Business Owner's Policy

A business owner’s policy (BOP) has been compared to a homeowner's policy for business. BOPs were first developed in the 1970s and have become a very popular form of insurance for small to medium sized businesses. BOPs combine some of the basic coverage’s needed by a typical small business into a standard package at a premium that is generally less than would be required to purchase these coverage’s separately. Business owners also like the simplified nature of the package as opposed to buying a collection of small policies. The efficiency also appeals to insurance companies and allows them to offer a lower premium for the package.

Most of the coverage’s that are needed by small and medium sized businesses, with the exception of auto and worker’s compensation, are generally included. This not only simplifies the process of buying the basic insurance coverage’s, but often gives a lower premium for businesses that qualify for a BOP. Business owner’s policies basically consist of property coverage, liability coverage and some additional types of coverage that most businesses require. Optional coverage’s can also be added to meet specific needs of the business.

Typically a BOP policy includes:

1. Property insurance (covering buildings, equipment and inventory).
2. Business interruption insurance (covering losses that cause you to shut operations or reduce production for a time). Business interruption insurance can provide money to offset lost profits or to pay continuing expenses (typically for up to a year for insured losses).
3. Casualty or liability protection (covering harm done by the employees or products to other people or their property).
4. Crime insurance (covering loss of money or securities resulting from burglaries or robberies or destruction) as well as losses from employee theft or embezzlement.
5. Liability insurance covering lawsuits arising from accidents (as when someone trips and falls on your business’s property) or when you sell a product that damages the customer’s property or you are accused of offenses such as slander, copyright or invasion of privacy.
6. Vehicle coverage for rented or borrowed vehicles.

A number of other coverage’s such as flood insurance or earthquake insurance or owned vehicle coverage and specialized liabilities are generally not included in BOPs. Some of these may be available separately for extra premiums.
One of the distinguishing features of BOPs is that most automatically include business income and extra expense coverage (subject to some limitations).

Call us at (702) 547-1900 or you can fill out our contact form and someone will contact you!

Commercial Property / Liability

Property and Liability insurance are the two primary types of coverages needed in most businesses.

Property Insurance – Property insurance compensates you if the property you use in your business is lost or damaged as the result of various types of common “perils” such as fire or theft. Property insurance covers not just a building or structure but also what insurers call “business personal property,” meaning office furnishings, inventory, raw materials, machinery, computers and other items vital to your business operations. Property insurance can do more than protect your physical assets. It may also provide operating funds during a period when you are trying to get the business back on track after a catastrophic loss. Depending on the type of policy you have, property insurance may include coverage for equipment breakdown, removal of debris after a fire or other destructive event, some types of water damage and other losses.

Liability Insurance – Any enterprise can be sued. People may claim that your business caused them harm as the result of, for example, a defective product, an error in a service or disregard for another person’s property. Or someone may allege that you created a hazardous environment. Your liability insurance pays damages for which you are found liable, up to the policy limits, as well as attorneys' fees and other legal defense expenses. It also pays the medical bills of any people injured by your business.

Call us at (702) 547-1900 or you can fill out our contact form and someone will contact you!

Business Vehicle Insurance

There is a difference between insuring a vehicle for personal use and business use.

If you use your own personal car, truck or van for business purposes, you need to discuss the best way to insure this vehicle with your agent. We’ll ask several questions about the usage, what percentage of the time is business vs. personal, radius of driving distance, other potential drivers and how it is registered. Often, a ‘business use’ private passenger vehicle can be insured under a personal auto policy. However, that is not always the case and never with true commercial vehicles (such as semis, dump trucks, vehicles over 10,000 gvw, etc.).

If your private passenger auto, truck or van is considered a commercial vehicle, you have most of the options for coverage as you would have for your personal auto plus other options designed for the commercial risk. You would, of course, have bodily injury and property damage liability and coverage is usually available up to $1,000,000. You also have the option for medical payments coverage, uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage and physical damage coverage for the vehicle itself.

If you register your vehicle under a company name, it must be insured under a commercial auto policy.

Commercial vehicles may require filings only available on commercial auto policies; you may need non-owned and hired coverage, and a variety of coverages specifically designed for commercial vehicles.

We are here to help you “walk” through the many coverage options available for either your ‘business use’ personal vehicle or a true commercial vehicle owned by your company.

Call us at (702) 547-1900 or you can fill out our contact form and someone will contact you!

Professional Liability Insurance / Errors and Omissions Insurance

If your business involves services such as giving advice, making recommendations, designing products,providing physical care or representing the needs of others, you could be sued by customers, clients or patients claiming your failure to perform your job properly had harmed them in some way. Errors and Omissions or Professional Liability Insurance covers these situations. The policy will pay any judgment for which the insured is legally liable, up to the policy limit. It also provides for legal defense costs, which can be substantial, even where there has been no wrongdoing.

Call us at (702) 547-1900 or you can fill out our contact form and someone will contact you!

Workers Comp Insurance

Workers comp insurance, as this coverage is generally called, pays for medical care and replaces a portion of lost wages for an employee who is injured in the course of employment, regardless of who was at fault for the injury. When a worker dies as a result of injuries sustained while working, the insurance provides compensation to the employee’s family.

It really isn’t much more complicated than that until you actually start getting into policy definitions and classification codes and loss runs and all the other details. If you really want some information pertinent to Nevada, you can go to this website:

Nevada Department of Business and Industry

Once there, in the upper left corner there is a list of items. Click Frequently Asked Questions and you will find some answers. One answer that you will find is this:

In Nevada, it is mandatory for an employer who has one or more employees to provide workers’ compensation insurance coverage, but there are a few exceptions. [The exceptions are detailed on the website.]

If you are an employer and need Workers’ Comp insurance, call us at (702) 547-1900 or fill in our contact form and we’ll call you!

Bonds

There are many bonds that individuals and businesses are either required to have or want to have as a part of their personal business. Bonds are often required by County, Sate or Federal governments in order to work as a sub-contractor at their facilities. These bonds are called Surety Bonds and they are a contract among at least three parties:

• The principal - the primary party who will perform the contract (e.g., electrician, roofer, general contractor, builder)
• The obligee - the party who is the recipient of the obligation (e.g., the State of Nevada who has contracted to get electrical work done, new roof, etc.)
• The surety - this is the party that ensures that the principal's obligations will be performed. This will be the bonding company that issues the bond.
• Suretyship bonds originated hundreds of years ago as a way through which trade over long distance could be encouraged. The first surety company in the US was established in 1880 and the latest figures on the annual US surety bond premiums are approximately $3.5 billion.

Surety bonds are frequently used in the construction industry. For example, in order to obtain a contract to build a project, the general contractor and sub-contractors must provide the owner of the project a bond for their performance of the terms of the contract. If the contractor defaults, the bonding company will have the project completed. Therefore, the personal credit of the principal is always a major issue in most bonds.

Following are just a few examples of other bonds:

• Notary bonds (credit is not a factor)
• Tax or Utility deposit bonds.
• Motor Vehicle Dealer bonds
• Lost Securities bonds
• Performance and payment bonds
• Contractor License bonds
• Mortgage Broker bonds
• Public official bonds
• ERISA bonds

We can obtain any bond you might need. Call us at (702) 547-1900 or you can fill out our contact form and someone will contact you!