Lincoln Park Business Insurance

From small ventures run out of people’s homes to the many shops, offices, and restaurants that line Fort Street, each of the more than 2,000 businesses in Lincoln Park plays an important role in the health of the local economy. If you own a company of any size in this Michigan city, you can benefit from protecting it with business insurance.

Putting together a comprehensive business insurance policy package can be challenging, but you don't 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 near you for help finding suitable, yet affordable, coverage for your Lincoln Park business.

Why Do Businesses in Lincoln Park, MI Need Liability Insurance?

If a liability lawsuit is brought against your business, things can get extremely expensive. This is true even if the courts ultimately rule in your favor. Business liability insurance is designed to shield your company from financial losses by covering court costs, legal defense fees, and financial damages if it is sued for a covered event.

There are lots of 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 exposures your company faces. Here are some of the commercial liability products your insurance agent may recommend:

• 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 had been 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.
• Cyber liability insurance: This can cover financial losses and liabilities, including restitution and credit monitoring services for affected individuals, if criminals break into your company’s computer systems and steal customer information such as credit card data, Social Security numbers, and personal details.
• Employment practices liability insurance: This can cover lawsuits related to accusations of illegal employment practices such as discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination by your current, former, or prospective employees.
• Professional liability insurance: This can cover individuals in professional positions 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 can cover lawsuits related to damage and injuries caused by a person who became intoxicated while in your establishment. This is a real risk due to the dram shop laws in Michigan, which allow injured parties to sue the business that served the alcohol if they served it to a visibly intoxicated adult or to a minor.
• Environmental liability insurance: This can cover clean-up costs and damage if an accident or a natural disaster results in the pollution of the ground, water, or air by toxic substances stocked, used, or produced by your company.

Talk to an independent insurance agent in Lincoln Park 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 Lincoln Park are most likely to experience significant property loss or damage due to hazards such as accidental fires, theft, and severe weather events like tornadoes, electrical storms, windstorms, hail, blizzards, and freezing temperatures.

Fortunately, each of these risks is covered by commercial property insurance, which is a standard part of every business insurance policy. This insurance is designed to cover your company-owned property, including furniture, computers, supplies, inventory, merchandise, and outdoor signs.

Sometimes it is necessary to add specialized property insurance policies for all of your business property to be suitably covered. An independent insurance agent may recommend supplementing your commercial property insurance with products such as:

• Commercial food insurance: This is important because your commercial property insurance does not cover flood damage. Many businesses in Lincoln Park are at risk for flooding, particularly when heavy rains fall on already saturated ground. Businesses in Lincoln Park can purchase up to $500,000 in structural coverage and $500,000 in contents coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). A local independent agent can show you how
• Inland marine insurance: This 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 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 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 when you are performing repair, alteration, or maintenance services 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 in the event of a major disaster.

Is Business Interruption Insurance a Good Idea in Lincoln Park, MI?

Tornado activity in the Lincoln Park area is 34% greater than the national average. One of the worst this city has seen was an F4 twister that touched down in 1956, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to Lincoln Park homes and businesses.

Disasters in Michigan

• Number of federally declared disasters in MI since 1953: 42
• Most common reasons for declared disasters: Floods, severe storms, and tornadoes
• Average number of tornadoes in MI per year: 16

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

If your business is forced into a 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 are able to resume normal operations.

Business interruption insurance is designed to provide the funds necessary for your company to continue paying regular monthly expenses like utility payments, loan installments, and employee salaries while it is temporarily unable to generate revenue. Talk to a local insurance agent to learn more.

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Do Businesses in Lincoln Park Need Worker's Compensation Insurance?

Even when all reasonable precautions are taken, workers sometimes get hurt on the job. If one of your employees suffers a serious injury or develops an occupational illness, your business is responsible for covering their medical treatment and financial losses. Worker's compensation insurance is designed to provide this coverage.

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

Rates for worker's 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 cost a lot more to cover a worker at a metal products manufacturing firm than to cover a cashier at a grocery store.

An independent insurance agent in Lincoln Park can help you review policies and quotes from a few competing worker's compensation insurance providers. That way, you can be sure that you are buying this mandatory coverage at the best available rate.

What about Insurance Products for Employee Benefits Packages?

An employee benefits package that includes perks like paid vacation and sick time, an employer-matched 401(k) or 403(b) plan, health insurance, and life insurance options can give your company a competitive edge. Studies conducted by human resources professionals have shown that when businesses offer attractive benefits packages, they find it easier to recruit and retain ideal employees.

When you are looking for the right 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. These can include HMOs, PPOs, and managed care plans, as well as policies with varying deductibles, copays, prescription plans, and coverage. All these variations can make it difficult to determine which policies are the best to purchase.

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 so you can make an informed decision about which make the best choices.

Why Work with an Independent Insurance Agent in Lincoln Park, MI?

There are several different business insurance products and policy options available. 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.

Set up a one-on-one consultation with an independent insurance agent in Lincoln Park to learn more. You will soon discover how easy it can be to build a comprehensive, yet affordable, business insurance policy package.