Knowing the types of insurance coverage you need, can be tricky. There are policies for just about anything you can think of. And while you may not need all of them, you would be surprised at how many you do need.
The reason being each type of policy is designed to cover very specific “risks”. It’s a good idea to have a very basic knowledge of what the different types of coverages do to protect you. We don’t want to bog you down with a bunch of insurance lingo, so we’ll just touch on the highlights.
Types of Commercial Insurance Coverages
Many business owners often wonder if they need commercial insurance (the answer is yes BTW!) However, it can be tricky to know where to start. Here are the most common types of commercial insurance coverages.
1. Commercial Auto
If you’re like many small businesses, you probably think commercial auto insurance is one of the easiest corners to cut. After all, why buy a separate auto insurance policy for yourself and your employees when all of you have personal auto insurance?
Unfortunately, many companies that feel this way soon find themselves in difficult and costly predicaments. That’s because most personal auto insurance policies specifically exclude some business activities, and many exclude all business driving.
Examples of who may need commercial auto insurance:
- Sales reps
- Rideshare drivers
- Delivery drivers
- Any business that uses vehicles specifically for the job
2. Business Insurance
One of the most essential elements of protecting the survival of your business is general liability insurance. While this type of coverage is especially important if you have significant interactions with the public, the sad truth is that in today’s society, EVERY business should protect itself against the possibility of lawsuits.
Perhaps you believe your particular business is so low risk that business insurance doesn’t make sense to you. However, you need to ask yourself these questions.
- Does your business have a common area such as a storefront or reception area?
- Do you receive more than one or two visitors per day?
- Do your employees often drive as part of their job-related activities?
- Does any part of your business involve the operation of heavy equipment?
- Do you manufacture any item intended to be used by others?
If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then you aren’t low-risk enough to even think about passing on business insurance.
But even if you answered “No” to all of the questions, you should still make it a point to protect yourself by purchasing a general liability insurance policy. Why? Because individuals can legitimately hurt themselves or cause accidents in an infinite number of unpredictable ways.
3. Restaurant & Food Insurance
Running a restaurant can be a fun and exciting venture. That is until someone gets sick or injured at your location. The best way to protect your business is by having the proper insurance in place and understanding the risks you may face in the restaurant industry.
Five scenarios every restaurant owner should worry about:
DUIs-The most common type of liability claim stems from the over-service of alcohol to patrons who then get behind the wheel.
Activity hazards- These include slip and fall accidents, fights among patrons, burns from food and other injuries.
No exit zone- This means having a clear and well-lit area for customers to exit in the event of a fire.
Food illnesses – This one speaks for itself.
Employee injuries – Waitstaff and other restaurant personnel are on their feet for long hours, this increases the risk of injury. And if they are hurt on the job, it’s your responsibility.
4. Insurance for Schools
From students getting hurt playing sports to the dangers of running chemistry experiments, schools face a lot of unique risks. And those are in addition to normal risks most businesses face, like property damage or losing important files. If you help run public, private and charter schools, you need to make sure you have the right protection from these risks.
Even if you don’t run a school, but are an instructor you need coverage as well.
Martial Arts Schools or Studios
Personal Trainers or Yoga Instructors
5. Insurance for Specific Trades
General liability insurance is essential for independent contractors who specialize in a specific trade because it protects you and your business. Independent contractors have the same legal obligations and liability exposures as larger firms. They can be sued for damaging client property, causing bodily harm, or advertising injury.
However, trade-specific insurance gives an added layer of protection for each type of risk.
Types of Personal Insurance Coverages
Personal Insurance covers all the things that make up your life, from the home you live in-to the car you drive and everything in between.
1. Homeowners Insurance
We all expect our homeowner’s insurance to cover the structure of our home should it be destroyed by fire or leveled by a tornado. But what about the many other threats, such as theft and accidents, that may cause you to lose sleep? You may not be aware of the many ways homeowners insurance can protect you.
It’s important that you know the specifics of your own homeowner’s insurance policy—all the protection it provides and anything excluded in your policy—to be sure you have all the protection you need but are not paying for more than you need.
2. Condo Insurance
If you live in a condo, you must have the right policy in place to protect you. Condo, townhouse and co-op coverage protects your possessions inside your unit, including your furniture, your appliances and your personal items. The insurance also protects you against expense that might arise—including a lawsuit—if someone happens to be injured in your unit.
3. Flood Insurance
One exposure that your standard homeowners insurance policy will not cover is flooding—the #1 natural disaster in the United States. And don’t think that just because your home is not in a coastal area that you’re off the hook. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) says that people outside of what they call “mapped high-risk flood areas” file more than 20% of all NFIP flood insurance claims and receive one-third of Federal disaster assistance for flooding.
4. Renters Insurance
Whatever the reason, it’s important to understand that just because you don’t own a home doesn’t mean you don’t need residential insurance. Connecticut renters insurance is a really economical way to make sure the things you own—and, for that matter, your bank account—are protected in case something goes wrong.
Some—okay, most—people are confused about insurance, and renters insurance is no exception. Some folks assume the landlord’s insurance will cover renters and the renters’ belongings. Truth is the landlord’s policy covers the physical structure, but not the renters’ contents.
5. Dwelling Fire
A dwelling fire insurance policy offers protection when you’re not concerned about getting coverage for the contents of the property. With a rental property, you probably don’t keep possessions there, so the full protection that a homeowners policy would provide really isn’t necessary. Nor is the expense of over-insuring your rental property with a standard homeowners policy.
6. Auto Insurance
Although auto insurance is one of those investments we make while hoping we never have to use it, it’s a safety net you don’t want to drive without. Carrying too little coverage can result in your paying significant out-of-pocket expenses, perhaps for many years.
We all hope never to be one of those statistics, but some accidents can cost as much as a million dollars or more in a settlement. On the other hand, when adding to your auto insurance policy, the more coverage you purchase, the less expensive it becomes; that is, your cost goes up in small increments while your protection goes up in significantly higher proportions. And you can decide which options you want to add to make your coverage more comprehensive.
7. Classic Car Insurance
If you’re among the thousands and thousands of collector car enthusiasts, you know the love affair is far from over. For you, it’s as strong as ever—maybe stronger! Whether you own a vintage car, a classic, a milestone, an antique or any other collector car, you’ve made the personal transition from “practical” to “passionate” by purchasing and caring for your prized possession.
No matter what category of car you own—and love—Paradiso Insurance can provide customized collector car insurance products to make sure both you and your car are protected.
8. Boat Insurance
With boat ownership comes a high degree of responsibility. One of the things you’re responsible for is making sure your boat is properly insured. That’s important because, as you probably know, operating a boat or other personal watercraft can cause substantial injury to other people. It also can result in heavy damage to other people’s property.
Boat insurance offers the much needed protection you need while enjoying life on the water.
9. Motorcycle Insurance
Hit a pothole or a rock, or find yourself in another driver’s blind spot, and that pleasure can turn to agony—for you, your bike, your accessories, and maybe someone around you. That’s why you need to get the right motorcycle policy.
10. RV Insurance
RVs can bring much pleasure. But if something goes wrong, it also can bring challenges. A blowout on a winding mountain road can be tough for a multi-ton piece of machinery to handle. Simply navigating unfamiliar streets brings on the risk of accidents.
To truly enjoy an RV requires that you properly protect and secure it. RV insurance can help you do just that.
11. Snowmobile Insurance
If you have a snowmobile insurance policy from, you’re prepared to recover financially from such mishaps—and a whole lot of other ones. Your snowy adventures won’t get cut short because you got the wrong coverage or, worse yet, because you had no protection because you thought your snow machine was covered under your homeowners or auto policy.
12. Teen Driver Insurance
Kids forget. They get distracted by passengers—or phones or pretty much anything else you could imagine. And sometimes they feel invincible. While these factors are understandable, they have another effect: they lead to higher accident rates, and that leads to higher insurance costs.
We’ve developed an auto insurance plan specifically tailored for such families. We understand the needs of teenage drivers—it wasn’t ALL that long ago we were teen drivers ourselves—and the worries they bring parents. Teen driver policy typically contains the coverage in a regular auto policy, such as collision, comprehensive, liability, etc.
13. Umbrella Insurance
If you don’t have enough primary coverage, any shortage may have to come out of your personal assets if you don’t have what’s called umbrella insurance. Such a policy offers exactly the type of coverage it sounds like it would; it provides an umbrella of added liability protection for you to stand under.
Basically, an umbrella insurance policy can protect you from liability issues that extend beyond the liability limits of standard auto, home, RV, boat or personal liability insurance policies. If a claim exceeds the liability coverage limits on one of these underlying policies, as they’re called, you’re protected.
14. Life Insurance
You might be asking yourself if life insurance is really necessary for you. The truth of the matter is that life insurance offers several benefits that you may not have previously considered.
Some of these benefits include:
- Replacing the income (after the death of a wage earner) that a family will need to survive
- Paying off loans (including mortgages, personal or business debts)
- The creation of a fund for the education of children in the family
- Coverage of final expenses, such as funeral costs/taxes
- The creation of an emergency fund which can serve to support family members in times of crisis
Life insurance can be just the thing you need to ensure security and comfort for your family.
15. Wedding and Event Insurance
Special event insurance sometimes called “wedding insurance” can help protect your investment in a private event such as a wedding. When you purchase event insurance, you have two coverage options: event cancellation and event liability protection. Here’s a look at how those coverages may help protect your wedding day.
owing the types of insurance coverage you need, can be tricky. There are policies for just about anything you can think of. And while you may not need all of them, you would be surprised at how many you do need.
The reason being each type of policy is designed to cover very specific “risks”. It’s a good idea to have a very basic knowledge of what the different types of coverages do to protect you. We don’t want to bog you down with a bunch of insurance lingo, so we’ll just touch on the highlights.