Who needs business insurance?

The right insurance is an important tool to protect any business.

Every business has unique requirements.

Your commercial insurance should be designed to protect the assets and capital in your business against most risks. An Ontario West Insurance Commercial Broker can help you itemize and quantify those risks, and determine the level of coverage you should consider. Risks include:

Property loss. Insurance against property damage or theft protects the physical assets that support your business including buildings, equipment, vehicle fleets and inventory, as well as intangible assets such as licenses, patents and accounts receivable. To arrange the right level of insurance, you must know your rights and obligations as an owner, tenant, leaseholder, landlord or mortgage holder. You must also take into account local bylaws or standards for physical repair and reconstruction.

Liability loss. Every business is exposed to liabilities and should be protected against the minor as well as the major ones including personal injury, product failures or negligence.

Personal loss. Group health and benefits insurance can help to improve employee retention and well-being thereby reducing the cost of turnover and lost time.

Net income loss. Some businesses are exposed to specific perils that are beyond their control and that would cause critical damage to the viability of the business.

For example, a food services operation might insure against a major electrical outage that would result in spoilage of their inventory.

An Ontario West experienced commercial insurance broker can help you analyze the risks in your business, advise you on how to reduce some of the more manageable exposures and suggest an insurance mix that takes your risk tolerance and financial situation into account. The following are examples of common risk drivers:

Heavy reliance on limited sources of income
Dependence on one or a few people to run the business
Elaborate and specialized physical assets
Extensive international operations
Sensitivity to factors outside your control, such as weather and commodity prices
Labour unrest
High levels of inventory
Large vehicle fleets
Rudimentary workplace health and safety practices
Dangerous materials handling

Let an Ontario West Insurance Commercial Broker help you plan and arrange the right insurance for your business.

What extra coverage should I be aware of?

Special policies can cover the risks unique to your business.

Business Interruption

This form of insurance provides you with the funds required to protect your businesses financial position if your operations are interrupted by an insured loss such as a fire. Features and costs will vary considerably depending on whether you insure for named perils, broad perils, a specific timeframe, specific costs or just a portion of the income you loose. This form of insurance can be highly customized and can include coverage for extra business expenses, rental income lost, gross earnings lost, payroll and professional fees.

Consequential Loss

A consequential loss is not caused directly by damage to property, but is a consequence of other damage. For example, a cold storage facility might experience significant inventory losses if an on-site transformer station failure cuts out electricity supply or a fire damages the refrigerators. A greenhouse operation or a winery might require constant temperature and humidity to be maintained. Consequential loss coverage would insure the resultant damage caused to stock by an insured peril that changes these factors. An actual example of the value of this coverage was the severe ice storm that occurred in Eastern Ontario and Quebec a few years ago.

Equipment Breakdown

Many named perils and broad commercial property insurance policies will exclude coverage of breakdown or damage to highly sensitive or specialized equipment including high-pressure boilers, control systems and computers, diagnostic equipment and more. Special machinery policies can be obtained to cover equipment for sudden and accidental breakdown, which is advisable if loss of use is a significant risk for your business.

Errors and Omissions and Director’s and Officer’s Liability

It is common practice to protect company directors and senior managers against personal liability from actions that are the responsibility of the company they direct. While insurance does not remove their fiduciary duty, it does provide some financial protection from legal liability for a claim made against them for an alleged or wrongful act. A wrongful act is any error, misstatement, misleading statement, act omission, breach of duty or neglect allegedly committed or attempted. Errors and omissions insurance is usually used in professional services firms such as law firms, insurance brokerages, accountants and consulting firms to protect professional staff from the impact of errors and omissions in their work.

Specialized Coverage's

There are as many forms of specialized coverage as there are risks to your business. An Ontario West Insurance Commercial Broker can help you assess the probability of experiencing a loss and determine whether or not you should purchase specialized coverage. Risks unique to your business that may require extra protection are:

-Crime- designed to protect against loss of money or securities, may include theft overnight or on the way to the bank. This also includes employee dishonesty.

-Electronic Data Processing Systems-protects your computer and its data.

-Sewer Back-up- covers loss or damage caused by the backing up of sewers, sumps, septic tanks or drains.

-By-law Coverage-covers additional expenditures resulting from by-laws regulating construction when rebuilding a building after an insured loss.

These are just a few of the special coverage's available for special situations. An Ontario West Insurance Commercial Broker can tell you more.