Basic Insurance Coverage Your Contracting Business Will Need

When we talk to our construction clients, we always do our best to make sure that everything we explain is easy to understand. In some circumstances, using industry jargon is unavoidable and can get confusing. The reason our customers hire us is because we are risk mitigatioin and insurance experts, and they are not. But it always helps to give our customers a basic understanding of the basic types of coverage they will need to protect their business operations.

General Business Liability

We customize every liability coverage limit to fit each customer needs, but there are basic types of general business liability every contractor should have to protect them from financial harm. In most cases, coverage equaling $1 million per incident and a $2 million general aggregate will cover your needs. We will also add in a $2 million products-completed operations product to give your coverage a comprehensive look.

General business liability insurance gets tricky when you try to decide how to apply it to your every day operations. We find that taking each incident at each job site as individual events and handling them as individual claims is the best approach to take.

Umbrella Liability

In the history of a contractor, there are moments when incidents occur that are not covered by their general liability insurance policy. We, in the insurance industry, like to refer to these as catastrophic events because they can be financially crippling. Instead of assuming that your general liability coverage will kick in for every event, we always add at least $1 million in umbrella coverage to act as a safety net.

Worker’s Compensation Coverage

As an employer, you have probably heard about your need for worker’s compensation insurance quite often. But what does it mean and how much do you need? We usually recommend a limit of bodily injury to $100,000 per accident. When we write a worker’s compensation policy, we include a limit of $500,000 on disease coverage, with a per employee limit for diseases of $100,000.

Automobile Accident and Liability Coverage

As a contractor, you already know that the insurance coverage for your company vehicles is much different than the coverage you get for your personal car. When it comes to accident and liability insurance for your work vehicles, we recommend a $1 million combined single limit per accident for your coverage. Remember that any type of accident involving your vehicles must be covered by the vehicle’s insurance and not your general liability insurance, so it is important to be covered.

One of the first aspects of your risk mitigation protection that we review with you is the insurance you will need to go about your daily work. In some cases, the very basic coverage limits will be more than enough to protect your business from financial disaster. But if we analyze your business and determine that stronger coverage is needed, then you can trust our experts to make recommendations that will make sense for your company.