Four Types of Insurance Every Business Owner Needs

How could it be that there are available insurance policies that a broker doesn’t always sell you, but you actually need? Amazing, but true. I have reviewed hundreds of businesses over my tenure as an advisor. Here are a few types of insurance that are extremely useful, and often missing.

Business Interruption Insurance

This type of contract, purchased from a business insurance (property and casualty) broker allows a business owner to open a new office / shop / location when the place where the business is maintained becomes damaged due to fire, power outage, etc., over a long period. Very useful and quite cheap.

Umbrella Insurance (Personal and Business)

This type of contract, purchased from a business insurance (property and casualty) broker covers litigation amounts in excess to your liability coverage. For example, if your vehicles coverage in NY is $300,000/$500,000 and you are successfully sued for $1,000,000, the balance ($500,000) would come from the umbrella policy, not your savings or income over decades.

Business Overhead Expense Insurance

This type of contract, purchased from a disability insurance broker, will pay upon claim all of the pre-approved regular monthly expenses of a small business up to $50,000 a month, in the event that the business owner is disabled from an illness or accident for up to two years.

Short Term Disability Voluntary Insurance

This type of contract, purchased from a disability insurance broker (not all sell this), is paid for by the employee through payroll deduction and pays cash to the insured within 10 days for loss of work due to illness or accident, thus preventing that same employee from coming in to work sick (hiding it), claiming they got injured or sick on the job and hurting your workers comp premiums. This is very, very useful, and must be offered non-discriminatorily to all employees.

*All investment advice given by Jeanne Brutman is just opinion. Please consult with your financial professional for a more thorough discussion of what is appropriate for you.