Business Insurance
Business Insurance branch

Business insurance is usually separated into two categories, packages and commercial combined insurance. Covers tend to be fixed under the package products but almost any activity and assets can be covered under a commercial combined.

Often insurers will give a ‘maximum’ level of cover automatically within a policy. These are usually fixed and cannot be removed or at the least will not impact the premium if they are removed. A common umbrella limit is ‘£500,000 gross profit’ under a package policy. This removes some of the barriers to arranging this type of covers for smaller businesses by giving a large enough limit that should cover the majority of customer’s needs.

Commercial combined insurance is best described as a policy which clients are able to tailor to their needs. This product will allow an insured to pick which covers they want as well as sums insured above and beyond limits usually provided under package policies.

Any businesses with employee’s will require Employers Liability cover to meet the requirements set out in the Employers Liability Act 1969. There are other covers which are required by the law but the vast majority of covers are optional including in the vast majority of cases Public Liability cover.

Policies for a single tradesman can be as low as £65 per annum for the right trade. Some of our larger client will pay 100’s of Thousands however Business Insurance tends to be relative to your size and usually segmented by the industry you are in.

With a commercial combined policy, you can tailor cover to suit your needs. You can on occasion also buy individual policies that cover a narrow set of insurance needs. An example is a transit insurance policy which only provides cover for goods in transit.

Policies vary greatly. Some products, like high net worth private household policies give very broad cover including warranty free policies whilst other policies may restrict cover to very narrow set of conditions using policy wordings. It is also true that insurers approach to claims handling varies greatly and you should always enquire as to how well an insurer deals with claims.

A package insurance product is usually designed for a specific trade or sector and will include a variety of standard cover. Often these cover give umbrella limits of cover which cannot be removed. Often you will find package products for Retailers, Licenced trades and tradesman.

Yes, although usually you will need to request this be added to your policy. It is worth considering, especially if you have a large glass frontage.

Some policies, aimed at consumers, will have a cooling off period. Other policies will offer a pro rate cancellation refund. Some policies will be minimum and deposit. This means all the premium is due from the moment you take up the policy with no refunds given.

This is a non-refundable insurance usually reserved for some motor policies or liability insurance. If a policy is minimum and deposit, this should be brought to your attention at the time you buy the policy.

This is when a proportional amount of the premium is refunded in line with the amount of time that remained on the policy.

The answer is an emphatic yes! Most insurers will ask you a direct question in relation to liquidation or bankruptcies, it may be for a limited period or ask you to declare any incidents ever. It’s really important to answer the question correctly as this is often an area that comes up when insurers are investigating claims.

On some occasions they do via selected registers. The best approach is to declare everything you think is relevant and thus removing any concerns you may have about historical data.

Only if you have no leeway within your policy and are required to do so under the terms of the wording. Most policies that require a turnover to be declared will be based on a year-end adjustable basis. This means that provided you do not exceed any of the triggers (i.e. exceed 25% or 50% of declared turnover) then you can wait until renewal and make a declaration. Insurers will reserve the right to charge if the amount is higher than the original declared amount. You will need to check what allowances your policy makes.

Property Insurance is the broad term used to give for policies, or sections of policies which provide cover for physical assets. This could be for buildings, contents, stock, computers or anything that is tangible.

This is a policy, or a section of a policy which provides protection for the possible loss of profits and/or to give you help in re-establishing your business to the position that it was in prior to the loss. Business interruption claims usually requires a physical incident to occur in tandem with any BI claim. There are several bases for insuring business interruption although the most popular way is by declaring the insurance gross profit estimate. We have a handy calculator to help with this.

This cover is usually provided as section of a policy and will give you protection for money that is stolen and some other perils. There will be various sections and inner limits which will provide clarity on what amount of cover you have for money in safes, left in premises overnight, in transit and any other requirements you will have?

Insurers, on occasion will give an overall limit of cover for a section of their policy and then restrict a specific part of this cover to what is known as an inner limit. An example is a Public Liability policy which gives £2,000,000 of cover but will restrict the cover given to £100,000 for any claims related to a specific activity.

These are the risk insurers give covers for. Examples are: fire, water damage, theft, malicious damage, earthquake, storm, subsidence and accidental cover.