Rais Insurance » Business Insurance California

How to safely reopen your business?

raisinsurance2014 — Fri, 28 May 2021 13:01:23 +0000

The widespread loss caused by COVID-19 has had a long-term impact on businesses across industries. At the same time, it also opened up more avenues for business insurance California. Having a financial umbrella over your company can help retrieve claims for loss of business and other liability concerns.

Before opening your business to the general public, make sure to review your existing coverage to know more about controlling losses. Moreover, you shall also need to check if the business insurance policy is fit to cover COVID-19 related expenses. And to understand these factors, let us read through the following explanations on re-opening business amidst a pandemic.

Insurance and Business Interruptions

Business interruption policy can come in handy when re-opening your enterprise. Many operations had shut their doors in the initial phases and followed the lockdown restrictions to avoid infection.

Now, with more companies re-opening their doors, there can be frequent claims for business interruption insurance. Such coverages help compensate for lost revenues, taxes, rent, employee wages, loan payments, and more.

The criteria for a business interruption policy is direct physical damage. You can only seek claim it is so. However, COVID-19 infection cannot physically damage business. However, the infection contaminates physical surfaces, which can spread via employees’ physical contact. A widespread infection, such as the corona, causes all factory operations to be halted until further notice, resulting in business disruption.

These scenarios can be valid for some insurers to release coverages for the client’s business interruption insurance.

Workers’ Compensation Policies

Worker’s Compensation Insurance kicks in if an employee contracts the COVID-19 infection at the workplace. As a result of this, several workers’ compensation programmes may be activated. Now, the payout is only possible if the infection or disease covered is occupational. It implies that COVID-19 might not be covered. However, there are general scenarios that can trigger a workers’ compensation claim, such as:

If an airline employee gets it from a passenger.
The employee is a first-line worker and contacted by a patient.
If the employee contracted the infection while working at a large gathering hosted by their employer.

Liability Insurance

The word “liability insurance” refers to an insurance plan that covers an insured person from claims arising from injury caused to other people or damage to someone’s property. If after re-opening, your business is negligent about COVID-19 protocols, you may end up paying liability fines. There can be multiple incidents that may hold the business liable.

Directors and officers (D&O) insurance: D&O liability insurance protects an individual from personal losses if they are sued while working as a director/officer of a firm. It may also cover legal fees and other expenses incurred by the organisation as a result of the lawsuit. If your company fails to communicate and respond to the COVID-19 in a timely manner, you will be held accountable to your shareholders. As a result, it is a company’s responsibility to maintain good financial performance in order to keep stakeholders and shareholders trusting.

General liability insurance: General or commercial liability insurance can help the business when it suffers any financial loss. These losses can be from misplaced advertisements, destruction of property, employee injury within the firm, and more. Covid-related injuries are mostly about infection at the workplace, inability to compensate employees, etc. Hence, a business should prepare for policies that help reimburse for negligent behavior that can put others at the risk of COVID-related problems.

The takeaway here is, the best way to re-open a firm, is to keep an eye out for proper business insurance California to handle loss-related expenses.

Small Businesses Fire Insurance: Protect Your Business from Fire Hazards

raisinsurance2014 — Sun, 02 May 2021 12:59:30 +0000

For small businesses, fire is one of the most frequent and costly insurance claims. Here’s how business insurance California ensures that you are both physically and financially safe from the threat of fire.

A fire does more than just burning your property. It can make you responsible for the damage caused to the property or possessions of customers or other third parties. What’s more, it can also put the company’s operations to a halt. Thus, taking initiatives to minimize the risks and getting the right insurance will help you reduce the likelihood of a fire – and help you recover if one occurs.

Here are some business insurance policies that you may consider for repairing your fire-damaged property and keeping your business running.

Commercial property insurance: If you own a property, commercial property insurance covers it as well as the possessions inside, such as appliances, inventory, etc. Commercial property insurance policies are comparatively affordable and allow you to monitor your insurance expenses by determining how you want to be reimbursed in the event of a failure. You can choose between receiving the replacement costs on all brand-new products or the cash value.

General liability insurance: This commercial insurance policy offers protection against potential risks such as property damage, third-party injury, as well as defamation lawsuits. This liability policy covers the expenses of any customer property that was damaged in the event of a commercial fire. If a client, vendor, or other third party is injured as a result of a fire at your business, a general liability policy can pay to cover their injuries.

Business owner’s policy (BOP): For many small businesses, a BOP is a wise investment as this plan usually saves you money by combining your general liability and commercial property insurance under one policy. For example, if a computer repair shop suffered an electrical fire, a BOP would pay for the loss of your own equipment. It would also cover any of your customers’ personal property that was damaged or destroyed. For example, if you own a computer repairing shop, BOP would compensate for the destruction of your own equipment if your shop suffers an electrical fire. Additionally, it will also compensate for any damaged or lost personal property of your customers. However, not every small business owner is eligible for a BOP. Therefore, make sure you consult an insurance agent to find out if you are eligible.

Business income insurance: Also known as Business Interruption Insurance, this insurance scheme is available as a supplement to BOPs and covers operating expenses such as salaries, rent payments, debt payments, relocation expenses, etc. When an unfortunate incident, such as a fire or natural disaster, forces the company to close temporarily or find a temporary office space, this extra coverage comes into effect.

Commercial auto insurance: If you own a company vehicle, you’re probably legally obligated to have a commercial auto policy. This business insurance California assists in covering the costs of associated injuries and property damage in the case of an accident. It can also safeguard your vehicles from fire hazards.

Any improvements to your company, such as the purchase of equipment or the implementation of new policies, can have a huge impact on the need for fire insurance for your company, fire prevention equipment, and employee safety training. Keep an eye on these developments to achieve the best possible security.

How Much Does Small Business Insurance Cost?

raisinsurance2014 — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 12:34:44 +0000

Starting one’s own business is a big step to take all on its own when one has no experience or safety net to fall back on if things were to go wrong. A business owner must be mindful of certain factors that combine to make a business successful or the least, safeguard it from any potential risks involved. One such essential factor is business insurance.

What is business insurance?

To explain briefly, business insurance is insurance coverage that protects business owners from any losses incurred due to unforeseeable circumstances that may cause damage to someone or an employee-related risk. It protects one from any potential liability claims that could arise and cause financial losses.

Cost of business insurance
The price of any insurance policy depends on the coverage a policyholder chooses and the premium they can afford to pay. A low-cost business insurance could be priced at as low as $42 based on the kind of coverage you go for. It must be noted that the cost of a business insurance policy also depends on numerous factors such as the industry you’re part of, location, the size of the business, etc.
For example, a sole proprietor of a clothing business working out of his/her home will have lesser risks involved and might end up paying $ xxx annually towards low cost business insurance but someone who owns a bigger business, has 100 employees, a factory and a warehouse might end up paying $ xxxx annually towards business insurance.

Factors That Influence The Cost Of Business Insurance

● Policy type- There are two standard types of liability policies that most businesses go for; general liability and professional liability. Both cover different kinds of liabilities and general liability is cheaper in comparison to professional liability. General liability covers someone else’s claim to bodily injuries or reputation damage by slander or libel whereas professional liability covers risks such as errors and omissions, malpractices in the provision of services by your business.
● Size of business – The size of one’s business determines the amount they pay for in business insurance annually. The bigger your business, the more risks involved in running it.
● Location – The location of where you set up your business affects business insurance too. Local laws, potential geographic risks, state laws and more influence the cost of insurance.
● Industry – If you are part of an industry that has a higher risk profile, you are more likely to pay higher towards insurance than someone with a low-risk profile business.
● Number of employees – In many instances, businesses with larger numbers of employees pay higher amounts for business insurance. The more you cover in workers compensation and the number of claims of professional liability directly affects how much you pay in premiums towards business insurance.
● Equipment Age & Type – If you own a business that involves the use of equipments that are either old or hard to repair or both, the insurance company will charge you more than they would charge a business with lesser equipment or easy to repair machinery.
While these factors determine the cost of business insurance, you must always take a quotation from more than two to three insurance companies to access and analyze which policy is the best for your business.