Insuring Your Business

If you read this newsletter regularly, you know that we talk about how life insurance can help fund various business agreements and fill out an attractive employee benefits menu. Life, health and disability insurance play prominent roles, but as a business owner you likely need to insure your company in a number of other ways. These are some ways businesses protect their financial investment:

The Foundation

If you run a business, you’ll need property insurance and general liability insurance. Property insurance protects your premises and business equipment financially if losses occur due to fire, theft and some weather events. General liability insurance protects you in case a person receives a bodily injury at your business site. Many insurers will offer a Business Owner Policy (BOP) that combines this and other coverage.

Specialized Coverage

Some BOPs offer insurance to protect your business against losses caused by business interruption, employee theft and other liabilities. Depending on your business, you may also need Directors & Officers (D&O) insurance, or Errors & Omissions (E&O) insurance, which may also be sold as professional liability insurance, cyber and identity theft insurance and product liability insurance.

If you have employees, your state will likely require you to cover them with worker’s compensation insurance, and it will probably mandate that your company vehicles have liability coverage, which you can find in a commercial auto package. You’ll need separate policies or endorsements for flood and earthquake coverage, and you may want to have an umbrella policy for extra coverage.

Core Offerings

Whether you run a one-person business or have 100 employees, you may want to consider how your business can help meet individual life, disability income and health protection needs. Health insurance is among the most important benefits you can offer prospective and current employees, while life insurance and disability income insurance financially protect employees and their loved ones against two potentially large exposures.

As we enter 2020, now is not only a good time to talk to your property and casualty insurance professional, but to discuss with your insurance professional the individual and business challenges health, life and disability income insurance can help meet.