What business insurance do I need in Florida?

Are you wondering what types of business insurance you need in Florida? The truth of the matter is that it depends on the type of business you’re running, but in general, most businesses need liability insurance, property insurance, and business interruption insurance. If you’re a specialized business, like a daycare, church, or boat dealership, you may need insurance policies that are specially designed for those types of businesses.

Business Liability Insurance

Business liability insurance, also called general liability insurance, is essential for all businesses. This insurance policy protects you and your business if you are sued for causing harm with one of your products or services. It also covers you if you’re accused of libel, slander, and copyright infringement.

Property Insurance

Commercial property insurance is very similar to the property insurance you might buy as a homeowner. This insurance covers you if your business’s building or property is damaged by a covered event, including fire, vandalism, and theft. It also covers certain weather events, but not flooding.

Business Interruption Insurance

Business interruption insurance helps cover you if you cannot operate your business due to a covered event, like a fire. This insurance is designed to provide your business income while repairs are being made to your primary location. It may also be used to cover the expenses associated with working out of a temporary location.

Business Owners Policy

Some businesses choose to take out what is known as a business owner’s insurance policy. This is a bundled policy for commercial businesses that include property insurance, business interruption insurance, and liability protection. It can be less expensive to choose this policy versus purchasing each of these coverages separately.

Commercial Car Insurance

Commercial car insurance protects your business fleet of vehicles if any of your vehicles get into an accident. This insurance can be designed to cover cars, trucks, vans, and semis, including specialized trucks like dump trucks and refrigerated trucks. These policies typically include property damage, personal injury, comprehensive, collision, and underinsured and uninsured motorists coverage. This coverage can also be designed to cover vehicles that you rent for business purposes and your employees’ cars when they have to drive to a location for work, like taking a deposit to the bank or picking up a client from the airport.

Workers Compensation

If you own a business that has employees, you need workers’ compensation insurance. This coverage helps pay the medical expenses and lost wages for any employee that gets hurt on the job. Common injuries paid for by workers’ compensation include back injuries, cuts, and lacerations, injuries caused by slips and falls, and repetitive motion injuries, like carpel tunnel syndrome.

Commercial Umbrella Insurance

If you’re worried about low limits on your business insurance policies, getting a commercial umbrella policy may be the answer. Commercial umbrella insurance covers the cost difference between the maximum limit of your standard insurance policy and the true cost of the claim. For example, if you have a claim that is $500,000 and a policy limit of $200,000, your umbrella insurance may be used to cover the remaining $300,000.

Special Business Coverages

Some businesses require special coverages in order to ensure that you are fully financially protected against a monetary loss.

  • Church Insurance – Church insurance is specifically designed for the problems churches may encounter, like property damage, theft, and vandalism.
  • Boat Dealership Insurance – Boat dealership insurance is specifically designed for retailers that sell or rent new and used boats. This insurance typically includes general liability and marine garage liability.
  • School and Daycare Insurance – School and daycare insurance is designed to cover the unique needs of public and private schools, daycares, and homeschools, like liability insurance, personal injury, and certain types of damage, like from a fire, theft or vandalism.
  • Garage Insurance – If you own a mechanic’s shop, you likely need garage insurance, which helps cover the certain risks that can be associated with working on someone else’s vehicle.
  • Restaurant Insurance – Restaurants often need enhanced coverage for general liability, property damage, food contamination, commercial auto insurance (if they have delivery vehicles), and workers’ compensation to cover on-the-job injuries, like burns and cuts.
  • Contractor Insurance – If you own a construction company or company that specializes in a trade, you likely need contractors’ insurance. This type of insurance policy covers contracts for things like personal injuries, vandalism, theft, bad workmanship, damages and injuries caused by faulty tools, equipment damage, property damage, delays, missed deadlines, and seasonal downtime.

Business Insurance Policies with Fearnow

Our agents at Fearnow can help you find the right insurance policies for your business, even if you have a specialized business, like a garage that specifically works on watercraft or a daycare that specializes in watching babies and toddlers, or a large restaurant with lots of employees that sees a high volume of seasonal customers.

To learn more about our business and commercial insurance policies in Florida and to get a quote, call us at 813-689-8878.