Havre de Grace Business Insurance

From large employers like Hartford Memorial Hospital to small business ventures run out of people’s homes, each of the nearly 1,000 businesses located in the city of Havre de Grace plays an important role in the health of the local economy. If you own a company of any size in this Maryland 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 Havre de Grace for help finding suitable, yet affordable, coverage that won’t leave your business exposed to any unintentional coverage gaps.

Why Do Businesses in Havre de Grace Need Liability Insurance?

A liability lawsuit filed against your company can lead to very large financial losses for your business if it is not properly insured. This is true even if the courts ultimately rule in your company’s favor.

Business liability insurance can cover court costs, legal defense fees, settlements, judgments, and other financial damages if your company 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 your company’s liability exposures. Examples of some of the commercial liability products you may want to consider include the following.

• 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 are caused by defects or design flaws in products your company produces, sells, or promotes.
• Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI): This covers against lawsuits related to accusations of illegal employment practices such as discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination.
• Cyber liability insurance: This can cover your company’s financial obligations as well as restitution and credit monitoring services for affected individuals if criminals hack into your company’s computer systems and steal customer information such as credit card data, social security numbers, and personal details.
• Professional liability insurance: This can cover against lawsuits if your professional employees make an error in judgment or other mistakes that can lead to financial loss, injury, or other damage to their clients.
• Environmental liability insurance: This can cover your company’s financial obligations, including cleanup costs and damages if an accident or a natural disaster results in the pollution of the ground, water, or air by toxic substances your company sells, uses, or produces.

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

What Insurance Products Cover Your Business Property?

Business property in Havre de Grace is most likely to be lost or damaged due to hazards such as property crimes, accidental fires, and severe weather events like tornadoes, electrical storms, windstorms, tropical storms, hurricanes, 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 may be necessary to supplement it with specialized property insurance policies such as the following.

• Flood insurance: This is important because commercial property insurance does not cover flood damage. Businesses located near waterways like the Susquehanna River 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 commercial flood insurance policy through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
• Inland marine insurance: This can cover your company’s portable property whenever it is in transit or is located away from your place of business, such as at a worksite or in a warehouse.
• Boiler & machinery insurance: This can cover the cost to repair or replace your company’s well-maintained 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 can cover your customers’ valuable property whenever it is in your business’s care, custody, or control, such as while 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.

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Is Business Interruption Insurance a Good Idea in Havre de Grace, MD?

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 of this magnitude could also force your company to close down for several weeks while repairs are made.

Disasters in Maryland

• Number of federally declared disasters in MD since 1953: 36
• Most common reasons for declared disasters:  Floods, hurricanes, severe storms
• Average number of tornadoes in MD per year: 10
• Amount paid out in business insurance claims in MD in 2019: $7,567,341,000

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 you can resume normal business operations.

This insurance is designed to provide the funds necessary for your business to continue paying regular monthly expenses like 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 Havre de Grace business.

Do Businesses in Havre de Grace Need Workers’ Compensation Insurance?

Even if you have taken all reasonable precautions to prevent it from happening, your workers can get hurt on the job. According to the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission, there were 942 workers’ compensation claims filed in Harford County in 2019.

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

With very few exceptions, all employers in Maryland are required by law to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Sole proprietors, owner-operators of large tractor trailer vehicles, and agricultural businesses with fewer than three full-time employees are exempt from needing coverage but can buy it if they 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 nurse in the emergency room at UM Harford Memorial Hospital than it would to cover a professor at Johns Hopkins University.

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

What about Insurance Products for Employee Benefits Packages?

Benefits such as paid vacation time, an employer-matched 401(k) or 403(b) plan, and 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 and options to choose from.

You will need to decide between HMOs, PPOs, and managed care plans, and will be able to choose from varying deductibles, copays, prescription plans, and coverage limits. All these variations can make it difficult to determine which policies are the 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 is the best to purchase.

Why Work with an Independent Insurance Agent in Havre de Grace, MD?

There are many different commercial insurance products and policy options available to business owners in Havre de Grace. That makes it possible for you to fully customize your policy package to meet your company’s specific coverage needs.

Independent agents take the guess work out of buying coverage. These agents can offer advice, ensure that you do not have unintended coverage gaps, and provide you with an assortment of quotes so that you can be sure you are getting your policies at competitive prices.

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 purchase a comprehensive, yet affordable, business insurance policy package.