Business & Commercial Insurance
Business & Commercial Insurance Quote Forms
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Business & Commercial Insurance Information
Business Insurance
There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for business insurance. Call us – we can help you choose the coverage that fits your needs. Below are descriptions of a few of the many choices available:
Property Insurance
Property insurance provides protection against most risks to buildings and business personal property, such as fire, theft and some weather damage. Property is insured two main ways - open perils and named perils. Open perils cover all the causes of loss not specifically excluded in the policy. Common exclusions on open peril policies include damage resulting from earthquakes, floods, nuclear incidents, acts of terrorism and war. Named perils require the actual cause of loss to be listed in the policy for insurance to be provided. The more common named perils include such damage-causing events as fire, lightning, explosion and theft. You can choose to insure your property for its replacement cost or its actual cash value, and with coinsurance or on an agreed value. Choosing higher deductibles can help reduce the premium.
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Business Income Insurance
Business Income Insurance can provide a continuation of business income in the event the business can not operate due to a covered loss. This can be structured to cover payroll of key employees, ongoing utilities, rent or mortgage payments, etc. It can also pay for extra expenses that are up and above normal operating costs and made necessary as a result of the loss. There are several forms of Business Income Insurance to choose from, depending on the specific needs of your business.
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Inland Marine
Inland Marine insurance includes many different forms of coverage. Most often, Inland Marine nsurance covers property or items that move away from the insured premises such as contractors’ tools, materials and equipment, cargo and freight, etc. There are also Inland Marine forms to insure unusual objects that don’t move such as radio towers, jewelry and art objects.
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Crime
Crime insurance is a broad insurance category that is used to cover burglary, robbery or theft of money. Other types of Crime Insurance include fidelity bonds that protect your business against theft of money, inventory or other property by employees, or third-party fidelity bonds that protect your customers against theft by your employees.
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General Liability
General Liability Insurance protects your business in the event your operations, services or products cause bodily injury or property damage to a third party. Coverage limits are typically available from $50,000 to $1,000,000 and, depending on the type of business, premiums are based on things like payroll, gross sales or area and the type of work you do.
Professional Liability
Professional Liability Insurance includes forms of coverage often referred to as malpractice or errors and omissions. Unlike General Liability Insurance, professional liability protects your business against wrongful acts such as errors in judgement, advice or the rendering of a professional service. There are several important things to understand when looking at Professional Liability insurance:
- Insurance companies that offer Professional Liability policies do not use standard policy forms – they each draft their own policy language, often making it difficult to compare coverage between companies.
- Know whether the type of policy you are considering is an “occurrence form” or a “claims-made form”. This is the way in which a policy is “triggered” or responds to a claim. Most Professional Liability policies are offered on a “claims-made form” and this functions differently than most other forms of liability insurance that you may be accustomed to.
- If you are purchasing a “claims-made form” of insurance, be sure you understand the policy’s Extended Reporting Period provisions.
Workers Compensation Insurance
Workers Compensation Insurance provides wage replacement, medical, and rehabilitation benefits to individuals who are injured while at work. In addition, a workers compensation policy provides Employer Liability Insurance as a protection for the employer. Michigan law requires that a business with one full-time employee or more than two part-time employees purchase workers compensation insurance.
Confusion often arises when it comes to who is considered determining a business to be an employer versus a general contractor, or an employee versus a subcontractor or independent contractor. Click here for helpful information from Michigan.gov.
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Business Auto Insurance
Business Auto Insurance covers vehicles used in your business. They can be vehicles owned or leased by the business and even vehicles that are rented, hired or borrowed. The policy can also protect the business for liability stemming from employees using their own vehicles in your business. Like personal Auto Insurance, your Business Auto policy can be customized to fit your specific needs. Coverages available include:
- Liability (bodily injury & property damage)
- Personal injury protection (PIP)
- Property protection insurance (PPI)
- Uninsured and underinsured motorists (UM/UIM)
- Limited Property damage liability
- Comprehensive (physical damage other than collision)
- Collision
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Umbrella Liability
Umbrella liability insurance is most often purchased when there is a need for liability coverage limits that exceed the amount of coverage available on a General Liability insurance policy. For example, let’s say your business has a need for coverage limits of $5,000,000. Typically, the maximum amount of coverage available on a General Liaiblity policy is $1,000,000. An Umbrella Liability policy can be purchased with a $4,000,000 limit above the General Liability to fulfill the need of $5,000,000.
Umbrella Liability policies are purchased in coverage increments of $1,000,000. In addition to increasing coverage limits over the General Liability insurance, coverage also applies to Automobile Liability and the Employer Liability (part of the workers compensation insurance). The reason it is referred to as Umbrella Liability is that this coverage sits on top of other underlying forms of liability insurance to provide a greater amount of protection.
But there’s more! There are two advantages of an Umbrella Liability policy in addition to simply increasing the limits of insurance.
- Broader coverage. Depending upon the language of the Umbrella Liablity policy, it is possible for coverage to be provided by the Umbrella Policy even though the underlying policy does not pay.
- “Drop Down” Provision. This provision, in effect, makes the Umbrella Liability policy a primary policy when one of two events occurs:
- The policy aggregate of the underlying policy has been exhausted
- The underlying policy language excludes coverage but the Umbrella Liability policy language does not exclude coverage. The Umbrella Liability policy then becomes the primary policy subject to the “Self Insured Retention”, which is similar to a deductible.
Commercial Package Policy
A commercial package policy is a convenient way of having a single policy that covers several lines of insurance for your business. To become a Package Policy, the policy must contain at least two lines coverage such as property and general liability, but its flexibility is virtually unlimited. A Package Policy can contain business income, crime, inland marine and more. Some insurance companies can even add Business Automobile insurance to the package. Workers’ Compensation and Umbrella Liability insurance are always written on a separate policy.
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Business Owner’s Policy
A Business Owner’s Policy is a special Commercial Package Policy that is pre-packaged with many coverages, much like a Homeowner’s Insurance policy is for a home. Because of the way coverage is bundled, there are restrictions on the types of businesses that are eligible for a Business Owner’s Policy. Often times, the premium for a Business Owner’s Policy is lower than it would be to purchase a standard Commercial Package Policy with comparable coverage.
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