Business Liability Insurance

If you operate your business with the assumption that nothing ever goes wrong, you won’t be a business owner for long. You’ll probably deal with unforeseen circumstances daily, and occasionally, those turn into minor or major disasters.

General liability insurance protects your business when things go wrong. It could be an accident nobody could have foreseen that has far-reaching and unintended consequences. When property damage or bodily injury is involved, you want to make sure your business liability insurance protects your company assets. Otherwise, you’re financially responsible for anything that happens.

Your business liability insurance policy must meet the needs of your business. Certain professions need professional liability to protect them from claims against the work or services they’ve rendered. This could be an accountant or a lawyer. If they make a mistake, it may cost their clients a lot of money. 

There’s also public liability, which applies to any business with premises open to the public. It could be a store or an office building. If customers, clients, contractors, suppliers, or vendors come to you at your place of business, public liability insurance will protect you in a slip-and-fall or similar accident.

Liability insurance covers the costs of legal fees. Imagine the peace of mind you’d have knowing that in the event of a claim, your assets are safe.

Liability insurance is appropriate for any business that could face potential lawsuits. There are four types that you may fit your needs:

• Personal Liability
• Business Liability
• Professional Liability
• Public Liability

Your liability policy must also include coverages for bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury to protect your assets. Your policy will have a limit for each of the different areas. The bodily injury component is important if anyone gets physically hurt on your premises, by using your products or services, or because of something that your company did or failed to do.

Your liability insurance also covers property damage. It could be something as simple as accidentally denting a customer’s vehicle. Depending on the property and the extent of the damage, it can easily set you back thousands of dollars to pay for a claim.

The last portion of your business liability insurance is the personal injury part. Personal injury includes anything that causes harm to another aside from bodily injury. It may go hand in hand with a bodily injury claim and include the pain and suffering because of the injury, loss of wages, or the inability to enjoy life as a result of the injury.

Your business liability insurance premiums depend on the type and size of your business. We may calculate the rate based on your:

• Amount of gross revenue
• Gross payroll
• Square footage of your location

For a retail business, gross revenue may be the most common factor in determining the insurance premiums. For your industry, the payroll or square footage may be used to calculate premiums. If you frequently work with subcontractors, this needs to be factored into your liability exposure as well.

If you’re ordered to pay a settlement, and your liability insurance doesn’t cover all of it, you probably have to come up with the difference. Ideally, you want to obtain as much coverage as you can afford, because lawsuits are costly. You can also carry umbrella insurance in addition to a basic liability policy to cover additional costs.

Your insurance policy doesn’t cover anything that happened in the past before you obtained insurance. However, sometimes you can get coverage for an incident that took place prior to the first date of coverage. It will specify prior acts coverage in your policy if that’s the case.

There are different ways to reduce your monthly premiums for liability insurance. You can lower your deductible, which will increase your out-of-pocket cost when you file a claim. You can also combine several insurance policies together for discounts. It’s also a good idea to look at different insurance packages to find the one that works for you.

Our firm specializes in covering local businesses just like yours. We have everything you need, including:

• Monthly payment options
• Coverage of temporary staff:
• Past work
• Worldwide coverage
• Claims responsiveness
• Tailored coverage
• Knowledgeable agents
• Coverage for contracts
• Fast and simple

At Walker Insurance Agency, we help you create a business liability insurance policy that protects your assets and meets your needs. We will structure your policy to meet your specific needs without paying for coverage you don’t use. Call our office today to schedule your appointment.