Commercial insurance policy guides

A policy is not just the declarations page. What you are actually covered for lives in the insuring agreement, the exclusions, and the endorsements.

Two numbers control how much your liability policy pays: the most for one claim, and the most for the whole policy period. Both can run out.

A sublimit is a cap inside a cap. Your policy limit may be $1M, but a sublimit can quietly cap a key peril at a fraction of that.

Whether a policy is claims-made or occurrence decides which policy responds to a claim — and a gap when you switch can leave you uncovered.

A coinsurance clause quietly penalizes you for under-insuring — even on a partial loss you fully expected to be covered.

How your property is valued at a loss — replacement cost or actual cash value — can be the difference between being made whole and a depreciated payout.

Coverage is decided as much by what is excluded as by what is granted. These are the exclusions that most often leave businesses exposed.

Leases and contracts often require you to add the other party as an additional insured and waive subrogation. The contract promise is only as good as the endorsement.

A covered claim can still be denied if you miss a post-loss duty. Notice and proof-of-loss deadlines are easy to blow and hard to undo.

On an eroding policy, every dollar your insurer spends defending you is a dollar less to settle the claim. The limit can run out before the loss is paid.

A policy can be cancelled midterm or simply not renewed. The notice you get — and the reasons allowed — are limited, and largely set by state law.

Flood is almost always excluded from a standard property policy. For many businesses it is the single biggest uncovered risk.