Types of Insurance Policies for Small Businesses to Consider
General Liability Insurance (GLI)
General liability insurance helps protect your business from claims that it caused:
- Bodily injury to someone else
- Property damage to another person’s belongings
- Personal injury, like libel or slander
Commercial Property Insurance
Commercial property insurance helps protect your owned or rented building and equipment that you use to run your business. Be aware that this insurance doesn’t cover damage from earthquakes or floods. You’ll likely have to get a separate policy, like commercial flood insurance, to help protect your business from these kinds of claims.
Commercial Property Insurance
Commercial property insurance helps protect your owned or rented building and equipment that you use to run your business. Be aware that this insurance doesn’t cover damage from earthquakes or floods. You’ll likely have to get a separate policy, like commercial flood insurance, to help protect your business from these kinds of claims.
Business Income Insurance
If you can’t run your business because of covered property damage, business income insurance can help replace your lost income. You can use this coverage to help pay for ongoing expenses, like rent, utility bills or payroll. This type of insurance is also known as business interruption insurance.
Professional Liability Insurance
Professional liability insurance helps cover lawsuits claiming that you made a mistake in the services you provided. This type of insurance is also known as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance.
Workers’ Compensation Insurance
Workers’ compensation insurance gives your employees benefits if they get hurt or sick from their job. These benefits can help:
- Pay for their medical bills
- Replace most of their lost wages if they miss work to recover
- Cover funeral costs if they lose their life due to a work-related injury or illness
- Pay for ongoing care, like physical therapy
- Most states require businesses with employees to carry workers’ compensation insurance. You can face fines, penalties and criminal charges if you don’t comply with your state’s law.
Cyber and Data Breach Insurance
Data breach insurance helps your business respond to a data breach if personally identifiable information gets lost or stolen. Some insurers may call this coverage cyber insurance.
Data breach insurance can help pay your costs to:
- Notify impacted individuals
- Offer identity theft monitoring services
- Create a public relations campaign
Commercial Umbrella Insurance
Commercial umbrella insurance extends the coverage limits for some of your liability policies. So, if a claim exceeds the limits on your policy, your umbrella insurance can help cover the difference.
Commercial Auto Insurance
Commercial auto insurance helps protect you and your employees on the road if you drive company-owned vehicles for business. It can help cover property damage and bodily injury claims from an accident your business causes. This is important because a personal car insurance policy won’t help cover third-party claims in an accident you cause with a business-owned vehicle.
Medical Malpractice Insurance
Medical Malpractice Insurance (also called medical professional E&O) protects you from covered claims of professional negligence, including the failure to provide quality care, that results in physical or mental pain and suffering or economic damages, such as lost wages and the costs of ongoing care.
Available coverage includes:
- Professional Liability
- General Liability
- Workplace Liability
- Cyber/Network Security and Privacy Liability Sublimit
- Physical and Sexual Abuse Sublimit
- Fire and Water Legal Liability Sublimit
- Licensing Board Defense
- Deposition Representation
- Advertising Injury
- Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Fines and Penalties, and Notification Costs
- Coverage extends to employees and independent contractors.
Performance, License and Permit Bonds
A bond is issued to one party of a contract as a guarantee against the failure of the other party to meet the obligations of the contract. An owner or investor may require a developer to assure that contractors or project managers procure performance bonds, in order to guarantee the completion of the project. This protects them in case of an unforeseen negative event. Similarly, a state or a local authority may request a bond from the entity for a specific business license. License and Permit Bonds protect consumers by guaranteeing the business follows rules and regulations. If you fail to fulfill your duties or break the law, someone can make a claim against your bond. If the surety company has to pay out on a claim, you are responsible for repaying every penny of that claim. Hence, it protects the public and provides them with recourse if something goes wrong.
