Elite Insurance Associates

A business insurance toolkit is an intangible resource that helps business owners understand how insurance policies work to protect their various interests. The following toolkit will help you conceptualize how all of your insurance policies work together and separately to protect your business as a whole.

Protecting Business Property

• Real estate owned by business can be protected by commercial property insurance. Depending on your policy, the insurance may also protect outdoor signage, fencing and more.
• Intellectual property such as trademarks and patents can be protected with intellectual property insurance. This insurance can be used to pay for costs associated with suing another individual for violating your copyright or trademark. It can also be used to protect you in the event of a lawsuit in which you are accused of infringing on another person or company’s intellectual property.
• Merchandise, supplies, furniture and more can be protected through a commercial property insurance policy. Commercial property insurance policies will only cover the damages associated with a named peril and supplementary coverage may be required for certain breakdowns and other situations.
• Commercial flood insurance will pay for property and real estate damages caused by floods. A traditional commercial property insurance policy will not cover floods so it’s important that you look into the necessity of this additional coverage.
• Equipment breakdown coverage will help stem the costs of unexpected, accidental breakdowns and the repairs that they necessitate. It’s important to note that equipment breakdown coverage will not pay for repairs that result from general wear and tear or regular maintenance issues.
• Commercial auto insurance with collision and comprehensive coverage protect the value of your commercial vehicle or your personal vehicle when used for commercial purposes.

Guarding Against Business Liabilities

• Product liability insurance can help a manufacturer guard against damages from design and manufacturing flaws that financially or physically injure merchandise buyers. But even if you are a retailer and not a manufacturer you may want this coverage in order to protect you from liability exposure gained simply through making the merchandise available to your customers.
• Commercial auto insurance with bodily injury and property damage liability will ensure that the damages experienced by others after an accident during the non-personal use of a vehicle are covered.
• General liability insurance can cover the basic liabilities that every business faces through having customers, suppliers and service people on the business’ premises..
• Workers compensation insurance allows a business to provide compensation to employees who are injured on the job. When employees agree to accept workers compensation benefits, it also protects a business from additional lawsuits for damages (excluding those related to gross neglect).
• Professional liability insurance can insulate a business owner from claims that they did not provide the type of services expected from a professional of their level or that they made an error that someone of their professional level shouldn’t. This kind of insurance can include medical malpractice as well as errors and omissions coverage.
• To protect against network breakdowns, data breaches, and even claims of libel and slander through online networks, cyber liability insurance can be a business owner’s best defense.

Ensuring Business Continuation

• Business interruption insurance allows a business owner to make up for profits that they’ve lost due to and insurable incident. It can also help pay temporary operating expenses when a business owner must continue its business off premises.

• A key person life insurance policy can help a business continue operating after a key employee with specialized knowledge or experience passes away. The death benefit from the key person insurance policy can go toward recruiting a new employee to take the deceased employee’s place or it can keep the business running until a suitable replacement is found.

Personal Insurance Needs for a Business Owner and Family

• Group health insurance policies can provide health insurance benefits to an owner-employee as well as other employees of the business. Not only can this help the business owner and his dependents get preventative and emergency care, it can also keep the business running smoothly as employees are allowed to get proper medical treatment before their health deteriorates and they are unable to work.
• Group life insurance benefits can provide an affordable benefit to a business owner’s family and may allow the business to attract better employees by providing a very affordable, yet valuable benefit.
• Life insurance purchased through a buy-sell agreement can ensure that business partners are able to buy out a business owner’s interests in the business after he passes away, ensuring that his family receives book or fair market value for the shares.
• Short- and long-term disability insurance will allow a business owner to replace her income if she becomes disabled and is temporarily or permanently unable to contribute to the business in such a way that she can draw an income.

There are so many ways that Oklahoma City business insurance can help safeguard your business against failure and unnecessary expenses while also insulating your personal assets from risks. If you are ready to build your business’ insurance portfolio, give us a call at 405-241-9710.

Homeowners Insurance Basics

A home insurance policy is charged with an very vital task: offering financial security to make you (the policyholder) whole following an insurable event that damages your best asset—your home. But if you’re not aware what you are receiving with the acquisition of your home insurance policy, you may be putting your home and financial future in jeopardy.

Dwelling Coverage—a Shared Foundation

The amount of coverage you have for your residence covers the actual structure of your house plus any built-in appliances, wiring and plumbing. It also includes attached garages that share a foundation with your actual dwelling but does not cover unattached buildings or structures like fences and sheds (these would be included under Other Structures).

Your dwelling coverage could cover you for either replacement costs or actual cash value. While it may appear that this discrepancy is slight, coverage for replacement costs is in reality very different from actual cash value because replacement costs lets your insurance company to reimburse you the amount of money you actually need to purchase a similar item to substitute the one that was lost, damaged or stolen. That means your claim could be equal to the amount required to reconstruct your dwelling or purchase one that is similar and in a similar setting. Actual cash value, however, gives you the assessed property value regardless of whether or not it is enough to help you replace what you lost.

Personal Property Coverage—the “Things” Inside Your Home

The contents inside your dwelling are protected under the Personal Property/Contents section of your policy. This section covers all your furniture, clothing, electronics, jewelry, free standing appliances and other interior contents. The limit of coverage for your private property must be logical when compared to your dwelling coverage and most insurers require ratio limits that restrict your personal property coverage from exceeding a certain percentage of your dwelling limits.

Just like your dwelling coverage, your personal property coverage could provide replacement value or actual value which will deduct the lost, stolen or damaged property’s depreciation from the replacement value in order to determine the amount of the claim.

Liability Coverage—Accidental Injury to a Guest

It’s an unfortunate reality, but from time to time guests in your home have mishaps. They may trip over a loose walkway stone or fall on your deck, but if they are hurt and want to have their medical fees reimbursed along with pain and suffering, your liability coverage is there to handle the claim.

Loss of Use Coverage—An Uninhabitable Home

If your home becomes uninhabitable, then you may not be able to live in it until repairs are finished. If the loss is an insurable incident, loss of use coverage in your policy will reimburse you for any living expenses that you incur which are above your regular expenses while your home is in a state of disrepair.

For more information about Oklahoma City home insurance or to get a free personalized quote contact Elite Insurance Associates today at 405-241-9710.