THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2021
Why You Need More Coverage than a BOP Alone
Small businesses want to have strong insurance benefits in place. After all, they often have the most to lose in case of a significant financial challenge.
One way for small business owners to get a lot of their commercial benefits in one convenient place is to buy a business owners policy (BOP). BOPs offer numerous essential policies in a single package, and will save the business owner both easy policy management and affordability.
However, BOPs are not all-encompassing, which is why small businesses usually need several supplementary benefits alongside the BOP itself. Here’s why.
BOPs are designed to provide small businesses with their most-essential insurance coverage in one place. Policies usually offer:
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Property & Structure Coverage
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Possessions/Contents Coverage
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Commercial General Liability (CGL) Coverage
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Business Interruption Coverage
You can choose the coverage limits and deductibles within your plan to reflect the comprehensive value of your policy. You also can adapt the terms of the BOP to address any special circumstances within your operation.
However, all BOPs have a stopping point, which is why you often must invest in other policies, too. Therefore, your BOP will be only one part of a comprehensive portfolio of commercial insurance options that your business carries.
How Can You Get Extra Coverage?
As you are enrolling in your BOP, your insurance agent will work with you to determine the precise terms of your plan. At that time, they can also help you figure out precisely which additional policies you will need.
In some cases, you can add extra coverage into your BOP as a policy endorsement that expands the package. However, in others, you have to buy separate policies. There are many stand-alone policies that are essential (and often required) for all small businesses.
Just a few of the policies that you might purchase alongside your BOP include:
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Workers’ compensation insurance to pay for the costs of injuries sustained by employees on the job. Most states require businesses to have these benefits.
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Commercial auto insurance that insures company-owned vehicles and employee-drivers.
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Cyber liability insurance that will protect clients and the business in case of data breaches, cyber theft or other system failures.
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Errors & omissions (E&O) insurance to apply to third-party liability losses arising from mistakes in your professional services or advice.
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Equipment breakdown insurance that pays for repairs and lost income from failures in critical equipment.
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Umbrella liability insurance that can cover your existing CGL (and other policies’) liabilities in excess of the basic limits.
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Flood insurance if your property lies in an area of flood risks.
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Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) policies will pay in case you face accusations of mishandling of employment terms, harassment, discrimination, etc.
Talk to your agent about how you need to augment your business insurance beyond having a traditional BOP. They can help you deduce your coverage needs so you never have to select benefits arbitrarily.
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