Business Insurance Basics Most businesses need to purchase at least the following four types of insurance: 1. Property Insurance Property insurance compensates a business if the property used in the business is lost or damaged as the result of various types of common perils, such as fire or theft. Property insurance covers not just a building or structure but also the contents, including office furnishings, inventory, raw materials, machinery, computers and other items vital to a business’s operations. Depending on the type of policy, property insurance may include coverage for equipment breakdown, removal of debris after a fire or other destructive event, some types of water damage and other losses. Business Interruption Insurance Also known as business income insurance, business interruption insurance is a type of property insurance. A business whose property has sustained a direct physical loss such as fire damage or a damaged roof due to a tree falling on it in a windstorm and h
Standard Homeowners Policy Exclusions Standard homeowners policies exclude coverage for flood, earthquake, war, nuclear accident, landslide, mudslide, sinkhole. Some of these exclusions are discussed below. 1. Floods Flood damage is excluded under standard homeowners and renters insurance policies. Flood coverage, however, is available in the form of a separate policy both from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and from a few private insurers. Additional information on flood insurance can be found on the FloodSmart.gov Web site or by calling 888-379-9531. For coverage over and above the $250,000 limit for property and $100,000 for contents provided by the NFIP, excess flood insurance is available from private insurance companies. (See Topic on Flood Insurance on page 47 for further information.) Tsunamis cause flood damage and are therefore only covered by a flood policy. 2. Earthquakes Earthquake coverage can be a separate policy or an endorsement to a homeowners or ren