Home-based Insurance Guide: Introduction
This page provides you with all the necessary information you need to know in order to make an informed choice about home-based business insurance. Furthermore we will connect you with an experienced insurance broker who will advise you and find the best rate across numerous insurers.
What insurance protection do you need as a home-based professional?
When you are running a home-based business or exercise your skills from home as a freelancer such as a consultant, lawyer, web designer, accountant, bookkeeper or insurance broker, there are a number of insurance risks and insurance protections that you want to think about. The list below is not an exhaustive one, but rather an overview of the common coverages you should consider.
Here is an overview of key things to know:
| Insurance | Brief description | Do I need it? | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
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Commercial Professional Liability
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This is insurance might have different names, depending on the nature of your business, such as malpractice insurance for doctors, professional liability for various trades or, often is also called commercial general insurance.It covers a risk of liabilities resulting from various claims such as bodily injuries, personal injuries and property damages that are caused by business activity. For example , malpractices insurance protects providers of health care against patient’s claims who might sue the providers due to negligence or harmful treatments decisions. | Yes | Wrong prescription, bodily injury through tools left on site, customer falling on your stairs while visiting you in your home office — the list of possible issues is very long.For some jobs this type of insurance is must and is required in order to get a contract. |
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Errors and Omissions
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It is a special type of insurance that provides to several categories of professionals (e.g. insurance brokers, lawyers etc.) a protection against lawsuits and third-party claims. These claims might be associated with the professional activities of these professionals and the advice they provide. | Depending on the job (might be obligatory) | An example could be an insurance broker who failed to send all policy applications papers in on time and, as a consequence, a customer did not receive insurance protection in time to protect him/her, making it impossible to file an insurance claim. |
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Commercial Car Insurance
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Insurance that covers business use of cars, trucks, vans and any other means of transportation. This policy can include coverage of vehicles (e.g. damages), drivers (e.g. medical costs, rehab, loss of income, funeral expenses), liability (e.g. damages to the third-party), uninsured motorist protection, comprehensive coverage (e.g. theft, fire etc.) and number of other protections. | Rarely | In most cases you will not need this coverage as you operate your business from home, as opposed to the jobs / trades that need a vehicle to visit their clients. |
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Commercial Property Insurance
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Insurance that covers any type of commercial property from a number of risks such as theft, fire and natural disasters. | Yes | If you operate your business from home, it is very likely that you’d have numerous tools, that you use to run your business, such as, computers, scanners, an expensive camera — you might want to protect them. |
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Commercial Building Insurance
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Insurance that covers various types of commercial property from pre-determined risks (also called perils) such as theft, natural disasters and fire. | No | Per definition, if you operate your business from home, you will not have a commercial building to protect but you’d need inform the provider of your home insurance that you operate a business from home. |