Moline Business Insurance

From large employers like Deere & Company to small business ventures run out of people’s homes, each of the more than 3,000 businesses located in the city of Moline plays an important role in the health of the local economy. If you own a company of any size in this Illinois city, you can benefit from protecting it with the right business insurance.

Building a comprehensive business insurance policy package can be challenging, but you do not need to do it alone. Local independent agents can help you identify your company’s various exposures and can recommend the right policies to cover against each of them.

Contact an insurance agent in or near Moline for help finding suitable, yet affordable, coverage that won’t leave your business exposed to any unintentional coverage gaps.

Why Do Businesses in Moline Need Liability Insurance?

A liability lawsuit filed against your company can lead to insurmountable financial losses if you are not insured. This is true even if the courts ultimately rule in your business’s favor.

Business liability insurance can protect your company by covering court costs, legal defense fees, and financial damages if it is sued for a covered event. There are several different liability products available to businesses. You will need to be sure to purchase the right policies to cover against each of the potential liability risks your company faces.

The following are examples of some of the commercial liability products your insurance agent may recommend including in your business insurance policy package.

• Premises liability insurance: This can cover third-party injuries, illnesses, and property damage caused by accidents that occur on your business property for which your company may be deemed responsible.
• Product liability insurance: This can cover third-party injuries, illnesses, and property damage that is caused by defects or design flaws in products your company produces, sells or promotes.
• Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI): This is important for businesses that have employees. It can cover lawsuits related to accusations of illegal employment practices such as discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination.
• Cyber liability insurance: This is important for businesses that store sensitive data electronically. If criminals hack into your company’s computer systems and steal customer information such as credit card data, social security numbers, and personal details, this insurance can cover your company’s financial obligations as well as restitution and credit monitoring services for affected individuals.
• Professional liability insurance: This is important for businesses that provide professional services. It can cover individual employees if they make an error in judgment or another professional mistake that leads to financial loss, injury, or other damage to their clients.
• Liquor liability insurance: This is important for businesses that sell or serve alcoholic beverages. This is because Illinois’s dram shop laws state that if a person becomes intoxicated in your establishment and then goes on to cause property damage or injuries to another, the injured party can sue your business for providing the drinks.
• Environmental liability insurance: This is important for companies that sell, use, or produce toxic substances. This insurance can cover your company’s financial obligations, including cleanup costs and damage if an accident or a natural disaster results in the pollution of the ground, water, or air by these substances.

Talk to an independent insurance agent in Moline to learn more about these and other commercial liability policies that may be a good fit for your business.

What Insurance Products Cover Your Business Property?

Businesses in Moline are most likely to experience significant property loss or damage due to hazards such as property crimes, accidental fires, and severe weather events like tornadoes, electrical storms, windstorms, hail, blizzards, ice accumulation, and freezing temperatures.

Fortunately, property damage caused by each of the risks mentioned above is covered by commercial property insurance, which is a standard part of every business insurance policy.

Commercial property insurance does have its limitations, however, so it is sometimes necessary to supplement it with specialized property insurance policies.

Depending on what your business does, an independent insurance agent may recommend additional property insurance products such as the following.

• Commercial flood insurance: This is important because your commercial property insurance does not cover flood damage. Businesses located near waterways like the Mississippi and Rock Rivers are most at risk, but when heavy rains fall, flash flooding can occur just about anywhere in this city. A local independent agent can help you secure an affordable flood insurance policy through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
• Inland marine insurance: This optional insurance can cover your company’s portable property during the times that it is in transit or is being stored away from your place of business, such as at a worksite or in a warehouse.
• Boiler & machinery insurance: This optional insurance can cover the cost to repair or replace your company’s essential machinery and equipment if it breaks down or malfunctions. It can also cover any business losses associated with the mechanical failure.
• Bailee's insurance: This optional insurance can cover your customers’ valuable property whenever it is in your business’s care, custody, or control, such as when you are performing services like repair, alteration, or maintenance work on it.

A local independent insurance agent can help you be sure that all of your business assets are suitably covered and that your coverage limits are high enough to help your company avoid large financial losses in the event of a major disaster.

Is Business Interruption Insurance a Good Idea in Moline, IL?

The risk of tornado activity in the Moline area is 76% greater than the national average. One of the worst this city has seen was an F3 twister that touched down within the city limits in 1966 causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to Moline homes and businesses.

Disasters in Illinois

• Number of federally declared disasters in IL since 1953: 63
• Most common reasons for declared disasters: Severe storms, floods, and tornadoes
• Average number of tornadoes in IL per year: 54
• Amount paid out in business insurance claims in IL in 2019: $16,998,439,000

A major catastrophic event like a tornado or a structure fire can do more than just damage your business property. If the destruction it causes is particularly severe, a disaster like this could also necessitate your company to close down for several weeks while repairs are made.

If your business is forced into long-term closure due to damage caused by a covered event, business interruption insurance can help ease the financial burden by providing a continuation of income until it can resume normal operations.

Business interruption insurance can provide the funds needed for your business to continue paying regular monthly expenses like utility payments, loan installments, rent, and employee salaries while it is temporarily unable to generate revenue.

Consult an independent agent near you for help determining whether business interruption insurance is a good fit for your Moline business.

Save on Business Insurance

Our independent agents shop around to find you the best coverage.

Request a quote

Do Businesses in Moline Need Workers’ Compensation Insurance?

Even if you have taken all reasonable precautions, your workers can potentially get hurt on the job. According to the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, the top causes of workplace injuries in this state are the following.

If one of your employees suffers a serious injury or develops an occupational illness, your business is responsible for covering their medical treatments and financial losses. Workers’ compensation insurance is designed to provide this coverage.

Virtually all employers in Illinois are required by law to carry workers’ compensation insurance. You do not need to cover sole proprietors or partners without employees, but you can if you want to.

Rates for workers’ compensation insurance are based mainly on the types of jobs your employees do and the chances they will be seriously injured while doing them. It would therefore cost a lot more to cover a worker on the assembly line at John Deere than it would to cover an instructor at Black Hawk College.

An independent insurance agent in Moline can help you find great coverage at a competitive rate.

What about Insurance Products for Employee Benefits Packages?

An employee benefits package that includes perks like paid vacation, an employer-matched 401(k) or 403(b) plan, subsidized health insurance, and life insurance options can give your company a competitive edge when it comes to hiring and retaining a talented pool of employees.

When you are shopping for insurance products to include in your employee benefits package, you will find that there are many different health insurance plans to choose from.

These can include HMOs, PPOs, and managed care plans, and these policies can come with varying deductibles, copays, prescription plans, and coverage limits. All these variations can make it difficult to determine which policies make the best choices.

A local independent insurance agent can go over the pros and cons of each of your various options and can help you obtain and compare quotes from a few competing providers. That way, you can make an informed decision about which to purchase.

Why Work with an Independent Insurance Agent in Moline, IL?

There are several different business insurance products and policy options available to business owners in Moline. That makes it possible for you to fully customize your company’s coverage. Independent agents can ensure that you are buying all the coverage your business needs and that you are getting it at a competitive price.

Arrange a one-on-one consultation with an independent insurance agent near you to learn more. You will soon discover how easy it can be to build a comprehensive, yet affordable, business insurance policy package.