Business Owners Insurance
Property and liability in one contract, written for the businesses that need both and do not need them apart.
Small and mid-size businesses that need both halves.
Most businesses with a location, some equipment and people coming through the door are buying property and liability coverage in the same conversation. The package exists for exactly that situation.
- Businesses that meet clients at their own premises or at a client's.
- Businesses with physical access to a client's equipment.
- Any operation where there is a real risk of injury to a person or damage to property that is not yours.
- Owners who would rather manage one renewal and one set of limits than three.
A BOP is not a different kind of coverage. It is two policies a business was going to buy anyway, written as one.
A business owners policy, usually shortened to BOP, combines commercial property insurance and business liability insurance into a single contract. It exists because nearly every business of a certain size needs both, and because buying them together is generally less expensive than buying them separately.
The convenience is real and it is not the main point. The main point is that the two halves are written to work with each other, so the distance between property damage and the liability that follows it is shorter than when the coverages are assembled from unrelated contracts.
The property half
- The building, if you own it, and the improvements you have made to it if you lease.
- Business personal property: equipment, inventory, furniture and the tools of the work.
- Loss or damage from causes such as fire, theft and accidental damage.
- Loss of business income while the damage is being repaired, which package policies generally include at some level.
The liability half
- Bodily injury to people outside your business, including customers and visitors.
- Damage to property belonging to someone else, at your premises or at theirs.
- The cost of defending a covered claim, whether or not the allegation holds up.
What the package is actually answering.
The two kinds of loss that arrive together more often than separately.
- A fire closes the premises. The property side pays to repair or replace what burned. The income the business would have earned while it was closed is a separate part of the same policy, and it is the part more often set too low.
- A customer is hurt on site. The liability side answers the injury and the defense. This exposure exists the moment the public has access to the business, whether or not there is anything valuable on the premises.
- Equipment or inventory is stolen. Theft is a covered cause of loss on the property side. What decides the claim is whether the limits reflect what the business holds now rather than what it held when the policy was first written.
- The work damages a client's property. Liability follows the business off its own premises, which is why the coverage matters even to operations that keep very little on site.
The decisions inside the package.
The pricing comparison between a package and separate policies settles quickly. These take longer and matter more.
- Insure property for what replacing it costs. A policy written to actual cash value pays a depreciated figure; replacement cost pays to replace. The difference appears once, at the worst possible time, and it is decided at the outset.
- Set the business income period honestly. The income coverage runs for the time it reasonably takes to repair or replace, and the limit should be built from projected revenue and the expenses that continue while the doors are closed.
- Keep the property schedule current. Equipment bought, inventory grown, a space improved. A package written against last year's figures pays against last year's figures.
- Know which exclusions matter to you. Vehicles, employees, professional services, flood, cyber events and employment practices claims all sit outside the package by design, whether as their own contract or as a specific endorsement. A claim that your advice or your work product cost a client money is errors and omissions coverage rather than this one. Which of them a given business needs depends entirely on what it does.
- Watch eligibility as the business grows. Package eligibility is a carrier rule rather than a law, turning on the size of the business, the premises and the type of work, and businesses grow out of it. Reaching that point is a reason to restructure the program, not to trim the coverage to fit.
Business owners policy questions we hear most
Is a BOP cheaper than buying property and liability separately?
Usually, and that is part of why the package exists. The saving comes from writing the two coverages as one contract for a class of business a carrier has already decided it wants, so it depends on the business qualifying for the package in the first place.
Does a BOP cover my business vehicles?
No. Vehicles owned by or used for the business belong on a business auto policy. The package covers the premises, the contents, the income and the liability, not the fleet.
Does it cover flood?
No. A standard package policy does not cover flood, and flood coverage is arranged separately. This catches businesses out because water damage from a burst pipe inside the building and water arriving from outside it are treated very differently by the same policy.
Do I still need workers compensation if I have a BOP?
Yes. The liability half of a package responds to people outside the business. Injuries to your own employees are handled through workers compensation, which is required by the state and arranged on its own.
What happens when a business gets too big for a BOP?
The program moves to a commercial package, where property, liability and the other coverages are written as separate parts with their own limits and terms. Nothing is lost in the move. It is how a larger or more complex operation gets limits and wording a packaged form is not built to provide.
- General Liability Insurance
- Commercial Property Insurance
- Workers Compensation Insurance
- Business Auto & Fleet Insurance
- Business Interruption Insurance
- Professional Liability & E&O
- Cyber Liability Insurance
- Employment Practices Liability
- D&O & Management Liability
- Commercial Umbrella Insurance
- Crime Insurance
- Builders Risk Insurance
- Inland & Ocean Marine Insurance
- Surety & Commercial Bonds
- Liquor Liability Insurance
- Environmental Insurance
- Risk Management
Let's put the right policy in place.
Oxford Risk LLC is an independent agency. We represent you rather than a single carrier, which means we can place your coverage with the company whose appetite actually fits your risk. Tell us what you need to protect and an advisor will take it from there.
- Call (330) 315-3081
- Hours Monday - Friday: 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM
- Offices Fairlawn, OH, Cranberry Township, PA, Columbus, OH, Livonia, MI