What Are the Key Differences Between Alliance Risk and Cowbell Crime Insurance?
Who Can Buy It and How
You can't buy Cowbell’s crime cover directly: it is one module of Zurich’s Select Plus management-liability product, reached only by appointed Zurich wholesalers through Cowbell’s platform, and aimed at private companies under 250 employees and $50 million in assets. Alliance Risk is a brokerage that places crime coverage for businesses handling cash, payments or sensitive data, companies with accounting or billing teams, nonprofits with volunteer financial oversight, and finance, retail, healthcare or logistics firms, with no published size cap. Choose Cowbell if you are a small private company whose broker can reach a Zurich wholesaler and you also want D&O or other management-liability modules; choose Alliance Risk if you are larger than Cowbell’s target or want a broker to place crime on its own. [5] [9] [2]
What the Cover Spells Out
Cowbell describes its crime module in one line: theft, fraud and embezzlement by employees or third parties. Alliance Risk lists much more, which gives you a checklist to test any quote against: forgery, fraudulent electronic funds transfer, social-engineering impersonation, burglary and robbery, with client-property theft by endorsement. It also names exclusions: owner or partner dishonesty, hacking losses (a cyber policy covers those), business income unless endorsed, and losses not discovered during the policy period. [5] [2]
Price, Limits and Insurer
Only Alliance Risk gives a price signal: typical annual premiums from $500–$2,000 for small businesses up to $10,000–$50,000+ for large enterprises. Neither publishes crime limits or retentions. Cowbell and Zurich say the module is written on Zurich admitted paper, meaning a licensed Zurich insurer issues it; Alliance Risk doesn’t name the insurer it would use. [2] [9]