As a business owner, you know that you need some type of business insurance to protect you against liability in case you’re sued over property damage, bodily injury, or other personal injury. Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance is often the first type of coverage that business owners look at, but there are important commercial insurance exclusions that apply to this type of coverage that you need to be aware of to ensure you’re fully protected in all situations.
WHAT IS COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY?
A CGL policy will cover you if you are determined to be liable for damage or personal injury from an accident resulting from work your company did. For example, if one of your employees was installing flooring, and part of it came loose, causing a bystander to fall and injure themselves, your CGL policy would cover your legal fees as well as the injured person’s medical bills.
COMMERCIAL INSURANCE EXCLUSIONS
A CGL policy will not cover you, however, if the only damage done is to the property you were working on, or if the damage or injury occurred outside of the policy period.
Also typically excluded from these types of policies is the work itself, if it needs to be redone, and injuries to your employees. Fortunately, there are other types of business insurance policies available to protect you in these and other eventualities.
TYPES OF BUSINESS INSURANCE
- Professional Liability Insurance – This will protect you against negligence, malpractice, and errors that may occur when you’re providing service to a customer. Whereas CGL insurance covers non-professional mistakes, this type of policy covers professional mistakes.
- Product Liability Insurance – If your main function is producing a product rather than providing a service, you may need this type of coverage. It will protect you if your product is defective in some way and leads to an injury.
- Commercial Auto Insurance – No other type of business insurance will cover you if one of your vehicles is involved in a traffic accident. If you or your employees operate vehicles regularly, you need to have this type of coverage.
- Commercial Property Insurance – This will protect you broadly against damage to your property and the financial losses that could result. The types of events covered include vandalism, smoke, wind, and fire, among others.
- Workers Compensation Insurance – If one of your employees is injured on the job, you may be responsible for their medical bills. This type of insurance will cover those payments, and employee injury is excluded from other types of business insurance coverage for that reason. While workers’ compensation is required in California, you can take the extra step of ensuring you have a solid plan at an affordable rate for your business.
Because there are so many options and types of policies available to businesses, it’s important to select the appropriate ones for your particular situation. You want to ensure you have the proper level of coverage, while also not paying for coverage you don’t need. Our experts can help you put together the right package for your business, so give us a call or email us today to learn more.
