General Liability Insurance and Its Extensions

When you own a business, you want to do your job successfully. That means creating satisfactory products, interactions and results for your customers.

Still, no one is perfect, and you can’t expect your business to be all the time, either. Mistakes are going to happen. Problems will occur.

The issue here is that sometimes, those problems can extend to your customers. If you wind up harming your customers, you might have a duty to make up for their trouble. Trying to compensate them for their losses, however, might prove expensive.

Commercial general liability insurance is a common protection that many businesses need. With it, you can get help with many common problems you might accidentally cause others. Once you have protection, you can often expand to other forms of liability coverage as well. Your policy portfolio can create specific protection that can serve your business’s long-term success.

What’s liability insurance?

Liabilities, more or less, are the risks something poses to something else. Person-to-person, they’re the responsibility you have to someone else. There’s always a chance that your actions could harm another person. The risks associated with harming that third party are your liabilities.

Liability insurance, therefore, extends to others, while still protecting you. Here’s a little about how it works.

When you buy liability insurance, you are the policyholder. You pay the premium and oversee policy maintenance. However, if you make a claim on the policy, you are generally not the person who receives a payout.

Perhaps someone alleges that you caused them harm. They might require financial help from you for a variety of reasons. If your liability insurance policy covers the damage in question, you can make a claim on the policy. Sometimes, the person who sustained harm will make the claim. In other cases, both parties will have to work together to contain the damage.

Your coverage will then provide up to the maximum financial limit for the policy’s value. You can then use this money to repay the third party for their losses. You won’t have to pour out your own financial assets trying to make up someone else’s losses. However, the other party can still get the compensation they need.

Commercial General Liability Coverage

If you run a business, it’s likely easy for you to see why you need liability insurance. If you harm to someone else, liability protection will likely make sure you don’t put business assets on the line trying to recover from the damage.

Most business owners start their liability coverage with a general policy. It can cover a lot of the most common accidents that might occur inside the operation. Included protection usually amounts to:

Bodily injury protection for incidents occurring inside your business, or through your actions.

Property damage coverage in case you or your employees harm someone else’s property. For example, if you damage a piece of property you were trying to repair, this coverage might help.
Personal injury coverage in case your business gets accused of advertising injury, libel, slander or similar accusations.

Let’s say that one of your customers slips in your office. They break a leg, which causes them to miss work and face considerable medical bills. Or, maybe, you damage a customer’s kitchen while doing plumbing work at their home. In each of these cases, there might be financial ramifications for the customer. Lost income, medical bills, rehabilitation costs, even death. They all might add up. As a result, the affected party might sue the business, or request your help making up for their losses.

This is where your liability coverage might kick in. If the customer’s damage has coverage, you can use your policy to compensate them for their losses. You might also be able to use the coverage to settle legal claims and resulting costs. Therefore, this coverage can provide winning solutions for both parties. The victim might get the money they need, while the business can pay using insurance. You can avoid the rather high price of out-of-pocket settlements.

Getting the Appropriate Policy

You probably recognize that your business has unique needs. Therefore, it also poses unique risks to others. You’ll need to set up your coverage in ways that reflect the value associated with your company.

Still, don’t forget that general liability insurance isn’t a fix-all. It will include exclusions and limits. Therefore, you’ll likely have to get additional coverage. Some of these specialty liability policies might include

Commercial auto liability insurance for driving risks
Cyber liability insurance to protect data networks and risks associated with identity theft
Umbrella insurance, which can extend coverage beyond the limits of your general policy. Furthermore, it might be able to insure risks not covered by a standard policy. Once you reach the limits of your general policy, this coverage might step in to help.

Talk to your insurance agent about the specialized risks associated with your operation. With their help, you can get targeted liability insurance for your serious needs.

General Liability Insurance and Its Extensions

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