Posts Tagged ‘Business Insurance’

One recent overlooked area of Business Insurance is for home base businesses. Many business owners that start a business out of their home think that their Home Owners Insurance policy will cover them for Liability Insurance and Business Property Insurance. First of all a Personal Homeowners Insurance policy will almost always exclude General Liability for a business unless you specifically have an endorsement that extends liability to your home based business. Secondly Business Property coverage typically will only cover up to $1,000 of property used for the business. Usually this is not enough to cover your desk, chairs or computers especially if you are a contractor and have thousands of dollars worth of tools and equipment.

Some business owners argue that they don’t have any customers come in to the home and that they may not even see their customers face to face. This is a good argument but you need to ask yourself, what is your product or service? The reason you need to answer this question is because General Liability not only covers your business for Bodily Injury and Property Damage that you may cause, but Product and Completed Operations coverage. This refers to any products that you produce that may cause an injury to your client. If you provide a service  such as consulting or computer repair or programming then you may need a more advanced policy that covers your Professional Services, which is called Professional Liability Insurance. This will cover you for any type of mistake in your services that causes a financial loss to your client.

So the best advise I can give you is to talk to your current Home Insurance agent. If they don’t offer business insurance for a Home Based business, give me a call and maybe we can help. We can be reached at (888) 581-0331.

Bryan Cranson is the owner of Cranson Insurance Agency in Northville, MI specializing in business insurance quotes, workers compensation insurance quotes, health insurance quotes, disability insurance quotes and life insurance quotes in Oakland County, Washtenaw County, Kent County, Cook County and Wayne County, plus the entire states of Michigan, Arizona, Kansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma and Missouri.

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Each year I am sure the most exciting time for your business is your Business Insurance renewal! You enjoy reviewing your coverage with you agent, listen to his multiple reasons (excuses) why your premium went up or why a new driver is now excluded. Ok, so maybe you are not too excited about your business insurance renewal quotes but let’s give you 5 easy steps to make sure you not only have the best price but also the best coverage possible.

Step 1. Go Independent. For business insurance you will be best suited with an agent that works for an Independent Agency. You want an agent that can quote your business through multiple Insurance Companies to find the best fit for your particular business.

Step 2. Challenge your agent. Don’t be afraid to ask for the actual business insurance quotes from other companies to make sure that he didn’t just renew your policy with the same company because he didn’t want to take the time to re-quote through other companies.

Step 3. Shop around. This isn’t the most fun task but it can lead to you lowering your Business Insurance premium while also improving coverage. This is definitely a good idea if your agent can only access one Insurance Company but if you have an agent who is an Independent Agent that you really like just make sure he shops your Business Insurance quote through other companies they have contract with.

Step 4. Discuss your business operations with your agent. It’s amazing how often I discuss a business with the owner and discover exposures that are not covered or coverage they no longer need. Businesses can change quickly in todays world and you want to make sure you have a conversation with your agent at least every year if not more often. This will ensure that your agent has a good understanding of what you do and the correct coverage that you need.

Step 5. Review your payroll and revenue numbers on the Insurance renewal. I talk to businesses all the time that tell me that they get an audit bill every year but don’t have increased revenue or payroll. After reviewing the Business Insurance I quickly realize they are using revenue or payroll numbers from several years ago! What happens is when you have an audit your policy already renewed based on the same information from the previous year. When the audit gets processed it doesn’t automatically change the revenue and payroll numbers on your Insurance renewal unless your agent catches it and makes the change.

If you really dislike the Insurance Renewal process, give us a call. We make things as easy as possible for you and your business insurance program. We can be reached at (888) 581-0331.

Bryan Cranson is the owner of Cranson Insurance Agency in Northville, MI specializing in business insurance quotes, workers compensation insurance quotes, health insurance quotes, disability insurance quotes and life insurance quotes in Oakland County, Washtenaw County, Kent County, Cook County and Wayne County, plus the entire states of Michigan, Arizona, Kansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma and Missouri.

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Free Contractor Insurance Quote

Getting the right Contractor Insurance coverage at the right price isn’t always as straight forward as it should be. If you are a contractor that has employees it can always be tricky on how to include them on your insurance policy. Do you 1099 your employees or are they all W-2 employees? Do they work for other contractors or only you? Do you need to cover them on your Workers Compensation Insurance? These questions can always be difficult to answer and too often they go unanswered until the insurance company does an audit and discovers that you drastically underpaid your insurance premium. Now I always recommend that you include all anticipated payroll whether it’s going to be W-2 or 1099 wages. The reason this is important is because the rate you pay for your Contractor General Liability Insurance is directly related to the amount of payroll you have. This payroll includes any 1099 wages if those 1099 employees do not carry their own Liability or Workers Compensation Insurance. This is where many mistakes are made when the policy is quoted. They might go with the lowest Insurance quote they get when really the payroll used could be half of the other Contractor Insurance quotes they received. So at the end of the year the auditor find those wages and adds it to the policy resulting in a large audit bill (usually due within 30 days). So make sure you accurately communicate your anticipated payroll numbers to your agent when getting your Contractor Insurance quote.

The other line of coverage that often goes overlooked is your Contractor Tools and Equipment. Your business personal property coverage usually will only be covered when it is located at your insured premise. This will cover your tools but most likely it will not extend the coverage to the job site. The most common claim I see for contractors is their tools getting stolen from the job site! So this is important to discuss with your agent. You need to add your Tools and Equipment under a coverage called Inland Marine Coverage. This coverage will usually extend the coverage for your tools anywhere in the world. Also for larger equipment (usually over $500) you can schedule the exact piece of equipment with the year, make and model so the insurance company knows exactly what it is. For all other equipment I always recommend making a list of everything with an actual cash value next to each item and give it to your insurance agent. This will help to ensure you have the right amount of coverage for your equipment.

Getting your Contractor Insurance Quote is an important process. Please make sure you give accurate payroll estimates to your agent as well as a detailed description of everything you will be doing and also don’t forget to properly insure your tools and equipment!

Free Contractor Insurance Quote

Bryan Cranson is the owner of Cranson Insurance Agency specializing in business insurance quotes, workers compensation insurance quotes, health insurance quotes, disability insurance quotes and life insurance quotes in Oakland County, Washtenaw County, Kent County, Cook County and Wayne County, plus the entire states of Michigan, California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Missouri and New Jersey and New Mexico.

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For Restaurant Owners, the Business Insurance is usually the last thing on your mind. Running a successful Restaurant takes a lot of hard work and dedication. With all the hard work that goes in to running the restaurant, you want to be sure that you carry the proper coverage for your restaurant so you don’t risk everything that you worked so hard to build. There are insurance coverages that are very important to review when getting your Restaurant Insurance quote.

The first thing that you need to review is the replacement cost of your Restaurant Equipment and Business Personal Property. The first question I usually ask when reviewing a Restaurant Insurance policy is how much would it cost to go out and buy brand new Restaurant Equipment and all of your other Business Property in the Restaurant. In most cases the number I get from the Business Owner is higher than what they are covered for! Also make sure you ask about Food Spoilage coverage since in most cases Food Spoilage has to be added as a separate coverage. Another important coverage is Business Income. This should be at least enough income for your business to survive for 12 months. Also it is important to have Business Income and Extra Expense. This will pay you for lost revenue and additional expenses such as your lease payment or even payroll for your employees. It is common to see this coverage with a set limit over a period of time, such as $100,000 1/6 limitation. This means they have the sooner of $100,000 or 6 months. I do not recommend anything less than 12 months and actual loss sustained (if possible). This means there is not a limitation and will last for 12 months. This is an important coverage for Restaurant Insurance since it can take up to 12 months to re-build a restaurant. The last coverage I want to discussed that is often the most over-looked is Non-Owned Auto coverage. Like most restaurants, food isn’t only served in the restaurant but delivered to individuals or businesses and catered to various events. Non-Owned auto coverage will protect your business if one of the drivers (even if driving their own vehicle) is involved in an at fault accident in the course of a delivery. I cannot stress how important this is for a Restaurant Insurance policy and one that is often not included by the Insurance Agent.

The last important part of getting a Restaurant Insurance Quote is to talk to someone that is an independent agent that can access many different Insurance Companies to find the best fit for your Restaurant Insurance based on overall price and coverage.

Click here to submit your information to get a Restaurant Insurance Quote from us.

Bryan Cranson is the owner of Cranson Insurance Agency specializing in business insurance quotes, workers compensation insurance quotes, health insurance quotes, disability insurance quotes and life insurance quotes in Oakland County, Washtenaw County, Kent County, Cook County and Wayne County, plus the entire states of Michigan, California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Missouri and New Jersey.

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Getting a Life Insurance Quote can be a dull, boring and even a depressing process. First you need to talk about dying, which nobody enjoys talking about. Then you need to discuss all of your personal financial information with your agent, which is usually another unpleasant discussion. Lastly you need to tell your agent of any medical condition you had from when you were born! For these 3 reasons I can see why many people are now going online to purchase life insurance. You give your information to either a stranger or an online website and get quotes kicked back to you instantly. Now as easy as that sounds I don’t always recommend buying life insurance online. You can buy your life insurance online but it needs to be from an Independent Insurance Agency that can access multiple companies and an Insurance Agency that understands the correct type of coverage that you need.  The most common and most affordable life insurance you can get is Term Life Insurance. Typically a Term Life Insurance Quote will be a 10, 20 or 30 year term life insurance quote. This simply means the rate is locked in for a 10, 20 or 30 years and usually renewable after that term until age 95 (but the premium will drastically increase after the term). The other form of Life Insurance is called permanent life insurance. This type of insurance usually consists of Whole Life Insurance or Universal Life Insurance. These types of life insurance policies are always more expensive than term life insurance but also has many additional benefits such as a cash value that you can access in case of emergency or actually subsidize your retirement accounts once you reach retirement age. Permanent Life Insurance isn’t always the best fit for a client but many times will serve a great purpose in life insurance planning.

Since I handle the Property Casualty Insurance for many businesses, something I come across a lot is the need for a Buy Sell Life Insurance contract or a Key Person Life Insurance contract. These are more advanced contracts that usually involve the clients attorney but are extremely important to the survival of a business if an owner or key person dies. For a Buy Sell Life Insurance contract usually what happens is that they have a legal contract (Buy Sell Agreement) that states if one of the business partners passes away that the surviving owner has to pay either his estate or his spouse a pre-determined amount within a certain period of time after his or her death. So when you write the life insurance, you put 2 life insurance policies on both owners (or as many owners as there are) and the beneficiary is the other owner(s). The death benefit is usually the same as the amount stated in the buy sell agreement so that the partner can immediately pay off the estate or spouse upon the death of the partner. Key Person Life Insurance is a little more simple. This type of contract is simply put on a key employee in the business, not necessarily the owner but a person so valuable that the company will struggle financially if he or she were to die. This provides an amount suitable for the company to either find a replacement or spend time and money training another employee to assume the new role.

If you are a business owner or someone that needs life insurance please give us a call. I have been working with individuals for over 7 years in Business Life Insurance, Business Property Casualty Insurance and Health Insurance.

Cranson Insurance Agency offers Oakland County Life Insurance Quotes, Michigan Life Insurance Quotes, Buy Sell Life Insurance and Key Person Life Insurance Quotes in the entire states of California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Bryan Cranson is the owner of Cranson Insurance Agency specializing in business insurance quotes, workers compensation insurance quotes, health insurance quotes, disability insurance quotes and life insurance quotes in Oakland County, Washtenaw County, Kent County, Cook County and Wayne County, plus the entire states of Michigan, California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Missouri.

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