Business Insurance
Tailored insurance to protect your business and its future.
What is Business Insurance?
Business insurance protects your investment by minimizing financial risks associated with unexpected events such as a death of a partner, an injured employee, a lawsuit, or a natural disaster.
Business Insurance is a broad name for different coverages available to the business owner to protect against losses and to insure the continuing operation of the business.
Major Types of Business Insurance
- General Liability Insurance
- Business Owner’s Package (BOP)
- Commercial Auto Insurance
- Commercial Property Insurance
- Commercial Umbrella Insurance
- Professional Liability Insurance
- Workers Compensation
- Group Health Insurance
- Group Life Insurance
- Group Disability Insurance
- Supplemental Insurance
- Business Owner's Package (BOP) Insurance
- General Liability
- Workers Compensation
- Commercial Trucking Insurance
- Insurance Bonds
What is a Business Owner’s Package Insurance Policy?
A business owner’s policy package includes all the required coverage a business owner would need. Often, BOPs will include business interruption insurance, property insurance, vehicle coverage, liability insurance, and crime insurance. Based on your company’s specific needs, you can alter what is included in a BOP.
Typically, a business owner will save money by choosing a BOP because the bundle of services often costs less than the total cost of all the individual coverages.
What’s Covered with a Typical BOP Policy?
BOPs typically include:
- Property insurance for buildings and contents owned by the company — there are two different forms, standard and special, which provide more comprehensive coverage.
- Business interruption insurance covers the loss of income resulting from a fire or other catastrophe that disrupts the operation of the business. It can also include the extra expense of operating out of a temporary location.
- Liability protection covers your company’s legal responsibility for the harm it may cause to others. This harm is a result of things that you and your employees do or fail to do in your business operations that may cause bodily injury or property damage due to defective products, faulty installations, and errors in services provided.
In most cases, BOPs do NOT cover professional liability, auto insurance, workers’ compensation, or health and disability insurance. You’ll need separate insurance policies to cover professional services, vehicles, and your employees.
What is General Liability Insurance?
General Liability Insurance coverage helps protect your business from property damage claims, bodily injury claims, and/or personal and advertising injury claims that could put your business’s assets at risk. For example, General liability insurance helps protect you and your business in the event of the following:
- A customer slips and injures himself in your store. The injuries result in costly medical bills and maybe even a lawsuit.
- While on the job, you accidentally damage a customer’s property, and the repairs are costly. Should a claim like one of these be made against your business, then your commercial general liability insurance policy may help pay for the damages.
What does Commercial General Liability Insurance cover?
General Liability Insurance offers some of the broadest business insurance coverage available today. It is included in our Business Owner’s Policy and is available as stand-alone coverage. Here are a few of the risks a business could face that The Hartford can help protect against:
- Bodily injury or property damage – Helps protect against certain claims alleging financial loss due to property damage or bodily injury arising out of your business operations or products.
- Reputational harm – Helps protect your business against certain claims of false arrest, malicious prosecution, libel, slander, wrongful eviction, violation of the right of privacy, and more.
- Advertising errors – Helps protect your business against certain claims if others allege you infringed on their copyrights when advertising goods, products, or services in your advertisement.
- Medical payments – Helps protect against certain claims for medical costs if someone is injured on the business premises and needs medical treatment.
- Damage to premises rented to you – Helps protect your business against certain claims for damage to premises rented to you due to fire, lightning, or explosion.
Additional solutions
- Extending Your Coverage – If a contract requires a business to add individuals/entities to its business liability insurance coverage, The Hartford helps make it easy to add them to the policy.
- Improve Safety and Reduce Risk – One of the best ways to avoid a lawsuit is to run the safest business possible. The Hartford’s Risk Engineering group is part of our General Liability Insurance policy team and can help with one-on-one risk management consultations and safety seminars. They can also find ways to save companies money with discounts for things like installing safety equipment and following best practices.
What is Workers’ Compensation Insurance?
Additional Information about Workers’ Comp Insurance
General damages for pain and suffering, and punitive damages for employer negligence, are generally not available in workers’ compensation plans, and negligence is generally not an issue in the case.
What is a Commercial Trucking Insurance?
The trucking industry serves the American economy by transporting large quantities of raw materials, works in process, and finished goods over land—typically from manufacturing plants to retail distribution centers. Trucks are also used in the construction industry, as dump trucks and portable concrete mixers move the large amounts of rocks, dirt, concrete, and other building materials used in construction. Trucks in America are responsible for the majority of freight movement over land and are tools in the manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing industries.
Driving large trucks and buses require a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to operate. Obtaining a CDL requires extra education and training dealing with the special knowledge requirements and handling characteristics of such a large vehicle. Drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) must adhere to the hours of service, which are regulations governing the driving hours of commercial drivers. These and all other rules regarding the safety of interstate commercial driving are issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The FMCSA is a division of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), which governs all transportation-related industries such as trucking, shipping, railroads, and airlines. Some other issues are handled by another branch of the USDOT, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
Developments in technology, such as computers, satellite communication, and the Internet, have contributed to many improvements within the industry. These developments have increased the productivity of company operations, saved the time and effort of drivers, and provided new, more accessible forms of entertainment to men and women who often spend long periods of time away from home. In 2006, the United States Environmental Protection Agency implemented revised emission standards for diesel trucks (reducing airborne pollutants emitted by diesel engines) which promises to improve air quality and public health.
What is an Insurance Bond?
An insurance bond ensures contract completion in the event of contractor default and is typically required by project owners when seeking a contractor to fulfill a contract.
The contractor obtains a bond, so the insurance company is obligated to compensate the project owner for the financial loss incurred if the work is not completed.
Typical Insurance Bond Types
Although there are many types of insurance bonds, the four most common types needed by business owners are:
- Bid Bond – Ensures the bidder on a contract will enter into the contract and furnish the required payment and performance bonds if awarded the contract.
- Payment Bond – Ensures suppliers and subcontractors are paid for work performed under the contract.
- Performance Bond – Ensures the contract will be completed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract.
- Ancillary Bond – Ensures requirements integral to the contract, but not directly performance related, are performed.
Business Owner's Package (BOP) Insurance
What is a Business Owner’s Package Insurance Policy?
A business owner policy package includes all the required coverage a business owner would need. Often, BOPs will include business interruption insurance, property insurance, vehicle coverage, liability insurance, and crime insurance. Based on your company’s specific needs, you can alter what is included in a BOP.
Typically, a business owner will save money by choosing a BOP because the bundle of services often costs less than the total cost of all the individual coverages.
What’s Covered with a Typical BOP Policy?
BOPs typically include:
- Property insurance for buildings and contents owned by the company — there are two different forms, standard and special, which provide more comprehensive coverage.
- Business interruption insurance covers the loss of income resulting from a fire or other catastrophe that disrupts the operation of the business. It can also include the extra expense of operating out of a temporary location.
- Liability protection covers your company’s legal responsibility for the harm it may cause to others. This harm is a result of things that you and your employees do or fail to do in your business operations that may cause bodily injury or property damage due to defective products, faulty installations, and errors in services provided.
In most cases, BOPs do NOT cover professional liability, auto insurance, worker’s compensation or health and disability insurance. You’ll need separate insurance policies to cover professional services, vehicles and your employees.
General Liability
What is General Liability Insurance?
General Liability Insurance coverage helps protect your business from property damage claims, bodily injury claims, and/or personal and advertising injury claims that could put your business’s assets at risk. For example, General liability insurance helps protect you and your business in the event of the following:
- A customer slips and injures himself in your store. The injuries result in costly medical bills and maybe even a lawsuit.
- While on the job, you accidentally damage a customer’s property, and the repairs are costly. Should a claim like one of these be made against your business, then your commercial general liability insurance policy may help pay for the damages.
What does Commercial General Liability Insurance cover?
General Liability Insurance offers some of the broadest business insurance coverage available today. It is included in our Business Owner’s Policy and is available as stand-alone coverage. Here are a few of the risks a business could face that The Hartford can help protect against:
- Bodily injury or property damage – Helps protect against certain claims alleging financial loss due to property damage or bodily injury arising out of your business operations or products.
- Reputational harm – Helps protect your business against certain claims of false arrest, malicious prosecution, libel, slander, wrongful eviction, violation of the right of privacy, and more.
- Advertising errors – Helps protect your business against certain claims if others allege you infringed on their copyrights when advertising goods, products, or services in your advertisement.
- Medical payments – Helps protect against certain claims for medical costs if someone is injured on the business premises and needs medical treatment.
- Damage to premises rented to you – Helps protect your business against certain claims for damage to premises rented to you due to fire, lightning, or explosion.
Additional solutions
- Extending Your Coverage – If a contract requires a business to add individuals/entities to its business liability insurance coverage, The Hartford helps make it easy to add them to the policy.
- Improve Safety and Reduce Risk – One of the best ways to avoid a lawsuit is to run the safest business possible. The Hartford’s Risk Engineering group is part of our General Liability Insurance policy team and can help with one-on-one risk management consultations and safety seminars. They can also find ways to save companies money with discounts for things like installing safety equipment and following best practices.
Workers Compensation
What is Workers’ Compensation Insurance?
Additional Information about Workers’ Comp Insurance
General damages for pain and suffering, and punitive damages for employer negligence, are generally not available in workers’ compensation plans, and negligence is generally not an issue in the case.
Commercial Trucking Insurance
What is Commercial Trucking Insurance?
The trucking industry serves the American economy by transporting large quantities of raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods over land, typically from manufacturing plants to retail distribution centers. Trucks are also used in the construction industry, as dump trucks and portable concrete mixers move the large amounts of rocks, dirt, concrete, and other building materials used in construction. Trucks in America are responsible for the majority of freight movement over land and are tools in the manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing industries.
Driving large trucks and buses requires a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to operate. Obtaining a CDL requires extra education and training, dealing with the special knowledge requirements and handling characteristics of such a large vehicle. Drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) must adhere to the hours of service, which are regulations governing the driving hours of commercial drivers. These and all other rules regarding the safety of interstate commercial driving are issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The FMCSA is a division of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), which governs all transportation-related industries such as trucking, shipping, railroads, and airlines. Some other issues are handled by another branch of the USDOT, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
Developments in technology, such as computers, satellite communication, and the Internet, have contributed to many improvements within the industry. These developments have increased the productivity of company operations, saved the time and effort of drivers, and provided new, more accessible forms of entertainment to men and women who often spend long periods of time away from home. In 2006, the United States Environmental Protection Agency implemented revised emission standards for diesel trucks (reducing airborne pollutants emitted by diesel engines), which promises to improve air quality and public health.
Insurance Bonds
What is an Insurance Bond?
An insurance bond ensures contract completion in the event of contractor default and is typically required by project owners when seeking a contractor to fulfill a contract.
The contractor obtains a bond, so the insurance company is obligated to compensate the project owner for the financial loss incurred if the work is not completed.
Typical Insurance Bond Types
Although there are many types of insurance bonds, the four most common types needed by business owners are:
- Bid Bond – Ensures the bidder on a contract will enter into the contract and furnish the required payment and performance bonds if awarded the contract.
- Payment Bond – Ensures suppliers and subcontractors are paid for work performed under the contract.
- Performance Bond – Ensures the contract will be completed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract.
- Ancillary Bond – Ensures requirements integral to the contract, but not directly performance related, are performed.
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