Business insurance is basically the same as individual or personal insurance, except they are purchased by a business, and the underwriting and premium determination have different standards.
There are many types of business insurance, all insurance against the financial loss of a business. All these insurances can be grouped into one policy to offer greater discounts to the business.
Even though a business has insurance against financial loss, losses will not stop at the business, and business owners can be personally financially responsible for the loss.
Business Property Insurance
Business Property Insurance insures against loss similar to personal property insurance, but there is additional underwriting and can include vehicles owned by the business and vehicles parked on property owned by a business. Underwriting also includes what company assets or other business assets (warehouse) are stored on a business-owned property. Casualty is also included just as a personal casualty, but the insurance limits are much higher and insure against more perils against life.
Business Liability
Business Liability is any peril that can be caused by the business or people working for the business. There are three major forms of business liability insurance. Professional, General and Product.
Professional Liability insures against financial loss due to gross or willful misconduct of the employer or employee of a professional type of business (lawyer, doctor, financial advising, etc.) Premiums vary and can be based on the type of industry or business.
General Liability is for mechanical or labor professions for gross or willful workmanship. Premiums vary and can be based on the type of industry or business.
Product liability products against the financial loss of product either produced by a company, distributed, or sold by a company that caused financial harm and/or caused injury or loss of life.
Key Person
Key person insurance insures against loss to the company of a person who, an integral part of the business, leaves or that person’s cannot perform their duties.
Buy-Sell Agreement
A Buy-Sell Agreement is multiple life insurance policies where each owner of the company is the owner of the policies, and the owners/partners of the company are the insureds. The face amount of each policy is based on the percentage of ownership of each owner and the value of each company. The buy-sell agreements and insurance amounts should be updated on a regular basis to capture the current value of the company. The buy-sell agreement basically buys out (via insurance proceeds) the percentage of ownership from the estate of the decedent, so the ownership is retained by the surviving owner(s). This is so the decedent's estate does not have any business making decisions.
Group Insurances
Group Insurance is a broad term for insurance purchased by a business that has more than one employee. This number can include business owners. Due to the nature of the number of insureds, group insurance offers lower premiums and more benefits. Group insurances include Health, Term Life, Disability, Long Term Care, Dental, Hearing, Vision, etc.
Some of these insurances, such as Term Life, can be transferred to the individual employee if that employee leaves the company.
The company is the policyholder in a group life insurance policy. A group insurance policy provides insurance to all the employees in the company under a single plan. If an employee leaves the company, some companies/policies allow the employee to take the insurance with them.
While individual life insurance, as the name suggests, covers only you (and in some cases, your spouse). The duration of the plan would generally depend on the type of policy that you opt for; it could be till the end of your working life or extend to your post-retirement years. Both individual insurance plans, as well as employer-sponsored plans, come with their own set of merits and demerits.
We offer Disability, Long-Term Care, and Individual / Group Health Insurance policies.
