Business & Commercial Insurance

Business income insurance, also known as business interruption insurance, provides financial protection in the event that your business is unable to operate due to a covered loss. This coverage can help you maintain your income and expenses during a period of disruption.

What Does Business Income Insurance Cover?

Business income insurance can cover:

• Loss of earnings: Lost profits due to business interruption.
• Increased expenses: Additional expenses incurred to maintain your business during a disruption.
• Net income: The difference between your revenue and expenses.

Common Causes of Business Interruption

• Property damage: Fire, flood, or other physical damage to your business property.
• Civil authority: Government orders that force your business to close.
• Contingent business interruption: Losses due to the interruption of a supplier or customer's business.

Why is Business Income Insurance Important?

• Financial Stability: Business interruption can have a devastating impact on your finances. Insurance can help you weather the storm.
• Business Continuity: It can help you maintain your operations and avoid permanent closure.
• Peace of Mind: Knowing you're protected can give you peace of mind during a difficult time.

A Business Owner's Policy (BOP) is a package insurance policy that combines three essential types of liability coverage, while offering a convenient and cost-effective way to insure your business.

What Does a BOP Cover?

A typical BOP includes:

• General liability insurance: Covers bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury caused by your business operations.
• Commercial property insurance: Protects your business property, including your building, contents, and equipment. 
• Business incomd insurance: Covers lost income if your business is unable to operate due to a covered loss.
• Professional liability insurance: Protects you from claims of negligence or errors in your professional services (may be included as an additional endorsement).

Why is a BOP Important?

• Comprehensive Coverage: A BOP provides essential protection for your business in a single policy.
• Cost-Effective: It can often be more affordable than purchasing individual policies.
• Convenience: Managing a single policy is simpler than coordinating multiple policies.

As a business owner, you need the same kinds of insurance coverages for the car you use in your business as you do for a car used for personal travel -- liability, collision and comprehensive, medical payments (known as personal injury protection in some states) and coverage for uninsured motorists. In fact, many business people use the same vehicle for both business and pleasure. If the vehicle is owned by the business, make sure the name of the business appears on the policy as the "principal insured" rather than your name. This will avoid possible confusion in the event that you need to file a claim or a claim is filed against you.

Whether you need to buy a business auto insurance policy will depend on the kind of driving you do. A good insurance agent will ask you many details about how you use vehicles in your business, who will be driving them and whether employees, if you have them, are likely to be driving their own cars for your business.

While the major coverages are the same, a business auto policy differs from a personal auto policy in many technical respects. Ask your insurance agent to explain all the differences and options.

Commercial Property insurance is one of the most important types of insurance to protect your business from perils such as fire, theft and natural disaster. UHCU Insurance will evaluate your needs and give you options for deductibles, limits and requirements. An insurance agent can then provide you with a customized plan that takes into consideration your needs, past loss history, prevention efforts and precautions you have taken for safety control. Types of coverages include:

• Buildings and other structures
• Furniture and equipment
• Inventory
• Records
• Computers
• Improvements to property
• Earthquake
• Glass and fine arts
• Outdoor fences and walls

Contractor's general liability insurance provides financial coverage for claims arising from bodily injury, property damage, or personal/advertising injury caused by your business operations.

What Does Contractor's General Liability Insurance Cover?

• Bodily injury: Injuries to third parties caused by your business operations.
• Property damage: Damage to the property of others caused by your business activities.
• Personal injury: Claims of libel, slander, or other forms of personal injury caused by your business.
• Advertising injury: Claims arising from copyright infringement or false advertising.

• Commercial auto insurance: If you own business vehicles, ensure they are adequately covered.

As a contractor, your tools and equipment are essential to your livelihood. Protecting these valuable assets is crucial for your business's success. Contractor's tool and equipment coverage provides financial protection in case of theft, loss, or damage to your tools.

What Does Contractor's Tool and Equipment Coverage Cover?

This type of insurance typically covers:

• Theft: Loss of tools due to theft.
• Damage: Accidental damage to tools and equipment.
• Loss: Loss of tools due to fire, flood, or other covered perils.

Why is Contractor's Tool and Equipment Coverage Important?

• Business Continuity: Replacing lost or damaged tools can be costly and disrupt your work. Insurance can help you get back up and running quickly.
• Financial Protection: Avoid out-of-pocket expenses for replacing tools and equipment.
• Peace of Mind: Knowing your tools are protected can give you peace of mind.

Inland marine insurance provides coverage for goods that are transported or held away from their permanent location. This type of insurance is essential for businesses that rely on movable property, such as:

• Contractors: Equipment, tools, and materials
• Retailers: Inventory in transit or storage
• Manufacturers: Goods in transit or awaiting shipment
• Fine art dealers: Valuable art collections
• Film production companies: Equipment and props

What Does Inland Marine Insurance Cover?

Inland marine insurance can cover a variety of perils, including:

• Theft: Loss of property due to theft.
• Damage: Physical damage to property caused by accidents, natural disasters, or other perils.
• Loss: Loss of property due to mysterious disappearance.

Data Breach or Cyber Liability Insurance can help protect your small business from risks associated with a data breach if confidential information gets lost or stolen. Prepare your business before a security breach even occurs. Businesses seeking best practices implement a breach response plan prior to an incident. In the event of a breach, the program is quickly activated, conserving time and money while preserving the company’s reputation and regulatory standing. This includes:

• Website, media and agency monitoring and security
• Date breach incident response
• Merchant chargeback resolution

Umbrella insurance (Excess liability insurance) acts as an additional layer of protection for your business. It kicks in when your primary liability insurance coverage has been exhausted. This means it can help cover costs associated with:

• Lawsuits: Unexpected lawsuits that exceed your primary coverage limits.
• Settlements: Large settlements that surpass your primary coverage.
• Judgments: Significant judgments against your business.

Why is Umbrella Insurance Important?

• Enhanced Coverage: It provides broader coverage than your primary liability insurance.
• Peace of Mind: It can offer peace of mind knowing your business is protected against potentially catastrophic financial losses.
• Cost-Effective: It's often a relatively affordable way to increase your overall coverage.

If you have a personal umbrella liability policy, there's generally an exclusion for business-related liability. Make sure you have sufficient auto liability coverage.

Unfortunately for every business owner, the chances of getting sued have dramatically increased in the last decade. General liability insurance can prevent a legal suit from turning into a financial disaster by providing financial protection in case your business is ever sued or held legally responsible for some injury or damage.

General liability pays losses arising from real or alleged bodily injury, property damage or personal injury on your business premises or arising from your operations.

Broad Range of General Liability Protection:

• Bodily injury, including the cost of care, the loss of services and the restitution for any death that results from injury
• Property damage coverage for the physical damage to property of others or the loss of use of that property
• Products-completed operations provides liability protection (damages and legal expenses up to your policy's limit) if an injury ever resulted from something your company made or service your company provided
• Products liability is a more specialized product liability insurance that protects your company against lawsuits from product-related injury or accidents
• Contractual liability extends to any liability you may assume by entering into a variety of contracts
• Other coverage includes: reasonable use of force; borrowed equipment; liquor liability; non-owned vehicles (such as aircraft and watercraft); fire, lightning or explosion damage; water damage liability protection; legal defense costs; medical payments; personal injury; advertising injury; and specialized liability protection for specific business types

Professional liability insurance, also known as Errors & Omissions (E&O) insurance, protects businesses from claims arising from mistakes, negligence, or omissions in the professional services they've provided to customers or clients. It's designed to cover the costs of legal defense and potential settlements or judgments. 

E&O insurance typically covers claims arising from:

• Negligence: Failing to exercise reasonable care in your professional duties
• Errors: Mistakes in your work
• Omissions: Oversights or failures to act
• Breach of contract: Failing to fulfill your contractual obligations

Professional liability insurance offers several benefits:

• Financial Protection: It can cover the costs of legal defense and potential settlements or judgments, protecting your personal assets.
• Peace of Mind: Knowing you're protected can help you focus on your work without constant worry.
• Client Confidence: E&O insurance can reassure clients that you are committed to providing quality services.

Workers' compensation laws were created to ensure that employees who are injured on the job are provided with fixed monetary awards. This eliminates the need for litigation and creates an easier process for the employee. It also helps control the financial risks for employers since many states limit the amount an injured employee can recover from an employer.

Workers' compensation insurance is designed to help companies pay these benefits. As a protection for employees, most states require that employers carry some form of workers' compensation insurance. Workers' compensation insurance is not health insurance. Workers' compensation is designed specifically for injuries sustained on the job.

In most states, if you have employees, you are required to carry workers' compensation coverage. Even in non-mandatory states, it can be a very good idea, particularly if you have many employees or if they are engaged in hazardous activities.

Do I need workers' compensation insurance?

Employers have a legal responsibility to their employees to make the workplace safe. However, accidents happen even when every reasonable safety measure has been taken.

To protect employers from lawsuits resulting from workplace accidents and to provide medical care and compensation for lost income to employees hurt in workplace accidents, businesses in almost every state are required to buy workers' compensation insurance. Workers' compensation insurance covers workers injured on the job, whether they're hurt on the workplace premises or elsewhere, or in auto accidents while on business. It also covers work-related illnesses.

Workers' compensation provides payments to injured workers without regard to who was at fault in the accident for time lost from work and for medical and rehabilitation services. It also provides death benefits to surviving spouses and dependents.

Each state has different laws governing the amount and duration of lost income benefits, the provision of medical and rehabilitation services and how the system is administered. For example, in most states there are regulations that cover whether the worker or employer can choose the doctor who treats the injuries and how disputes about benefits are resolved.

Workers' compensation insurance must be bought as a separate policy. Although in-home business and business owners policies (BOPs) are sold as package policies, they don't include coverage for workers' injuries.