Types of Business Insurance Coverage

There are many types of business insurance coverage, ranging from mainstream policies that most businesses need to specialized coverages designed for specific industries and risks. For example, general liability insurance is one of the most common policies for small businesses, while inland marine insurance is more specialized and helps protect tools, equipment and materials that travel to job sites or are frequently transported.

If you’re not sure where to start, focus on the core policies directly below that most businesses will need before considering specialized coverage.

In general, the most commonly needed types of business insurance coverage are as follows (click below to learn more about each):

• General Liability Insurance
• Workers Comp Insurance
• Professional Liability Insurance
• Commercial Auto Insurance
• Commercial Property Insurance
• Business Interruption Insurance
• Commercial Umbrella Insurance
• Cyber Liability Insurance

General liability insurance protects businesses from third-party claims of bodily injury, property damage, and personal/advertising injury during normal operations. It covers legal defense costs, settlements, and judgments for incidents like customer slip-and-falls, damage from your services, or advertising-related lawsuits. You may also hear it called public liability insurance or comprehensive general liability, but regardless of which term you use, it is referring to the same policy type.

• Who Needs It: Most small businesses
• When It Is Required: Often it is not required by law but may be required in some client, financing, or leasing contracts. Contractors may be required by state law as part of licensing requirements.
• Most Common Coverage Structure: Dollar Amount Limit Per Claim/Dollar Amount Aggregate Limit Per Year. You can also bundle it through a BOP policy with
• Typical Coverage Amount: $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate is recommended. We also suggest bundling it through a BOP policy which combines general liability, business interruption and commercial property.
• Why It Is Important: Liability claims can become expensive fast once medical bills and legal defense stack up. Verisk reported general liability severity averaging ~$88K (and rising in recent years), meaning even “typical” claims can be financially disruptive.
• Commonly Confused With: Professional liability (E&O), which covers claims tied to errors in your work/services, not third-party injury/property damage

Workers' compensation insurance provides medical benefits and wage replacement to employees who are injured or become ill due to their job on a no-fault system. Beyond protecting businesses from lawsuits by injured workers, this essential coverage extends to rehabilitation costs, disability benefits, and death benefits for dependents. Most policies come bundled in two parts for employee benefits (part a) and employer benefits (part b: AKA employers liability), but monopolistic states that require you to buy from the government may decouple them.

• Who Needs It: All businesses with employees (required by law in most states)
• When It Is Required: Mandatory in 49 states (Texas is the exception). Requirements vary by state - some require coverage with just one employee, others have different thresholds based on industry or number of workers.
• Most Common Coverage Structure: Premium rates per $100 of payroll based on job classification codes
• Typical Coverage Amount: State-mandated minimums vary; coverage should meet statutory requirements plus adequate reserves for claims
• Why It Is Important: Employee injuries can trigger medical bills and wage replacement costs that add up fast. NCCI-backed data compiled by the National Safety Council shows the average cost per workers’ comp claim was $47,316 for 2022–2023 accidents.
• Commonly confused with: General liability, which covers injuries to customers/third parties, not employees.

Professional liability insurance protects businesses that provide professional services or advice from claims of negligence, mistakes, or failure to deliver promised services. When clients allege financial losses due to professional errors, omissions, or inadequate work performance, this coverage steps in to handle legal defense costs, settlements, and judgments. You'll often hear it called E&O or professional indemnity insurance, but they are the same thing with a different name.

• Who Needs It: Service-based professionals such as consultants, lawyers, healthcare professionals, accountants, architects need this policy type.
• When It Is Required: Often required by professional licensing boards, client contracts, or industry regulations. Some states mandate it for certain professions (Ex: Healthcare professionals need malpractice insurance).
• Most Common Coverage Structure: Claims-made basis with per-claim limits and aggregate annual limits
• Typical Coverage Amount: $1 million per claim and $3 million aggregate, though high-risk professions may need $5-10 million
• Why It Is Important: Professional liability claims can be costly even when you didn’t intentionally do anything wrong, because legal defense and investigation expenses add up quickly. A single dispute can trigger five-figure+ defense costs, before any settlement is paid.
• Commonly confused with: General liability, which focuses on bodily injury/property damage, not service errors

Commercial auto insurance covers vehicles owned, leased, or used by a business for work purposes. This essential protection provides liability coverage for bodily injury and property damage caused by business vehicles. Additionally, it includes comprehensive protection against vehicle damage from collisions, theft, vandalism, and weather events, covering everything from company cars and trucks to personal vehicles used for business activities.

• Who Needs It: Any business that owns vehicles or has employees who drive for work purposes
• When It Is Required: Legally required in all states for business-owned vehicles. Also needed when employees use personal vehicles for business (hired/non-owned coverage).
• Most Common Coverage Structure: It is traditionally structured with per-accident limits for liability, plus comprehensive and collision coverage with deductibles. You can also create a combined single limit policy for all damages, called a CSL policy.
• Typical Coverage Amount: Minimum $1 million combined single limit, though $2-5 million is often recommended for higher-risk operations
• Why It Is Important: Auto crashes can lead to high injury-related claims and lawsuits, not just vehicle repairs. NHTSA estimates the economic cost of U.S. motor vehicle crashes at $340 billion in 2019, showing how costly accidents can be at scale.
• Commonly confused with: Personal auto insurance, which may exclude business use or business-owned vehicles.

Commercial property insurance protects business-owned buildings, equipment, inventory, furniture, and other physical assets from covered perils like fire, theft, vandalism, and weather damage. This policy typically includes business personal property coverage including moveable items like computers, tools, and inventory receive protection both on and off premises. Contractors can also add tools and equipment coverage as part of their policy for any specialized items used as part of this policy.

• Who Needs It: Any business with physical assets, inventory, equipment, or office space
• When It Is Required: Often required by mortgage lenders for owned buildings and by landlords for tenants through lease agreements
• Most Common Coverage Structure: Replacement cost or actual cash value coverage with specific limits per category of property
• Recommended Coverage Amount: 100% replacement cost value of all business property, including buildings, equipment, and inventory
• Why It Is Important: Property losses can create high replacement costs for buildings, equipment, and inventory. A single major incident like a fire can produce six-figure+ replacement costs surprisingly fast.
• Commonly confused with: Inland marine insurance, which is better suited for tools/equipment that travel or are used off-site

Business interruption insurance (also called business income insurance) compensates for lost revenue and covers ongoing expenses when a business cannot operate due to a covered property loss. During the restoration period, it helps maintain cash flow by covering lost profits and fixed expenses like rent and utilities. The policy also addresses additional costs needed to resume operations quickly.

• Who Needs It: Any business that would suffer financial losses if forced to temporarily close operations
• When It Is Required: Not legally required but often mandated by lenders or recommended as part of comprehensive property coverage
• Most Common Coverage Structure: Coverage based on historical financial records with specific time periods (12-24 months typical)
• Typical Coverage Amount: 12-24 months of gross earnings plus fixed expenses, calculated from financial statements
• Why It Is Important: Even a short shutdown can quickly become expensive because fixed expenses (rent, payroll, debt) continue while revenue drops. Income loss can reach thousands per week for many operating businesses during a closure.
• Commonly confused with: “Any-cause income loss” coverage is often conflated with business interruption, that typically requires a covered property claim (not demand drops)

Commercial umbrella insurance provides additional liability coverage that kicks in when the limits of underlying policies (like general liability or commercial auto) are exhausted. Unlike primary policies, it offers broader coverage and protects against catastrophic lawsuits that could threaten business assets. The policy sits "above" other liability policies like an umbrella, hence its name.

• Who Needs It: Businesses with significant assets to protect or higher liability exposure from operations
• When It Is Required: Often required by contracts, especially with government entities or large corporations requiring $5+ million in coverage
• Most Common Coverage Structure: Excess coverage over primary policies with high limits (typically $1-10 million increments)
• Typical Coverage Amount: $1-5 million for small businesses, $10+ million for larger operations or high-risk industries
• Why It Is Important: Umbrella coverage matters because severe liability claims can exceed standard policy limits quickly. With general liability claim severity rising (Verisk notes annual severity around $101K in 2024), higher-cost claims can push businesses into six-figure+ out-of-pocket exposure without higher limits.
• Commonly confused with: Excess liability, which often extends only one underlying policy and may not broaden coverage.

Cyber liability insurance, or data breach insurance, protects businesses from financial losses related to data breaches, cyberattacks, and technology failures. From forensic investigations and legal fees to customer notification and credit monitoring, this coverage addresses the mounting costs of cyber incidents. Regulatory fines and business interruption from cyber events are also included, with coverage typically spanning both first-party costs and third-party liability claims.

• Who Needs It: Any business that stores customer data, processes payments electronically, or relies on computer systems
• When It Is Required: Increasingly required by client contracts, vendor agreements, and some industry regulations (HIPAA, PCI-DSS)
• Most Common Coverage Structure: First-party coverage for direct costs plus third-party liability coverage, often with separate sublimits
• Typical Coverage Amount: $1-5 million depending on business size, with higher limits for companies handling sensitive data
• Why It Is Important: Cyber incidents can trigger major financial losses from response, downtime, and legal exposure. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report found the average global breach cost was $4.88 million (2024).
• Commonly confused with: Tech E&O / media liability, which covers professional/service failures rather than breach response and recovery

Some businesses need specialized business insurance types depending on their specific industry and commercial assets. For instance, if you in manufacturing, you'll likely need some form of product liability insurance to protect you in cases where items you sell injure or cause damages to customers due to defects.

So to ensure you have a grasp of all commercial coverage types available we've created a comprehensive guide to specialized plans below:

Business insurance isn’t one policy and is a group of coverages that protect your business from different kinds of financial loss. The simplest way to evaluate business insurance types is to sort them into three risk categories:

1. Liability risk: lawsuits and third-party claims (injury, property damage, advertising/personal injury, professional mistakes)
2. Asset & downtime risk: damage to business property and lost income from interruptions
3. People & vehicle risk: employee injuries and vehicle accidents related to business operations

Once you know which category creates the largest financial exposure for your business, it becomes much easier to choose the right coverage types and limits.

Our recommendation is to start identifying the _s_ingle biggest financial risk your business faces whether that be a lawsuit, employee injury, vehicle accident, property loss or cyber incident. Then prioritize the insurance coverage type that protects against that risk first, and build out the rest of your coverage from there.

We've also provided additional recommendations below based on what you're trying to accomplish.