What Do I Need To Know About My Business Insurance Policy?

Aug 15, 2020 | Business Insurance

Buying a business insurance policy would ensure your protection against business threats and misfortunes. These misfortunes could be property and financial damage. Some would be accidents in the workplace, claims from employee-related problems, and other events that go out of hand in every situation. Many businesses buy commercial insurance thinking that the policy they have covers everything. This might go wrong and cause a big loss to their business. 

Having business insurance needs thorough learning of the policy to avoid uninsured loss. It can also prevent a bad reputation for the company which might affect its overall standing in the future. Accurate coverage helps you in reducing the chances of worse effects of claims. We take the time to educate ourselves on your risks, and then design an insurance program to meet your needs.  Here are examples of insurance coverage options that you might want to consider. 

Business Income and Extra Expense

Business income and extra expense coverage are also known as business interruption insurance. It refers to the insurance that covers the loss of income suffered by a business. It happens when damage to its premises as well as the broken equipment causes a slowdown or suspension of its operations. To put it another way, business income insurance covers the loss of income that a business suffers after a covered loss, (fire, etc.). They’ll pay for the loss while its facility is shut down or in the process of being rebuilt.

Extra expense covers the additional costs in excess of normal operating expenses that an organization incurs to continue its operations. It will cover expenses while its property is under repair or replacement after having been damaged by a covered cause of loss. 

Most of the businesses that will benefit from this type of insurance are those in the manufacturing business, retail, and wholesale business. They need this type of coverage since they use equipment and tools to run their production and operation.

Equipment Breakdown

Equipment breakdown covers loss of income due to a mechanical or electrical breakdown of equipment and machinery. It includes pumps, motors, heaters, and other kinds of equipment.  Coverage applies to the cost to repair or replace the equipment and any other property damaged by the equipment breakdown. It extends to cover you if the machine you use for your business is yours or you’re just leasing the equipment.

It can also cover businesses other than manufacturing and construction companies such as house rental business insuring their boilers. Equipment breakdown insurance is increasingly replacing traditional boiler and machinery (BM) insurance. Simply because the title is more descriptive of the coverage provided. 

Inland Marine Insurance

Working in an industry that requires you to take your tools or equipment with you to another location really needs an inland marine policy.  Inland marine covers the loss for the property that is in transit over land or across other parts of the continent. The previous history of having no insurance after the cargo has been shipped to its destination by sea has started this type of insurance.

This insurance protects the business property from damage that incurs legal charges and covers the cost of the property. It covers the whole journey even if it’s not moving at some time. The inland marine policy applies the same coverage to all locations your property will pass through.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance

With the MeToo movement increasing, lawsuits filed by employees against their employers have been on the rise. As an employer, it is very essential to provide protection for your business and your employees. This is to protect them against claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, and wrongful termination, to name a few. 

EPLI covers businesses from claims and lawsuits filed by the employees due to allegations of wrongful conduct. The insurance company reimburses the expenses that every claim and lawsuit would incur. Regardless of the result of the case, all expenses would still be shouldered by them including settlement costs. 

Hired and Non-owned Auto

This is one that most employers don’t even think about. Do you ever have your employee jump in your car or their car to go run an errand.? Or do you ever go to business events where you meet at a different location? If an accident were ever to happen along the way, your business could be sued for damages.

Hired auto pertains to vehicles or car services that are rented such as taxis or limousines. Non-owned auto refers to vehicles that are not owned by the business or registered under its name. It could be an employee’s auto being used for business. Some businesses cannot afford to buy company-owned vehicles while others seldom need it. This is the reason why they need to rent a vehicle or even let their employee use their own car for business-related matters.

Hired and non-owned auto liability policy would cover for the lawsuits that might be filed against your business in case of accident damages. If the employee is using his own car for a work-related purpose, he’d be accountable for his negligence during an accident. You would then be responsible for a separate case.

Cyber Liability

Cybercrime is becoming one of the most common losses that businesses see. Business owners should be aware of it and have a better understanding of how they can protect their businesses from threats. Cyberattack is associated with data hacking cases that hack personal or highly confidential information that was saved within your business’ computers.

If your business performs saving and collecting data from customers that are considered sensitive information, you must have this. Cyber liability protects your business from lawsuits after sensitive information got spilled. It also covers legal and high costs you’re about to face to protect the reputation of your company. Cyber liability helps you regain from financial losses and recover lost files during a cyberattack.

You might think everything is in order and you won’t be needing any of these, but who knows what might happen? Taking time to review your business insurance policy would help you evaluate the policies you need the most. Learning accurate policies for your business would save your time and future income losses. 

It is for your best interest to ensure your policy caters to the protection that best suits your business. All of these things can be added to your policy as an endorsement or a separate policy. Our agent would gladly assist you through the process.

For any questions regarding Business Insurance or other concerns, please do contact us. We’re here for you.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that some of Advantage Insurance Solutions’ articles may have affiliate links from the Amazon Associates Program, with no additional charge to the reader. Before we publish a review, we utilize and evaluate the products we recommend. In addition to the products we’ve personally tested, we’ve received recommendations from many of our readers. That said, we want to make sure it is clear that if you use our links to purchase something, we will receive a small compensation from it. Thank you.