General liability insurance (GL), often referred to as business liability insurance, is coverage that can protect you from a variety of claims including bodily injury, property damage, personal injury and others that can arise from your business operations. General liability insurance quotes usually include bodily injury and property damage liability, personal and advertising injury, products completed operations liability, damage to premises rented to you and medical payments. General liability insurance is often combined with property insurance in a Business Owners Policy (BOP), or within a Commercial Package Policy, but it’s also available as a stand-alone coverage.
Workers’ compensation insurance covers medical costs and lost wages for work-related injuries and illnesses. Workers’ comp also pays a death benefit, if an employee dies during the course of employment. This policy is required in almost every state for businesses that have employees. Even when not required by law, this policy provides important protection against medical expenses and employee lawsuits related to workplace injuries. Most workers’ compensation policies include employer’s liability insurance to protect your business if an injured worker files a lawsuit against you for not preventing a workplace accident.
A “BOP” policy is an n insurance policy that is great for small to medium-sized businesses as the pricing can be the least expensive option. The BOP policy bundles insurance coverages together such as General Liability, Property, Non-Owned Auto Liability, and Premises Liability. Depending on the carrier, a Business Owners’ Policy policy can also include elements of Crime Insurance and EPLI. A BOP policy, like most other policies, has certain coverage exclusions that you should be aware of. If you need protection for something that isn’t covered, policy endorsements might be available to extend coverage.
Commercial Property Insurance protects your business’s physical assets, such as your business property and your computers. The coverage varies greatly by coverage and by insurance company to include coverages like fire, theft, flood, and earthquake to name a few. Property Insurance policies can be customized based on your location, the type of property you need to insure and the exposures that your property needs protection from. It can also help protect important business assets, like your business income. If you can’t open because of a covered property loss, it can help replace lost income for your company.
Professional service firms, media organizations and public entities provide a wide range of services and information to their customers. From consultants to staffing firms, law firms, park districts to radio stations, these firms are constantly at risk of being sued over the services they perform or information they disseminate. Even if the lawsuit is without merit, defense costs and the impact on reputation can be costly, and professional liability insurance is designed to provide the protection needed in today’s business climate.
Commercial Auto Insurance covers liability, fire, theft, collision, and medical payments should an incident or accident occur with your commercial vehicle. Commercial autos are owned by the business and typically have employees who drive them. Discounts are often available to companies who have auto fleets, which varies by insurance company but typically is 10+ scheduled vehicles.
Umbrella Liability can be a great solution for a business that needs more liability coverage than what is offered by their General Liability, Employer’s Liability or Auto Liability policy. Umbrella coverage can be purchased as a standalone policy or can be bundled with a General Liability policy.
Errors and omissions insurance, also known as E&O Insurance helps protect you from lawsuits claiming you made a mistake in your professional services. This insurance can help cover your court costs or settlements, which can be very costly for your business to pay on its own. The retroactive date on this type of policy means incidents that happen on or after a certain date in your policy are eligible for coverage. The extended reporting period helps cover claims filed within a certain period of time after your policy expires.
Directors and Officers (D&O) Liability Insurance protects the personal assets of corporate directors and officers, and their spouses, in the event they are personally sued by employees, vendors, competitors, investors, customers, or other parties, for actual or alleged wrongful acts in managing a company. This insurance covers legal fees, settlements, and other costs. D&O insurance is the financial backing for a standard indemnification provision, which holds officers harmless for losses due to their role in the company. Many Officers and Directors will want a company to provide both indemnification and D&O insurance.
Companies in every industry increasingly face potential litigation from employee-related claims such as perceived harassment, wrongful termination, breach of contract, discrimination or other work-related issues. EPL Insurance coverage often includes an array of tools and resources to help you reduce your exposures.
Fiduciary liability insurance is targeted at protecting businesses’ and employers’ assets against fiduciary-related claims of mismanagement of a company’s employee benefit plans. It is not required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) or any federal statute. If a claim is made against the policyholder of this insurance, it covers the legal expenses of defending against the claim, as well as the financial losses the plan may have incurred due to errors, omissions or breach of fiduciary duty. This coverage includes protection for retirement benefits like a 401K or pension plan, health insurance, and stock options.
Cyber security insurance protects businesses against computer-related crimes and losses. This can include targeted attacks, such as malware and phishing, as well as the occasional misplaced laptop containing confidential material. These policies cover expenses, such as notification costs, credit monitoring, fines and penalties, defense costs, and loss resulting from identify theft.
Inland marine insurance provides coverage for business property, such as products, tools, and equipment, while it’s in transit over land or stored at an off-site location. Inland marine insurance is a “floater” policy, which simply means the coverage goes where the insured property goes. A small business that ships valuables, transports tools, or owns a truck with specialized equipment may need this policy.
Product liability insurance transfers the risk of defects, including expenses related to product lawsuits and other claims related to faulty products. Product liability insurance covers claims related to product defects. If your company manufactures or sells a product that has a defect and that defect causes injury or property damage, your business could be held liable.
Special Events Insurance (sometimes referred to as one-day event insurance) is an insurance policy that helps protect your investment in a specific event, such as a wedding. Event insurance may help cover your costs if you unexpectedly need to cancel your event or if you’re found responsible for property damage or an injury caused during your event.
Liquor liability insurance protects businesses that manufacture, serve, or sell alcohol. The policy provides coverage for legal fees, settlements, and medical costs associated with bodily injury or property damage caused by an intoxicated person, who was served or sold liquor by the policyholder. This coverage is sometimes bundled with a General Liability policy or on a package or BOP policy.
Medical malpractice Insurance, also known as professional liability insurance, helps protect doctors and other medical professionals from any liability resulting from a patient’s injury or even death. This type of insurance often covers attorney’s fees and court costs, the cost of arbitration, settlement costs and any medical damages. Almost all states require medical malpractice insurance to perform medicine.
Ocean Marine Insurance is a broad term that is primarily a group of three coverages that address the primary areas of loss for vessel owners. These three coverage are Hull coverage, Cargo coverage and Liability coverage. This insurance protects cargo, vessels and other items that are being transported over water. The vessel owner and the cargo owner are covered under this type of insurance.
Hired and non-owned auto insurance (HNOA) covers commercial liability expenses triggered by accidents involving hired (e.g. rental cars) or borrowed vehicles (e.g. employee-owned) for business use. This policy typically covers liability claims and defense costs. It can cover attorney fees, settlements or judgments, and other court costs if the business is sued as a result of the accident. The policy will cover the actions of full-time and temporary or volunteer staff.
Group health insurance is a type of medical insurance policy for employees or members of a company or organization. A group health insurance plan typically provides health insurance coverage to its members at a lower cost since the risk to health insurers is spread across the members of the group health plan.
Business Interruption Insurance coverage protects against an actual loss sustained by an insured as a result of direct physical loss or damage to the insured’s property by a peril not otherwise excluded from a policy. The insurer is only obligated to pay if the insured actually sustains an interruption of business leading to a business income loss. This loss, however, is subject to the policy limit or sublimit that is applicable to the specific location where the loss occurs or the type of peril that leads to the loss.
This insurance protects a broad range of equipment against breakdowns caused by motor burnout, power surges, boiler malfunction, and operator error. Equipment Breakdown covers the cost to replace or repair the damaged equipment, as well as other expenses incurred due to the damaged equipment. Equipment breakdown can often be covered under a BOP policy or a Package policy.
Garage Liability insurance protects against a variety of liabilities often faced by dealership’s, garage owners and repair shops. These liabilities include things like customer slips and falls or damages resulting from faulty work. Businesses that have a physical location such as a garage, parking lot or storage area used to repair or store vehicles usually need garage insurance.
Long term disability insurance is a type of income protection that is designed to cover serious injuries and illnesses that keep you out of work for three months or longer. This includes permanent disabilities that leave you unable to return to work. This insurance offers protection to employees who are unable to work for a period of time due to a disability.
Pollution Liability Insurance, also commonly referred to as environmental insurance, helps protect businesses from unexpected pollution exposures that may not be covered by standard casualty and property policies. It fills an important insurance coverage gap for contractors, as well as businesses in commercial real estate, financial institutions and many other industries. Contaminated sites, whether on existing property or future building projects, can create losses and/or damages that might include claims for bodily injury, property damage and cleanup costs. Pollution Liability Insurance, including Contractor’s Pollution Liability, can help businesses mitigate these risks and address problems when they occur.
Commercial crime insurance provides protection from financial losses related to business-related crime, including theft by employees, forgery, robbery, and electronic crime. Dishonest employees and external fraudsters can circumvent the security of even the most well-run companies, leading to potentially substantial financial losses. Although employees remain the greatest area of concern for organizations, a crime policy generally also covers losses caused by specific acts of non-employees.
Employee benefits liability (EBL) is insurance that covers businesses from errors and omissions that occur when employee benefit plans are administered. These errors and omissions may include failing to enroll, maintain or terminate employees in a plan, and failing to correctly describe benefit plans and eligibility rules to employees. EBL insurance covers a wide range of plans, including health, dental and life insurance, profit-sharing plans, workers’ compensation and employee stock plans.
A Surety Bond can be defined in its simplest form as a written agreement to guarantee compliance, payment, or performance of an act. Surety is a unique type of insurance because it involves a three-party agreement. This bond holds the principal liable for losses should they fail to fulfil their obligations. Surety bonds can have several variations to their definition, meaning, and purpose depending on the specific bond requirement. A common type of surety bond called is referred to as a contract bond. These surety bonds provide a guarantee that contractors complete construction projects in accordance with specifications and make all required payments to subcontractors and suppliers.
A fidelity bond is a type of insurance required for those responsible for the day-to-day administration and handling of “funds or other property” of an ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) benefit plan such as a 401(k). The purpose of the bond is to protect the plan from losses due to acts of fraud or dishonesty including theft, embezzlement, larceny, forgery, misappropriation, wrongful abstraction, wrongful conversion and willful misapplication.
A Commercial Package Policy is often a better fit for some businesses than a standard Business Owners Policy because a Commercial Package bundles the essential coverages you need to protect your business, saving money by combining policies and skipping the costly extras.
Probate bond and fiduciary bond are interchangeable umbrella terms that encompass the many court bond types required when individuals are appointed to act on behalf of others.
Management Liability Insurance covers exposures faced by directors, officers, managers, and business entities that arise from governance, finance, benefits, and management activities (also called “executive liability insurance”). This includes (1) directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance, (2) employment practices liability (EPL) insurance, (3) fiduciary liability insurance, and (4) “special crime” insurance (covering kidnap, ransom, and extortion exposures). These coverages may be written as stand-alone insurance policies or combined into a single “package” policy.
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