When it comes to buying insurance for your business, not knowing the difference between claims-made and occurrence plans can be an expensive error. Getting a claims-made or occurrence policy will have a significant impact not just on the cost of your coverage. But also, on the lifecycle of your coverage. Professional liability and directors and officers policies are often claims-made policies, whereas most general liability policies are occurrence policies. Let’s take a closer look at what these two terms mean for you and the coverage you’re buying.
Occurrence Policy
An occurrence policy will cover claims for acts or incidents that occurred while your coverage was active. Even if your insurance expired or you canceled it, if the event occurred during the policy period, the claim would be covered. Because of the length of coverage, these policies can be more expensive than claims-made policies.
Claims-Made Policy
A claims-made insurance only provides coverage if you file a claim within the policy period. Your insurer will provide coverage if an insurable event occurred after the policy’s retroactive date. A claims-made policy covers claims made while your insurance is still in effect. You will be uninsured if you terminate your policy or if you fail to pay your premiums and the insurer cancels it. D&O insurance is a common type of claims-made coverage, as is professional liability insurance, commonly known as E&O or malpractice insurance.
Medical malpractice insurance, for example, is frequently offered as a claims-made policy due to the high related expenses. But it may have lower average premiums than if offered as an occurrence-based policy. You have the option to purchase an extension for “tail coverage.” This is an addition to a claims-made policy that will expand your contract to include incidents that took place while your policy was active, even if the claims are submitted after your policy has expired. It should be noted, however, that this add-on only covers a limited time. Usually up to 3-5 years after the insurance expires.
Retroactive Date
Our policy covers incidents that occur on or after a specific date. Assume you have professional liability insurance on a claims-made basis. Your coverage begins in January 2021 and is retroactive to November 2019. If a client sues you in February 2021 for an incident that occurred in December 2019. Your insurer may be able to assist in covering the claim because it occurred after your retroactive date and the claim was reported during your policy period.
Extended Reporting Period
This helps to cover claims filed after your coverage has expired for a defined period of time. It usually lasts between 30 and 60 days. So, if your insurance expires in December 2021 and you have a 60-day extended reporting period. Your insurer may be able to assist you in covering claims made during this time period. This is also referred to as tail coverage.
Limits
When it comes time to buy your insurance coverage, you must decide on an aggregate limit. An aggregate limit is the highest amount of coverage that an insurer is willing to pay for the total amount of compensated losses during the policy period. In essence, you should consider how much coverage you wish to have.
Occurrence Limits
Policy limits apply only to situations that fall within the designated policy term. Only claims generated by events occurring during the policy term and eventually paid will count towards the available policy limits. It is important to remember that defense costs are normally covered outside of the policy limitations and have no bearing on the amount of insurance offered. Occurrence insurance limits, on the other hand, will be reset every year upon renewal.
As a result, if your limit is $1 million and $500,000 in claims were paid during the previous policy year, your renewal limit will be $1 million as well. However, you would still have $500,000 remaining on the last policy year for any later claims. As a result, you may have policy limits available for future use to insure previously unknown claims.
Claims-Made Limits
The essential factor in calculating claims-made limits is whether or not the policy covers earlier acts. Furthermore, unlike an occurrence policy, these insurance contracts usually include defense costs up to the set limit. As a result, as policies renew, the policy limit might be extended to cover longer periods of time than the standard 12 months. And defense costs will reduce the available insurance. As a result, if you buy a $1 million claims-made policy and pay $500,000 in claims that year, any future claims reported after the expiration date should be covered by the subsequent renewal via a Full Prior Acts Endorsement or a Retroactive Date Endorsement.
As a result, your renewal policy limit would cover both the prior policy’s past unknown claims as well as any events that occur during the current year. In this regard, your current claims-made insurance protects you for a period of more than a year. Unlike an event policy, the expired policy does not provide any residual limits to cover you from prior incidents. You must use your current policy limit to cover any unknown historical claims. However, if you obtained “tail coverage” under your expired insurance, your past claims would be addressed while your current policy limit would be unaffected.
Claims-made plans often establish premiums for the following policy year’s claims, however an occurrence contract will price for both current and future year claims. As a result, you should examine the premium dynamics listed below:
Step Rates
In the case of claims-made, both the event and the reported claim must occur during the coverage period. This indicates that the risk of loss in the first year of the policy is relatively low, and so the first-year premiums for claims-made coverage are often lower. As you renew your insurance policy, the period of coverage is extended through a Full Prior Acts or Retroactive Date endorsement, exposing the insurance company to extra risk. Because prior actions are included, premiums will change incrementally over the first four years of a claims-made policy, which is known as the claims-made step factor.
Mature Rates
By the fifth year of claims-made coverage, the risk of loss should have leveled out, indicating that the claims-made step factor has matured. Mature claims-made rates and regular occurrence coverage rates end up costing around the same.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Even when you understand the benefits and drawbacks of claims-made and occurrence plans. It’s difficult to prove that one is superior to the other. The truth is that the only way to decide which type to purchase is to determine which one best meets the needs of your company.
Convenience
One of the primary benefits of occurrence plans is that they need less work to own and manage them. This implies that if you change insurance companies, you won’t have to worry about being covered for incidents that occurred while you were insured by someone else.
If you transfer insurers or cancel your insurance, claims-made policies become a little more difficult. If you do decide to transfer carriers you must get a Retroactive Date or a Prior Acts Endorsement. As well as maybe “tail coverage” to protect yourself. On the other hand, if you do nothing, any past claims that arise will be lost, and you will be uninsured.
Coverage
Occurrence plans also provide better peace of mind because the limit is only imposed for a 12-month period. On the other hand, because it may apply to many years of risk, your claims made limit may be exhausted sooner.
Cost
As we’ve noted above, claims-made policies are cheaper than occurrence policies. This is because occurrence policies still cover claims even after the insurer has stopped receiving premiums. So, the more expensive premiums help make up for the money an insurer may have to pay out for a future claim. With claims-made policies, you’re actively paying premiums when the insurer is taking on the risk. So, it costs them less and in turn costs you less.
Working With EZ
We understand that there is a lot to learn while shopping for commercial insurance. However, the effort spent studying is worthwhile. Getting the correct type of insurance for your business can make the difference between safeguarding it and losing everything you’ve worked for. Keep in mind that you don’t have to go it alone – EZ.Insure is here to assist you. Throughout the shopping experience, we focus on each customer individually and provide a helpful environment. To get a quote enter your zip code in the bad below. We want to assist you in making the best decision and saving the most money. There is no bother, no obligation to purchase, and no more worries. Best of all, everything is absolutely free. Call one of our agents immediately at 877-670-3538 to get started.
You’ve finally made it, you are your own boss and you run your business out of your home. You’re not alone. There are currently more than 20 million people in the country who work from home. Of those, almost 70% are running their own home-based business. The question is, is your home business properly insured or are you one of the many who are underinsured because you assume your homeowner’s insurance will cover your business? Below we’ll go over what business insurance policies you may need and why.
Homeowners Insurance Is Not Enough
While you were starting your company, you know doubt gave a lot of thought to many different aspects. What kind of business, what supplies you need, how shipping works etc. We’ve got one more to add to your long list of worries. If you think that your homeowners policy you have is enough to cover your business against damages and liability, you’re more than likely wrong. The typical homeowner’s insurance policy will only pay out for up to $2,500 in damages inside the home. And only about $100,000 for liability. In some cases it won’t even cover anything for claims related to a business. Additionally, some parts of your homeowner’s insurance can be actually void if you’re operating a business out of your home without other proper coverage.
Policies You Need
Now that you know your home business needs specialized policies, you will need to give some thought to the kind of insurance coverage that your specific business needs. First ask yourself a few questions:
What is my business property’s value?
Do I have employees?
Do I use a vehicle for my business?
What type of risks are associated with my business?
Do customers come into my home?
Do I digitally store sensitive information?
Once you’ve answered those questions it’s time to think about the policies that will work best for your business. Since Business insurance for a home-based business typically consists of a variety of different policies. You’ll want to carefully consider whether or not you will need more than one of the following types of protection:
Commercial Property Insurance
This policy will provide protection for all of the physical property associated with your company from damages and accidents. Such as fire, theft, or vandalism. If the value of the equipment in your home office is more than what your homeowners insurance policy will cover, or if you keep more than $10,000 worth of inventory in your home, you may need this insurance. Even if you don’t use the expensive equipment on your own property, such as landscaping equipment or handyman tools, if you store the equipment and use it elsewhere you will also need this policy. If you don’t keep any high-value business property at your home, or if your homeowners policy will cover damages, you may not need it. For instance if you are a freelancer and only use your personal laptop for work, then you probably do not need commercial property insurance.
Commercial liability covers claims made by third parties (customers, clients, general public). This type of business insurance will pay for any legal defense expenses if your company is sued for causing bodily injury, damage to property, or advertising injury. This includes anything from hiring an attorney to paying court-ordered settlements and any other legal costs that arise. This policy is needed for any home-business that interacts with customers or clients. You’ll want to have at least $500,000 of coverage to protect you against any potential claims that may be made against your business. Specifically if you work off-site with the general public or if you have customers or clients that come to your home for any reason.
Having a home-based business means you probably use your computer and the internet. Whether it be to store client information, payments, and even client’s products (such as graphic design or writing if you’re a freelancer). If you use any kind of technology you need to protect your business against the threats that come with that technology. These threats include hackers and data leaks and can damage your company beyond repair. With cyber liability your business will be covered for any losses that stem from the cyber attack. This includes investigating services, data recovery, and identity recovery. It can even cover damage to your customers or business partners such as legal fees, customer notifications, and settlement costs.
If part of your business provides intangible services, such as financial advice, providing personal training, doing someone’s taxes, or consulting, you will need this policy. This policy will cover your business if a customer sues you for damages that result from your advice or consulting. It also covers your business if you don’t meet a deadline, breach your contract, or are accused of negligence. In most cases a standard liability policy will not pay out for this form of damage as it’s not physical. So, it’s important to have if any part of your business involves giving professional advice in any way.
If you have any employees, workers’ compensation should be something you look into. It covers the lost wages, medical costs, and death benefits in the event that your employee is injured or becomes sick or passes away from a work related incident. Depending on the state you live in, you might legally have to have this policy. Some states require any business with at least one employee (besides yourself) to have it while others only require it if you have a certain number of employees. To find out more about the workers’ compensation laws in your state check out our workers’ compensation state by state guides.
Commercial auto insurance is just like personal auto insurance except it’s specifically meant to cover vehicles used for business purposes. It covers damages and medical costs that come from unexpected car accidents as long as the vehicle belongs to a business or was operating for work. This could be a truck and trailer for landscaping, a van you use to haul goods. Or even your personal vehicle if you meet with clients or deliver things to your clients personally. Your personal auto insurance will only provide limited coverage. And may not even cover your vehicle at all if it were being used for business purposes. This could leave you with massive debts that could be avoided with the proper insurance.
Health Insurance
We know, health insurance doesn’t sound like business insurance. However, being self-employed means, you don’t get benefits like a group health insurance plan through an employer. Because YOU’RE your employer. This is commonly overlooked and health insurance for yourself is just as important as any other business insurance. Because protecting yourself protects your business. You’ll want to look into getting yourself an individual policy. Or a family policy if you have dependents or a spouse. This makes sure you stay healthy and never have to dip into the money your business relies on to pay for expensive medical bills. Because you are your business, without you, everything comes to a halt.
Add-Ons and Packages
That seems like a lot of insurance, especially if you have a generally small business at the moment. There are easier ways to cover your small business if you don’t actually need the full extent of the coverages listed above. There are add-ons and packages specifically meant to give your smaller business property and liability insurance but on a more reasonable scale. These options are:
Endorsements – As we noted above, your homeowners policy might cover some damages but not all. If your home-based business generates less than $5,000 a year you might be able to add a business endorsement to your standard homeowners policy. This endorsement will increase the amount of your standard policy. As well as ensure none of your homeowners policy is void due to having a home-based business.
In-home business policy – These policies are essentially business owner’s policies (BOP), a combination of property and liability coverage, but on a smaller scale. These packages will allow you to bundle smaller business property insurance and liability policies without the cost for coverage that a standard BOP would offer. Typically, the packages will include up to $10,000 in property coverage. And allow you to add anywhere from $300,000 to $1million in liability coverage. This bundle is much more affordable than buying standalone commercial property and commercial liability coverage.
Don’t Stress With EZ
All this information may be overwhelming and a lot to process, especially considering how much you already have going on as a business owner. EZ.Insure is here to assist you, whether you are confused, need help enrolling, or in need of some guidance. We are able to put you in touch with a representative who will answer any questions that you might have. You will have access to one highly trained agent. Who will direct you in the direction of the policy that is best suited for your work from home business.
To discuss your commercial insurance needs with one of our representatives over the phone, please dial 877-670-3538. If you are interested in health insurance that we discussed, you can reach us at 877-670-3557. You can also get a free instant quote by entering your zip code in the box below. You will never be harassed by an endless stream of sales calls, and there will never be any fees associated with using any of our services. Let us do the heavy lifting so you can focus on building your business.
