Business Insurance

Commercial Liability Coverages

Commercial General Liability Insurance: This coverage will protect you and your business from third-party claims arising from alleged bodily injury, personal/advertising injury or property damage liability. It includes protection for services you render or products you sell. Coverage can be written on an “Occurrence” or “Claims-Made” basis and payments can include judgments, attorney fees, court costs, or other related expenses. The following explanations may help one understand the key components of general liability insurance:

• Bodily Injury liability is an injury to or death of someone (other than you or your employee), including the cost of care, loss of services and/or restitution for death.
• Property Damage liability is the direct physical loss or damage (including loss of use) to someone else’s property.
• Personal Injury coverage is used to extend your general liability policy to include protection against claims alleging false arrest, libel, slander, malicious prosecution, wrongful entry or wrongful eviction.
• Advertising Injury coverage is used to insure against claims of libel, slander, product disparagement, piracy, infringement of copyrights, etc., that arise out of the advertising of your goods, products, or services. This would include material placed on the Internet or on similar electronic means of communications.
  
• Products Liability is third-party bodily injury or property damage that occurs away from your premises and is sustained as a result of a product your company manufactured, distributed or sold, or a service your business provided.
  
• Completed Operations liability represents the damage that results from faulty work performed away from your premises and after the work or operations are deemed finished.
  
• An “Occurrence” Form provides coverage for claims arising out of an accident which results in bodily injury or property damage neither expected nor intended. The form covers such claims that occur during the policy period regardless of when the claim is made against you.
• A “Claims-Made” Form will provide protection for only those claims reported or first made during the policy period or during any previous period that is stated in the Prior Acts or Retroactive Date option of your policy. This option allows you to keep coverage in force under consecutive Claims-Made policies. An alternative to the retroactive date usage is the use of an extended reporting endorsement or tail coverage, which allows you to buy coverage extending beyond the expiration date for a selected period of time. It should be noted this endorsement only extends the time of reporting claims which occur during the policy period.

Professional Liability Insurance: This important coverage is purchased to insure against financial losses arising out of negligent acts, errors or omissions in the rendering or failing to render professional services or advice as defined in the policy. Professional Liability policies are written on a Claims-Made and Reported coverage form.

Automobile Liability Insurance: This coverage can provide a combination of liability protection and physical damage coverage for loss due to damage to vehicles owned, maintained, or used by you. Additional coverages such as medical payments, uninsured/underinsured motorist, hired/non-owned, rental reimbursement and towing protection can be purchased to "customize" the policy to fit your business.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance: A Workers’ Compensation policy provides two insuring features: Workers’ Compensation and Employers’ Liability. Workers’ Compensation coverage must be purchased, as mandated by state law, to provide protection for your workers for injuries or death arising by accident out of, and in the course of, employment. Benefits can include lost wages, medical expenses, and permanent disfigurement/disability payments. Employers’ Liability protects an insured against liability arising out of the injury of an employee during the course of employment that is not covered by basic workers' compensation insurance. For example, if your business is sued by a third party affected by a workplace injury, such as a family member of the injured worker, Employers’ Liability coverage may respond to such a claim.

Umbrella Insurance: Provides additional protection for your corporation by providing a higher limit of coverage that is excess over scheduled underlying policies. It is used in one of three ways: (1) to provide additional limits of protection over the coverage listed in your underlying schedule, (2) to act as primary coverage if your underlying limits are exhausted, and (3) to provide coverage for some risks, subject to retention, when your primary coverage does not.

Directors & Officers Insurance: This type of professional liability insurance provides financial protection against claims arising from the negligent acts, errors, or omissions alleged to have been committed by present or former directors or officers of your corporation. A Directors & Officers policy usually consists of two parts: 1) coverage for the personal liability of directors and officers and 2) coverage for the company or institution for the acts of its directors and officers.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance: Also know as “EPLI”, this insurance protects companies against claims by workers who feel their legal rights as employees of the organization have been violated as a result of the employer's discrimination, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, or various other employment-related offenses. Such policies will reimburse your company against the costs of defending a lawsuit in court and for judgments and settlements.

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