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If you are going to start a business, you are probably going to be interested in setting yourself up with some good business liability insurance. Cost is, of course, not the only lines along which you should make your decision; you will definitely want to put some consideration into the quality of your insurer as well.
Business liability insurance common to nearly every industry and in most states is mandated to a certain degree. The system of business liability insurance that you purchase depends entirely on the industry for which you purchase it, and depending on what your business does, you may need to buy multiple forms of insurance. The four principle kinds of business liability insurance are general insurance (which is purchased by most businesses in some form or another and protects the business against injuries, damage to property and false advertisement claims), errors and omissions/malpractice (which is set in place to protect working professionals and their firms from neglect), product liability (used by manufacturers for protection from injuries or damage resulting from product malfunction), and Employment Practices Liability Insurance (which provides coverage from workplace maladies like discrimination, wrongful termination and sexual harassment). If you have to purchase more than one of these forms of business liability insurance, costs can be lowered through the purchase of umbrella insurance, which bundles multiple forms of insurance into a single premium, thereby reducing the overall cost.
The best and most well-known place to check for the quality of business liability insurance is at JD Power and associates, which is a long-standing organization devoted to conducting consumer satisfaction surveys. They provide a wealth of information that is readily available from their website, www.jdpower.com. You may also want to consider checking out your state’s Department of Insurance, who will be able to provide similar information about your choice of business liability insurance. Costs are, of course, not the only factor you want to consider, and both of these tools will provide you with tools to help know if the insurer you are purchasing from is reliable, or has a history of lawsuits and poor customer service.
