Knowledge Center

Learn about the policies we offer and how they can protect your business. Find out what typical policies do and do not cover and what factors affect the cost of the coverages.

• Business Owners Policy
• Commercial Automobile Insurance
• Umbrella Insurance
• Commercial Package Policy
• Employment Practices Liability Insurance
• Surety Bonds
• Directors' and Officers' Liability Insurance
• Professional Liability

Business Owner's Policy

Premier One has assembled products from many of the nation's leading Business Owner's Policy insurers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with insurance companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We'll help you get the right coverage from the right insurer.

Product Summary
Many small business owners buy a type of insurance coverage called a Business Owner's Policy. This is a package policy that covers major property and liability exposures as well as a loss of income if your business cannot operate for a period of time.

For example, if your accounting firm's roof is damaged during a thunderstorm, causing your office to flood and your business to close for two months, a BOP would provide coverage in several ways.

The policy would cover the cost of repairing the roof, cleaning up water damage and repairing or replacing your furniture, computers and supplies. A BOP also would cover your payroll and taxes for the two months the business was closed. And if one of your clients was in your office during the storm and was injured by falling debris, a BOP would cover your customer's medical bills.

Buying a BOP can be a good deal for a business owner. The policies often provide more complete coverage at a lower price than separate policies would for each kind of coverage.

What's Covered?
A BOP covers major property exposures, liability exposures and business interruption.

Property coverage generally includes owned or leased buildings; the contents of buildings, such as furniture, supplies, fixtures, machinery, equipment, inventory and building improvements; glass and signs; and some property off of the premises.

Property insurance can be bought based on the property's actual cash value (its replacement cost minus depreciation), its current replacement cost or another agreed-upon amount, such as an appraisal.

Liability insurance covers your business if it is sued for something the business did or failed to do that caused injury or property damage to someone else. Liability insurance covers damages and settlements stemming from a lawsuit, up to the policy limits. Many liability policies also cover attorneys' fees and other costs associated with defending against a lawsuit.

Business interruption coverage can pay for your business' fixed costs, such as rent, payroll and taxes, if your enterprise suffers a property loss that causes it to close or slow down for a period of time while repairs are made.

What Isn't Covered?

Usually a BOP doesn't cover damage due to earthquakes or floods; workers' compensation; group health, life or disability insurance; insurance for company-owned vehicles; and specialized liability risks such as professional liability, director's and officers, employment practices and malpractice.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?
Insurers use rating formulas to determine the policy premium. For a BOP, insurers consider several factors, including the type and location of the business; the building's age, construction material and security features such as alarms and sprinklers; the business' claims history; and the business' financial stability and management team. Rates also vary depending on a policy's coverage limit.

Commercial Automobile Insurance

Premier One has assembled products from many of the nation's leading commercial automobile insurance carriers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with insurance companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We'll help you get the right coverage from the right insurer.

Product Summary
Commercial auto insurance provides coverage for company-owned vehicles in the event of an accident that causes bodily injury or physical damage. Coverage can be for company-owned cars, trucks, buses and other types of vehicles.

A common endorsement to commercial auto coverage is non-owned and hired auto liability insurance. This endorsement covers vehicles your employees use or that you rent or borrow but the business doesn't own.

What's Covered?
Using your own car for business

How are rental cars insured?

Commercial auto insurance covers physical damage to a company-owned vehicle if it hits another object, overturns, burns or is damaged as a result of vandalism or theft.

A commercial auto policy also covers medical expenses for those involved in an accident, regardless of who caused it.

If your company is sued because of an automobile accident, the coverage generally includes attorney fees, court costs and payment to the injured person up to the policy limit.

For example, if one of your employees is driving a company-owned car to a business lunch and gets into a car wreck, commercial auto insurance will pay for the costs of repairing all vehicles involved in the wreck. The policy also will pay for medical bills for anyone injured in the accident.

Some commercial auto policies also pay for the cost of renting a replacement vehicle while the damaged one is being repaired.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?
How to minimize your costs

Discounts to ask about

Insurers use many factors to determine the policy premium. The number and kind of vehicles insured and the location of the business are key factors.

Insurance rates vary by state and region. For example, costs tend to be lowest in rural communities and highest in cities where there is more traffic.

Also, some cars are more expensive to insure than others. Vehicles with expensive repair costs and those that are more attractive to thieves are costlier to insure. 

Workers' Compensation

Premier One has assembled products from many of the nation's leading worker's compensation insurers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with insurance companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We'll help you get the right coverage from the right insurer.

Product Summary
How to lower worker's comp medical costs

Workers' compensation insurance pays for medical care and rehabilitation for employees who are injured on the job or contract a work-related illness. Workers' compensation also covers a portion of an employee's lost wages, disability benefits and death benefits for the dependents of employees killed in work-related accidents.

Workers' compensation covers all of the employees of a business except independent contractors. Special provisions must be made if employees work out-of-state.

Workers' compensation is a no-fault system. This means that injured employees do not have to sue their employers to receive compensation. Compensation is automatic for covered benefits. Except in cases of extreme negligence, employers are generally protected from liability due to work-related injuries and illnesses.

For example, if an employee is hurt on the job, the injury is immediately reported to the workers' compensation insurer. The employee receives whatever medical care is needed and the insurer pays the bills.

If the employee cannot work for a limited period of time because of the injury, the insurer pays the employee a portion of his or her lost wages. If the employee cannot return to work because of a permanent injury, the insurer pays to train the employee for another job. If the employee dies because of the injury, the insurer pays death benefits to the worker's dependents.

Who Needs Workers' Compensation?
Employers in all states except Texas and New Jersey are required by law to have workers' compensation insurance. And in New Jersey, employers that do not have workers' compensation coverage can suffer penalties so severe that the obligation is optional in theory only.

Each state sets its own benefit levels, so coverage does not differ among various workers' compensation insurers within a state.

In a handful of states - North Dakota, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming and Ohio - only the state can sell workers' compensation coverage.

Several states operate a worker's compensation fund that serves as a workers' compensation insurance company for employers in the state. These funds are available to ensure that workers' compensation insurance is available to all employers in the state, even those that may have difficulty buying coverage from a commercial carrier.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?
How to lower your premiums

How to minimize your risks

What experience rating is

A company's payroll is one of the factors used to calculate an employer's premium. The higher your payroll, the higher your premium will be.

The kind of work your employees do also affects your premium cost. Employers must report to a workers' compensation insurer the job classification of each of their employees. Generally, premiums are more costly for employees with jobs that involve a greater amount of risk.

For example, the premium for a construction worker would usually be higher than the premium for an administrative assistant.

Umbrella Liability

Premier One has assembled products from many of the nation’s leading Umbrella insurance carriers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with insurance companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We’ll help you get the right coverage from the right insurer.

Product Summary
Umbrella insurance is also known as “excess liability” insurance. Umbrella Liability applies excess over primary liability policies and provides additional limits of liability in a cost effective fashion. The primary policies are called “underlying” policies and are specifically scheduled, along with their limits, on the Umbrella policy.

The underlying policies are typically the primary General Liability and Auto Liability policies. The Employer’s Liability section of the Workers’ Compensation policy is also a common underlying coverage.

Primary General and Auto Liability policies commonly have limits ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000. In the litigious climate of the U.S., those limits are often insufficient to adequately protect a business from a serious premises claim, product liability lawsuit, or auto accident.

What's Covered?
Umbrella policies are intended to cover a variety of liability losses that are also covered by the primary policies.The Umbrella coverage attaches at a predetermined level of liability limit, i.e., when a covered loss exhausts the primary policy’s per occurrence limit.

For example, assume the primary General Liability per occurrence limit is $1,000,000 and the Umbrella liability policy limit is $5,000,000 excess $1,000,000. There is a covered loss of $3,000,000. The primary General Liability policy will pay the first $1,000,000 (the policy limit) and the Umbrella policy will pay the remaining $2,000,000.

Some Umbrella policies will also “drop down” and apply on a primary basis, excess of a Retained Limit (deductible), for claims not covered by the primary policies.This is called Coverage B on the Umbrella policy. However, generally speaking, most Umbrellas will respond only to claims that are covered by the primary policies.

What Isn't Covered?
An Umbrella policy is strictly third-party liability coverage; it does not apply excess of property, crime, or other first-party coverages.Most Umbrella policies will exclude Employment Practices Liability, Professional Liability, Product Recall, Asbestos, Pollution, War and Terrorism. All Umbrella policies exclude Workers’ Compensation.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?
Underwriting for Umbrella Liability insurance is customized for each individual policyholder. As with primary General Liability, the more hazardous the Insured’s operations, the higher the Umbrella premium will be.

Commercial Package Policy

Premier One has assembled products from many of the nation's leading Commercial Package policy insurers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with insurance companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We'll help you get the right coverage from the right insurer.

Product Summary
A Commercial Package Policy ("CPP") is a customized package of two or more coverage forms. The package policy is comprised of the same coverage forms that are used when separate (monoline) policies are written. A premium discount is generally granted when separate coverage parts are purchased as part of a Commercial Package policy. The most common coverage forms include commercial property, commercial general liability, inland marine, crime, equipment breakdown, and commercial auto.

A CPP differs from a Business Owners' Policy (BOP). A BOP is also a "package" of coverages, but a BOP automatically includes various standard coverages, such as general liability, property, business income, money and securities, valuable papers, accounts receivable, and employee dishonesty.

A Commercial Package policy provides only the coverages selected by the policyholder. A CPP can consist of only general liability and building and/or contents property coverage, or can also include several other coverage forms.

All coverage forms on a Commercial Package policy must be selected and tailored to the particular risk.

What's Covered?
A CPP covers various property and/or liability exposures, depending on which coverage forms are selected.

The property form covers buildings, personal property, signs, property off premises, valuable papers, newly acquired properties, and personal property of others. Some of the coverages are subject to sublimits that can be increased for an additional premium. Property insurance can be bought on replacement cost or actual cash value basis. A coinsurance provision generally applies.

There are separate coverage forms available for business income and extra expense, equipment breakdown, accounts receivable, crime, and others.

Liability insurance covers the business if it is sued for something the business did or failed to do that caused injury or property damage to someone else. Liability insurance covers damages and settlements stemming from a lawsuit, up to the policy limits. Many liability policies also cover attorneys' fees and other costs associated with defending against a lawsuit.

Specialized property, business income and liability coverage extension forms can be added to a CPP for certain types of businesses.

What Isn't Covered?
Workers' Compensation is generally not included as a part of a Commercial Package Policy. Health, life and disability insurance are written separately. Specialized coverages such as Directors' and Officers' Liability and Fiduciary Liability are written independently from a CPP.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?
The premium is based on a variety of factors, depending on the types of coverage forms included in the package. For property insurance, the age, construction, and value of the building will greatly impact the premium. For liability coverage, the inherent risk of the insured’s operations and products will affect the premium.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance

Premier One has assembled products from many of the nation's leading Employment Practices Liability insurers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with insurance companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We'll help you get the right coverage from the right insurer.

Product Summary
Employment Practices Liability Insurance provides coverage for employment-related claims. The policies are written on a Claims Made basis and typically have a retention rather than a deductible.

What's Covered?
The coverage protects the employer against claims alleging violation of federal, state or local anti-discrimination laws, harassment, wrongful termination, negligent supervision or hiring, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Many EPL policies will also provide Punitive Damages and Third Party coverages, sometimes at an additional premium.

What Isn't Covered?
Optional coverages you may need

An EPLI policy does not eliminate all employment-related financial concerns. Claims seeking non-monetary relief, e.g., job reinstatement, are not covered. The policy will not cover the costs of accommodating any disabled person pursuant to the ADA of 1990.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?

How to minimize your risks

How to save money on your policy

Several factors outside of an employer’s control affect the cost of EPLI, including the type of business, number of employees, and state of domicile. However, an employer can make his or her company more attractive to an underwriter by having sound risk management policies in place. The employee handbook should contain strong anti-discrimination and anti-harassment statements and there should be written procedures for the investigation and resolution of an employee’s complaint.

Surety Bonds

Premier One has assembled surety bond products from some of the nation's leading surety bond issuers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with surety companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We'll help you buy the right bond to ensure your performance from the right surety.

Product Summary
Surety bonds are agreements between three parties:
• The first party is the issuer of a bond, which is called the surety (usually an insurance company);
• The second party is the buyer of the bond (you), which is called the principal;
• The third party is the entity covered by the bond (your client), which is called the obligee.

Under a surety bond agreement, a surety company guarantees that the bond buyer will fulfill a certain obligation he or she has made to a third party.

Unlike other forms of insurance, the entity protected by the bond is the third party, not the buyer; the surety bond buyer is the one doing the work that is guaranteed.

For example, contract bonds guarantee that a written contract between two parties will be fulfilled. Construction contracts can be guaranteed by these bonds. Some common types of contract bonds include bid, performance and payment bonds.

If you're a contractor on a construction project, you can buy a performance contract bond that will ensure your compliance with the terms and conditions of your contract. As a result, the project owner is confident that the work will get done even if you default on the project and the surety bond company has to assume your responsibilities.

What Kinds of Surety Bonds Are There?
Do I need a separate bond for each project?

There are many kinds of commercial, contract and fidelity bonds that guarantee a certain behavior or the fulfillment of an obligation. Other common commercial bonds include court judicial, court fiduciary, public official, license and permit bonds.

Court judicial and court fiduciary bonds are required in some cases by law. A fiduciary is a person appointed by a court to act in the best interests of another person who is unable to handle something himself. Fiduciaries often must provide a bond to guarantee the faithful performance of their duties.

For example, the executor of an estate may be required to post a fiduciary bond that guarantees the executor will dispose of the estate honestly and to the best of his or her ability.

Fidelity bonds guarantee the honesty of employees. Fidelity bonds cover losses arising from employee dishonesty.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?
Information you need to provide about your business

What if my business is too new to have a track record?

Surety bond companies take several factors into account when making underwriting decisions.

For example, an insurer will evaluate whether a contractor has the skills and abilities to do the promised work. Also, a contractor's track record of fulfilling previous obligations will be considered. The financial condition of the company is another factor in the decision-making process.

Directors' and Officers' Liability Insurance

Premier One has assembled products from many of the nation's leading Directors' and Officers' Liability insurers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with insurance companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We'll help you get the right coverage from the right insurer.

Product Summary
Directors' and Officers' Liability insurance protects the individual directors and officers from personal financial loss arising out of alleged or actual wrongful acts committed in their capacity as directors and officers. D&O policies are written on a Claims Made coverage form basis. Specialized policy forms are available for not-for-profit organizations, small private companies, and large public companies.

What's Covered?
For private companies and non-profit organizations, coverage is often extended to employees, in addition to the directors and officers. Some insurers offer Employment Practices Liability as an additional coverage section on the D&O policy. Many policies will also cover the corporate entity for claims involving the sale or purchase of the company's securities.

What Isn't Covered?
A D&O policy will not cover exposures more properly covered under other policies, i.e., bodily injury or property damage (covered under General Liability) or Employers' Liability (covered under Workers' Compensation). Dishonest or fraudulent acts committed by the directors or officers are excluded from a D&O policy.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?
Certain types of industry are more susceptible to D&O claims: telecommunications, healthcare, biotechnology. Large publicly held companies, in any industry, are typically frequent targets. A weak financial condition makes a company a ripe target for a D&O lawsuit.

Professional Liability

Premier One has assembled products from many of the nation's leading Professional Liability insurers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with insurance companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We'll help you get the right coverage from the right insurer.

Product Summary
A Professional Liability Insurance Policy is specialized for each of the professionals. The policies are written on a Claims Made Basis and often will have a deductible/retention. These policies will have, in addition to the "Policy Period" a "Retroactive Date"

Example of Professional: Lawyers, Accountants/CPA, Consultants

What's Covered?
The coverage protects your firm for damages arising out of the firm's profession for acts, errors or omissions when performing these duties for another party. Always make sure that your professional liability policy applies to your employees within your firm's profession, as well as to you.

What Isn't Covered?
The Professional Liability insurance is not designed to cover Workers Compensation, General Liability or any employees that fall outside the profession of the Firm. There are specific policies that are designed to better cover the general liability, products liability and workers compensation exposures.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?
How to minimize your risks

How to save money on your policy

The Insurer uses a rating formula to determine the annual premium. Example: The lawyer will be rated on the number of attorneys/area of practice and the Consultant, Accountant/CPA will be rated on the annual gross receipts/area of practice. In addition, the rate will be charged accordingly for the Retroactive Date. If prior acts coverage applies, proof will need to be provided to the insurer that "no coverage has been interrupted" on an active policy with your current insurer. This proof is provided by way of a copy of your declaration page.

Builders Risk Policy

Premier One Premier One has assembled products from many of the nation's leading Commercial Package policy insurers for you to choose from. With our unique technology, we can match your business risk profile with insurance companies that specialize in your industry and want your type of business. We'll help you get the right coverage from the right insurer.

Product Summary
A Builders Risk policy covers a building in the course of construction or renovation. Builders Risk is a type of Inland Marine insurance. Covered property includes the building, building materials in transit or at a temporary location, soft costs and rental income.

What's Covered?
The policy covers the costs of labor and materials for new construction. In addition to the actual building, the policy covers property such as temporary structures, fencing, scaffolding and construction signs. Loss or damage to trees, shrubs, sod and plants is covered for specific perils such as fire, theft, and motor vehicle collision.

If damage is caused by defective workmanship, materials or design, the policy will cover the resultant damage. Mechanical breakdown coverage can be included for losses caused by testing certain types of equipment.

Valuable Papers coverage is often included to protect blueprints and other construction documents at the job site. The Builders Risk policy covers the Insured’s responsibility for materials and property owned by others at the job site.

A Builders Risk policy also covers the financial loss resulting from a new ordinance or law. Some Builders Risk policies protect the profit the contractor has earned.

What Isn't Covered?
Seizure or destruction of property by order of governmental authority is not covered. The policy does not cover loss caused by the settling or cracking of walls, ceilings or floors. Acts of destruction or theft by employees are not covered.

What Affects the Cost of the Policy?
The total value of the construction or renovation project drives the cost of the premium. The type of construction and where the property is located are also factors impacting the premium.