General Liability Insurance for Small Business Overview: A Quick Beginner’s Guide to Policies

Each business has its own needs, but you still want to make sure you are covered by some insurance, no matter how small your company is. In short, general liability insurance for small business tends to cover things like personal liability for members and the consequences associated with third party claims for property damage / injury. You can add additional items of medical injury for yourself and damage for your own property.

When you are looking over CGL policies, you’ll see terms such as “General Aggregate Limit”. This refers to the advertising or personal injury, medical payments, and/or fire damage. “Operations coverage” refers to the basic coverage afforded for property damage and bodily injury due from your or an employee’s negligence.

You might also see “Products and Completed Operations Limit” depending on your line of work. This coverage includes protection for those who manufacture or sell a particular product, or are contractors providing services. If damage occurs and your product or negligent service could be responsible, you’ll obviously face a lawsuit. This is a type of separate aggregate limit and the claims of its nature will not reduce the General Aggregate Limit, although it will still be subject to limits such as “Per Occurrence Limit” for each claim.

General Liability Insurance for Small Business Limits and Claims

The “Per Occurrence Limit” refers to the maximum amount that the policy will pay for a single claim arising from your Personal or Advertising Injury / Operations / Products and Completed Operations. Each of these claims WILL decrease the separate aggregate limit.

A few other terms you’ll find include Personal and Advertising injury, Fire Damage, Medical Payments, Bodily Injury, and Damage to 3rd Party Property, which are all self-explanatory.

Your industry will also play a role in the exact type of coverage you need. When searching for general liability insurance for small business, see if there is any tailored insurance available. Choose a company that specializes in businesses such as yours and have coverage tailored to risks prevalent in your particular field. Consider the risks you’ll likely be facing that might not be covered in a GCL or Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) and have those risks included in your coverage.

Another very important thing to look for is claims responsiveness. Only get general liability insurance for small business from a company that has a lot of positive reviews – especially regarding its claims response time. Claims should be easy and fast to process. One provider in particular to start with is Hiscox Business Insurance. The rates are fare, claims process is fast, and Hiscox offers free, instant quotes on its website.