The Difference Between Commercial Insurance Brokers And Agents
Do you know what commercial insurance brokers do? People often get the impression that a commercial insurance broker is the same as an insurance agent but they are not. While an insurance agent works from one company and tries to sell you everything from that company, a commercial insurance broker will sell you policies from different companies where she works from.
In addition, the main goal for a broker will be to work for you who is the client or the business owner. Therefore, if you go to commercial property insurance brokers, you will be given lots of offers with no restrictions just like a home insurance broker. Since they often deal with large sum of money from other insurance companies, they will be able to lay out different plans for your business. Hence, a broker creates you a policy and spreads it to various insurance companies to be approved.
For example you own a taxi company with a good number of units. Since none of these units are insured. You decide to go to a commercial auto insurance broker to assist you in looking for the best car insurance deals available in the market. In the process, you will need to provide your broker with all your information and the number of units you want insured. With all the data gathered and all your demands taken into consideration, your broker will then devise a policy and submit your information to different insurance companies.
One more example would be for large companies and corporations. If you are someone with a big business with a good number of employees and customers, then you should also have an insurance to cover for any problems. For instance you have 20 different companies in 20 different states. Some are factories and others are retail stores. With this as given, it will be very hard to manage if each has a lot of insurance policies. It would be a lot easier to make one payment to only one company. For that, you can seek the assistance of a general insurance broker. With a general insurance broker, you cam regulate the flow of your insurances into one payment. Furthermore, you can also save money from hiring a staff to deal with each of your businesses when finding insurance.
Types of Home Insurance
There are several types of home insurance you can buy. Some are more common than others, but they are all important to know about. They all have their place for your house.
Mortgage Insurance
This is probably the most common one to have, mostly because you have to have it in order to get a mortgage. Mortgage insurance pays the lender a claim should you default on your mortgage. It's pretty standard for most homeowners. It is usually required if you are putting less than 20% down payment.
Home Content Insurance
This is pretty much the same thing as renter's insurance. For home content insurance, the policy pays a claim should you lose or damage items inside your home that is covered under the policy. It covers items that may have lost, stolen or damaged for whatever reason.
You want to generally insurance only the most valuable assets in your home. Make sure to document the covered items so you have evidence of owning it and that it was undamaged at some point in your ownership.
Homeowners Insurance
Home contents insurance is a subset of the overall category of homeowners insurance. These policies cover the property itself for liability, casualty, loss, damage, etc. Each policy has it's own set of things it covers.
Fire, Wind and Flood Insurance
There are additional coverages you might want to get. Fire insurance covers fire losses and damage. Wind covers damage from hurricanes or tornados. Flood insurance covers flood damage.
You current homeowners insurance policy may not cover these specific type of damages so make sure you read the fine print. The homeowners in New Orleans got screwed when they a regular homeowners insurance policy but the damage was classified as flood insurance, so the companies didn't pay out.
Depending on where you live, you might be required to carry one of these special insurance policies. Make sure you know what the requirements are. Also, don't try to get cheap insurance just because you are required to have it. There is a reason that kind of insurance is required for your house.
Types Of Commercial Insurance That All New Businesses Should Have
If you're starting a new business, you should know about the types of commercial insurance that your business should carry. Although this may not be the most interesting part of starting a new business, it can be one of the most important things that you can do for your business. You can do everything perfect when it comes to running your business and have a very profitable year but if you are sued, all of your hard work and effort will have been for nothing if you don't have adequate commercial insurance.
There are basically three types of commercial insurance that new businesses should carry. The first is property insurance. Property Insurance will cover your physical place of business in the event that there is a disaster such as a fire or an earthquake. It's important to understand when purchasing property insurance that not all disasters are automatically covered. Some disasters such as floods are not covered under standard property insurance policies. They must be purchased as ad on policies.
The next type of insurance that you should concern yourself with is liability insurance. This may be the most important insurance that you can carry on your business. Liability insurance will protect your business in the event that you or one of your employees does something that causes injuries or financial loss to another entity.
The last type of insurance to concern yourself with is workers' compensation insurance. Depending upon the municipality where your business is licensed, you may not have any choice as to whether not you carry a workers' compensation insurance. In many cases workers' compensation insurance is required to do business. Even if it isn't required, it makes sense to have workers' compensation insurance policy in the event that one of your employees is accidentally injured. If you don't have this type of insurance and one of your employees is injured on the job, you will be on the hook for paying for all of their medical bills and lost wages. This can devastate a business and completely bankrupt it.
