What are the Commercial Insurance Needs of Small Business

Commercial insurance coverage protects both your business and your personal net worth from claims and liability that are a result of your company’s operations.

If you don’t realize you need coverage until a claim or liability occurs, it’s already too late to protect yourself.

Here is a brief rundown of the insurance coverage’s that most small businesses need:

1. Business Owner’s Insurance. This is a category of business insurance that offers small businesses a broad range of coverage including property (insurance on your building and contents – furniture, computers, office machinery, etc.), losses due to employee fraud, liability (damages your company is obligated to pay that are a result of your company’s operations), and damage to property you rent.
2. Automobile Insurance. This covers company owned autos, trucks, and trailers. I also recommend purchasing “non-owned and hired” automobile coverage if you have employees who travel for business purposes in their personal vehicles (errands, sales calls, etc.). There have been instances where an employee’s personal automobile insurance company has refused to pay a claim because the employee was traveling for business reasons.
3. Liability Umbrella Insurance. This type of insurance coverage takes over when your business owner’s liability protection ends (i.e., a company’s basic liability may be for $100,000 but a $1 million liability umbrella would cover the company for claims between $100,001 and $1 million).
4. Workers’ Compensation. This type of coverage is mandatory by law and administered by the state in which your company operates. Workers’ Compensation covers employees for job related injuries, illnesses, and death.

Over the next few days I will delve more deeply into each of these types of insurance and explain why your company needs these types of coverage.