Often known as BOP Insurance – a Business Owners Policy is a great package that combines commercial General Liability Insurance and Property Insurance so you are covered both for your liability if your business harms someone and your costs if your business is affected by something like a fire or burglary.
Most BOP Insurance providers also include Business Interruption Insurance as well.
The property insurance aspect should cover the physical parts of your business against events like adverse weather, vandalism and fire.
Besides the property damage that is actually sustained, BOP insurance can also cover consequential costs like debris removal, decontamination and loss of income.
Keep in mind however that no insurance policy covers everything. Most BOP insurance will exclude extreme events like earthquakes.
Policies can be tailored to your needs depending on your provider. For instance, you could probably save money by specifying perils to insure against but you then won’t be able to claim for any other perils.
An all risks policy should be much broader in scope but will be more expensive and will still have some exclusions.
After property insurance, a BOP policy also includes general liability insurance. This covers the kind of slip and fall type accidents and bodily injury you always worry about causing lawsuits.
Business liability insurance can seem a little complicated when you have related business liability products like General Liability Insurance, Professional Liability Insurance and similar sounding coverages like Worker’s Compensation Insurance.
Commercial General Liability insurance covers you for legal and settlement costs if someone or something is harmed by your small business.
Your general liability policy does not cover costs for bodily injury to your employees as that requires separate workers compensation coverage.
Similarly your general liability coverage is not the same as professional liability coverage.
General liability covers physical risks, such as bodily injury and property damage.
Professional liability covers more abstract risks, such as errors and omissions in the services your business provides.
You should also keep in mind that neither of these liability coverage products protect you against data breaches as that requires specialist cyber insurance.
A Business Owners Policy typically costs an average of about $80 per month, but keep in mind that is an average and business risks can vary very widely and so your own costs could be very different.
BOP policies are great as standard policies for small businesses while bigger businesses are likely to have more complex needs requiring different cover.
