General Liability Insurance
As a business leader, you carry the immense responsibility of managing risk to protect your company, employees, and customers. Even with the most diligent risk management, accidents happen and errors occur. When they do, commercial general liability insurance shields your business from potentially ruinous legal fees, settlements, and judgements.
Conner Insurance takes a holistic, consultative approach to risk management. Our advisors educate clients on exposures, then engineer an insurance and risk management plan meeting unique needs while minding your bottom line. Protect your business, assets, and relationships with Conner Insurance’s general liability solutions.
Related: Differentiating Business Liability Coverage
Components of General Liability Insurance
As a critical component of any risk management strategy, general liability insurance contains provisions shielding businesses from the most common risks that leave companies vulnerable to financial distress. Without adequate safeguards in place, it takes just one accident or allegation to trigger a lawsuit that drains company resources, jeopardizes the future of the business, and damages relationships with clients.
Fortunately, comprehensive general liability insurance coverage secured through a trusted advisor like Conner Insurance helps mitigate this risk by ensuring your policy includes provisions for legal costs and payouts associated with bodily injury, property damage, advertising offenses, and more that might occur as part of daily operations.
Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability
Should a third party like a client, vendor, or other visitor suffer bodily injury or property damage in which your business plays a role, general liability insurance finances legal defense and if found negligent, compensates the claimant per the policy’s liability limits.
For example, if someone slips and falls on a wet floor in your office, breaks their ankle, and files a lawsuit alleging negligence, your insurance would pay for lawyers to represent you in court. It would also cover medical bills and other damages the claimant is awarded up to the limits of your policy. This protects your business assets while dealing with the accident appropriately.
Medical Payments
Medical payments provides first-dollar protection for injuries on your property without determining fault. If a client sprains their wrist from tripping on loose carpet, medical payments would contribute toward urgent care and medication payments up to the net pay limits. This demonstrates goodwill to visitors and employees injured onsite while giving you control over claim costs. Medical payments applies regardless of legal liability, whereas bodily injury coverage only responds if a court rules the policyholder bears responsibility.
Personal and Advertising Injury
Allegations like libel, slander, defamation, and copyright infringement fall under personal and advertising injury coverage. For instance, if you inadvertently use a photo in an advertising campaign that turns out to be copyrighted, the photographer may sue for licensing fees or damages. Or if a misprinted brochure misrepresents a competitor's offering, they may allege defamation. General liability insurance protects against these personal injury risks stemming from advertising and media by covering your legal defense expenses and any compensation owed to plaintiffs within policy limits. It allows you to run marketing campaigns and advertise your business without sweating the threat of personal injury lawsuits.
Products and Completed Operations
Protection applies to products sold and operations performed. If a product you sold later injures its end user, general liability insurance coverage would pay for their legal damages even though it's no longer in your possession. For example, if an appliance malfunctions months after delivery and the customer suffers burns, liability insurance would cover their medical treatment and reimbursement for the faulty product.
Completed operations liability covers the damages caused by your work after the job has been completed. So if a contractor builds an unsafe deck that later collapses under guests at a client's home, the contractor's insurance would provide protection despite the job being finished.
Related: Understanding Insurance Costs for SMEs
What General Liability Insurance Doesn’t Cover
Though general liability coverage delivers peace of mind across numerous scenarios, policies do contain exclusions. Reviewing exclusions helps prevent unpleasant surprises from denied claims. Keep in mind that while general liability insurance excludes some specific hazards, it might be possible to secure specialized coverage for those exposures through separate policies. This may include cyber insurance, professional liability insurance, workers compensation, commercial auto insurance, and property insurance.
Some (or a few common) General liability policy exclusions include:
- Damage to your own property
- Employee injuries (covered by workers’ compensation)
- Fines and penalties
- Vehicles (covered under auto insurance)
- Prior damage or injuries
- Intentional illegal acts
How Our General Liability Solutions Protect Your Business
Conner Insurance’s general liability offerings safeguard companies in three key areas:
- Financing Legal Fees and Damage Awards: Even baseless lawsuits cost time and money. General liability insurance finances legal defenses to clear your name. Founded allegations resulting in judgements also receive compensation up to policy limits.
- Building and Maintaining Professional Relationships: Frivolous legal action strains business relationships. General liability insurance contains the threat, empowering you to run operations without sweating liability’s impact on your business partnerships.
- Peace of Mind and Business Continuity: Risk management brings assurance that your company’s hard-earned assets remain protected from liability judgements exceeding policy payouts. This peace of mind promotes focus on strategic objectives.
Related: Protect Your Small Business With Coverage
Policies and Premiums: Procuring General Liability Insurance
General liability insurance policies share similarities, but coverage conditions and exclusions vary between providers. Consulting with an advisor will ensure optimal protection for your risk profile and budget.
Factors That Influence General Liability Insurance Premiums
General liability insurance rates can vary widely depending on your unique risk profile. General liability insurance pricing models incorporate multiple risk factors that determine the likelihood of claims and potential cost impacts. When evaluating these complex variables, insurers assign higher premiums to companies exhibiting elevated levels of risk.
These elements can impact your general liability insurance premiums:
- Industry and operations
- Revenue
- Years in business
- Past claims
- Coverage limits
- Deductible amount
- Insurer competition in your region
Explore General Liability Insurance Options with Conner Insurance
Conner Insurance views insurance as more than financial risk transfer. Our advisors aim to comprehensively manage exposures through enterprise risk management guidance tailored to each client’s situation. What risks keep you up at night? Our team makes it their mission to address those concerns.
Connect with our team to start fortifying your defenses against risk and securing your business with professional coverage. Discover general liability solutions customized to protect your company’s finances, assets, partnerships, and peace of mind. Conner Insurance strives to simplify insurance, because you have enough to focus on.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is general liability insurance?
General liability insurance protects businesses against third party bodily injury, property damage, personal injury, and advertising injury legal allegations stemming from operations and premises. Policies pay legal defense bills and covered claim judgements.
Nearly all businesses benefit from general liability insurance. It protects companies in the event clients, vendors, or other third parties file claims alleging your operations caused them harm. Higher risk industries like construction see frequent general liability claims.
General liability insurance rates derive from your revenue, industry, location, claims history, coverage limits, deductible, and more. On average, small businesses spend about $360 annually for $1 million in coverage, but may pay higher or lower depending on risk factors.
General liability insurance protects policyholders from liability, but typically excludes subcontractors working on your behalf. Subcontractors must carry their own general liability cover unless explicitly named as additional insureds on your policy. This grants them coverage under your policy’s liability limits.
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Other Types of Insurance
Businesses expose themselves to all types of risk. In addition to general or professional liability coverage, you may also consider:
Serving Indiana and Beyond
Conner Insurance has been in business for over 70 years and through three family generations. We’re locally owned and cover the entire state of Indiana including Carmel, Westfield, Fishers, Indianapolis, and Brownsburg. However, we partner with more than 20 carriers to provide comprehensive policies for people in all 50 U.S. states. In addition to commercial insurance, we also offer benefits, human resources consulting, and personal insurance policies. Contact us at (317) 808-7711 to request a quote.
