As you may expect, business insurance is designed to offer cover to businesses against some of the risks they may face on a day-to-day or ongoing basis. This spans a wide range of insurance types, each of which can insure a different set of unexpected circumstances (subject to the terms and conditions of your agreement). These may include:
Public liability insurance
Public liability insurance can cover your business if a member of the public is injured or their property is damaged as a result of your business activity, subject to the terms and qualification criteria set by your insurer. Some insurers will enable you to set your own claim limits at $5 million, $10 million or $20 million (or even more by individual arrangement) to help cover any compensation required to be paid or legal fees associated with the case.
What it covers:
- Third-party personal injury claims
- Third-party property damage claims
- The legal costs of defending yourself
Product liability insurance
Product liability insurance may be able to offer your business protection against claims a product you supplied, whether manufactured by you or imported and sold, caused harm to a third party or damaged their property. You may also be able to set your claim limit at between $5 million and $20 million with this type of insurance.
What it covers:
- Claims that a product you supplied caused sickness or injury
- Third-party property damage claims
- Legal fees to defend yourself against such claims
Professional indemnity insurance
Professional indemnity insurance can offer cover against claims the advice you gave or service you provided was negligent, sub-standard or caused loss or harm. It may also cover circumstances such as mistakes, incorrect diagnoses, miscalculations and breach of duty. Cover can start at $250,000 and may go up to $10 million (with more potentially available with some insurers should your business require it).
What it covers:
- Payment of compensation
- Payment of damages
- Legal defence costs
- Cost of defending yourself during investigations
General business insurance
General business insurance is an insurance package which can offer coverage against other risks, such as those facing your physical business premises and assets. As well as common types of insurance such as professional indemnity and public liability, you may be able to include a range of other types of coverage, including:
- Commercial property insurance (which may offer a higher level of protection for your business premises)
- Glass breakage (which is a common business insurance exclusion)
- Business interruption (which can cover your bills if you have to close your business while recovering from an insured event)
- Cyber liability insurance (which can protect you from many forms of cybercrime)
- Tax audit (which can cover some of your costs if you’re subject to an ATO audit)
- Management liability (which can offer cover to business owners and directors against claims of mismanagement)
What it covers:
- Fires, storms, water damage
- Explosions and impacts
- Accidental damage
- Theft following forceable entry into a locked building
- Theft of equipment which is securely attached to a vehicle
Accident and sickness insurance
Accident and sickness insurance can cover self-employed individuals who are injured or suffer an illness which prevents them from working and earning a living. You may be able to set your benefit at up to 85% of your current salary (depending on how much you earn and your insurer’s terms and conditions) for a benefit period, which is usually either one or two years, with an additional period which generally requires you to wait between seven and 28 days. You can typically select both of these periods, with longer benefit periods and shorter waiting periods tending to cost more.
What it covers:
- Loss of income as a result of illness
- Loss of income as a result of an accident
- Optional extras including death and disablement benefits