Business Insurance

   The success of your business, whether it's a small enterprise run out of a basement or a large corporation, is largely dependent on your hard work and ingenuity. However, no matter how industrious you are, one disaster can wipe out all your profits and even destroy your business.

   The key to making sure that all the effort and money you have invested in a business doesn't disappear when a disaster strikes is to protect it with the appropriate insurance.

   At American Insurances, we tailor our business insurance packages to meet the unique needs of your business. Package policies for small and mid-sized businesses that generally face the same degree of risk differ dramatically from commercial packages tailored to meet the special risks larger companies face.

Coverages

• Property insurance for buildings and contents owned by your company.





• Business interruption insurance to cover the loss of income resulting from a fire or other catastrophe that disrupts the operation of your business. It can also include the extra expense of operating out of a temporary location.





• Liability protection to cover your company's legal responsibility for the harm it may cause to others. This harm is a result of things that you and your employees do or fail to do in your business operations that may cause bodily injury or property damage due to defective products, faulty installations and errors in services provided.





• Workers compensation insurance to cover workers injured on the job, whether they're hurt on the workplace premises or elsewhere, or in auto accidents while on business. It also covers work-related illnesses.





• Employment Practices Liability Insurance to cover your business against claims by workers that their legal rights as employees of the company have been violated.
   

What is Business Interruption Insurance?

   Business interruption insurance can be as vital to your survival as a business as fire insurance. Most people would never consider opening a business without buying insurance to cover damage due to fire and windstorms. But too many small business owners fail to think about how they would manage if a fire or other disaster damaged their business premises so that they were temporarily unusable.

   Business interruption coverage is not sold separately. It is added to a property insurance policy or included in a package policy.  A business that has to close down completely while the premises are being repaired may lose out to competitors. A quick resumption of business after a disaster is essential.

   Business interruption insurance compensates you for lost income if your company has to vacate the premises due to disaster-related damage that is covered under your property insurance policy, such as a fire.

   Business interruption insurance covers the profits you would have earned, based on your financial records, had the disaster not occurred. The policy also covers operating expenses like electricity, that continue even though business activities have come to a temporary halt.

What is Professional Liability insurance?

   Professional liability insurance is a specialty coverage.  Professionals that operate their own businesses need professional liability insurance in addition to an in-home business or businessowners policy. This protects them against financial losses from lawsuits filed against them by their clients.

   Professionals are expected to have extensive technical knowledge or training in their particular area of expertise. They are also expected to perform the services for which they were hired, according to the standards of conduct in their profession. If they fail to use the degree of skill expected of them, they can be held responsible in a court of law for any harm they cause to another person or business. When liability is limited to acts of negligence, professional liability insurance may be called "errors and omissions" liability.

Do I need Workers Compensation insurance?

   Employers have a legal responsibility to their employees to make the workplace safe. However, accidents happen even when every reasonable safety measure has been taken.

   To protect employers from lawsuits resulting from workplace accidents and to provide medical care and compensation for lost income to employees hurt in workplace accidents, in almost every state, businesses are required to buy workers compensation insurance.

   Workers compensation provides payments to injured workers, without regard to who was at fault in the accident, for time lost from work and for medical and rehabilitiation services. It also provides death benefits to surviving spouses and dependents.

   Virginia and Maryland have different laws governing the amount and duration of lost income benefits, the provision of medical and rehabilitation services and how the system is administered.

  
What is Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI)?

   The number of lawsuits filed by employees against their employers has been rising. While most suits are filed against large corporations, no company or business is immune to such lawsuits. Recognizing that smaller companies now need this kind of protection this coverage is offered as an endorsement to certain business policies.  

   EPLI provides protection against many kinds of employee lawsuits, including claims of:

• Sexual harassment

• Discrimination

• Wrongful termination

• Breach of employment contract

• Negligent evaluation

• Failure to employ or promote

• Wrongful discipline

• Deprivation of career opportunity

• Wrongful infliction of emotional distress

• Mismanagement of employee benefit plans

   The cost of EPLI coverage depends on your type of business, the number of employees you have and various risk factors such as whether your company has been sued over employment practices in the past.

   The policy will reimburse your company against the costs of defending a lawsuit in court and for judgments and settlements. The policy covers legal costs, whether your company wins or loses the suit.