnerable to BEC fraud regardless of industry