Four Types of Business Insurance You Didn't Know Existed

As a business owner, it’s critical that you protect yourself and your business with the proper types and amounts of insurance you require. It can be somewhat confusing to determine just exactly which of the many kinds of business insurance you should include in your portfolio, as there are so many options from which to choose, and it’s probably best to consult a seasoned, trusted expert in this area when putting together a coverage package that’s ideal for your own particular circumstances.
Some types of business insurance coverage are fairly conventional and may be somewhat familiar to you. These likely include:

• Property insurance
• Workers' compensation insurance
• Product liability insurance
• Business interruption insurance
• Professional liability insurance

There are several other much lesser known types of business coverage, however, of which you may not be aware and that you may possibly want to consider adding to your current policies. Following is some information about these.

1. Home Business Insurance – Standard homeowner's insurance policies typically don’t cover all the risks you may encounter in running a home-based business. These may include loss of inventory, liability in giving out faulty information that causes a client to lose money or damage caused by one of your products. Home business insurance will fill in these gaps.
2. Employment Practices Liability Insurance – this coverage protects you from financial losses caused by judgements against you or defense costs against claims for discrimination, wrongful termination, defamation, sexual harassment or other types of inappropriate or wrongful employer conduct.
3. Income Stabilization Weather Insurance – this coverage protects against financial loss caused by unseasonable weather conditions causing a negative effect on your business. A ski resort suffering from an unusually low amount of snow is a good example of a business needing this type of income protection.
4. Cyber Liability Insurance – this is protection for companies doing business online or who otherwise collect customer data within an electronic database. Hacking and other types of database breeches where a client’s personal information is compromised can be expensive to deal with and this coverage can help with the costs of notifying customers and dealing with resulting claims.

There are other types of business insurance you may need, some of which may be written into your commercial property insurance policy (such as terrorism insurance). Take the time to consult your insurance agent to determine what coverage you currently have and what you may be missing.