Health Insurance
The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) is a marketplace set by the Affordable Care Act of 2010, and allows small business owners to buy health insurance coverage for their employees. It is designed for small employers with 50 or fewer full-time employees. If you plan to use the SHOP marketplace to buy coverage for your employees, you must offer coverage to all full-time employees. In general, 70% of these full-time employees must enroll in the SHOP plan. The employer decides how much will be paid towards employees’ premiums, and then the employees use the SHOP to enroll in a plan.
Umbrella Policies
As the name implies, an umbrella liability policy provides coverage over and above your other liability coverages. It is designed to protect against unusually high losses, when the policy limits of one of the underlying policies have been used up. For the typical business, the umbrella policy would provide protection over and above general liability and auto liability policies. If you have Employment Practices Liability Insurance, Directors and Officers Liability or other types of liability insurance, the umbrella could provide protection over and above those policy limits as well.
Errors and Omissions Insurance/Professional Liability
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.
Employment Practices Liability Insurance
Employment Practices Liability Insurance pays, up to the policy limits, damages for which an employer is legally liable for violating an employee’s civil or other legal rights. In addition to paying a judgment for which the insured is liable, it also provides for legal defense costs, which can be substantial even where there has been no wrongdoing.
Directors and Officers Liability Insurance
Directors and Officers Liability Insurance protects directors and officers of corporations or not-for-profit organizations if there is a lawsuit claiming they managed the business or organization without proper regard for the rights of others. 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.
Business Identity Insurance
Business Identity Theft Insurance provides legal liability coverage to businesses that are victims of data theft. Such policies can also provide coverage to notify customers whose personal identification information may have been compromised and pay for services to provide identity theft recovery services for customers.
Terrorism Insurance
Terrorism coverage is generally offered separately. Insurance losses attributable to terrorist acts under these commercial policies are insured by private insurers and reinsured or “backstopped” by the federal government pursuant to the Terrorism Risk and Insurance Act (TRIA), enacted by Congress in 2002. Owners of commercial property, such as office buildings, factories, shopping malls and apartment buildings, must be offered the opportunity to purchase terrorism coverage. This requirement also applies to your Businessowners Policy (BOP)—your insurer must offer terrorism coverage. In some cases insurers still include terrorism for no additional premium. In other cases there is a separate charge. Source: Insurance Information Institute.
