Your Business Insurance Renews Soon

We’re here to keep you informed and help you stay on top of risk exposure areas. Before we assemble your business insurance renewal, let’s do a coverage review.

It’s a great way to expose and eradicate coverage gaps. You might have made changes that unknowingly reduced or increased your liability risk. Many business owners make small changes and don’t realize they have an insurance gap that leaves them unprotected or coverage they no longer need.

Use this checklist to note any changes you made to your business during the past year. A coverage review helps us to help you!

Business operations

• Did you change your business entity structure (e.g., went from a sole proprietor to a limited liability corporation)?
• Did you expand your supply, services or distribution to include a multiprovince (many provinces) service area?
• Did you expand your supply, services or distribution to an international (many countries) service area?
• Do you accept online or electronic payments?
• Do you accept cryptocurrency?
• Do you host or maintain a payment portal or a client self-service portal on your website or social media?
• Does your business provide transportation for youth or host groups or activities involving minors?
• Do you have a board of directors (nonprofit or for-profit)?
• Are you a member of any board of directors (nonprofit or for-profit)?
• Do you have volunteers or unpaid helpers that you rely on for your business?
• Do you advertise digitally or in print?
• Do you give advice or provide professional services to people?
• Are you an author, marketer, publisher or involved in other media?

Business property

• Did you change or install a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system?
• Is your business located near a fire station or have you installed a private firefighting system?
• Did you install a rooftop solar panel system or solar roof tiles?
• Did you renovate, upgrade or add space to your property (owned or leased)?
• Did you upgrade the plumbing, electrical, siding, roof or windows?
• Did you add a security system to your business or parking lot?
• Do you rent out a portion of your business property or share your space with another business?
• Do you have any detached structures (garages, sheds or other outbuildings not connected to your business)?
• Do you rent out a portion of your garage or other outbuildings for parking or storage?
• Do you have collectibles or high-value artwork on display?
• Do you store inventory on-site or at a warehouse location?
• Did you install business signs or awnings?
• Does your business allow pets on the premises?
• Do you rent out a portion of your garage or other outbuildings?
• Is your building older or vintage?
• Is a pool or hot tub installed on-premises?
• Do you have a sidewalk or other public walkway that you’re responsible for clearing?
• Do you rent your property, but you’ve made substantial permanent improvements to the property?

Data collection, computers and network use

Did you make changes to your computer inventory or networking system?

• Do your employees work from home?
• Do you store customer personal information on a server or website (for an account or recurring payments, etc.)?
• Do you accept credit cards or other types of monetary transactions?
• Do you use biometrics verification (fingerprint scanners or facial recognition) as part of your business operations?

Business auto or vehicles (fleet)

• Do you own any business vehicles?
• Do you have electric scooters, mopeds or motorcycles, ATVs or golf carts in use for your business (even if only used on the premises)?
• Do your employees or volunteers use their cars for business use?
• Do you have custom wraps or paint designs on your business vehicles (for replacement after a loss)?

Employee and volunteer liability

• Did you increase or decrease the number of employees in your employ?
• Do you use contractors, temporary or gig workers?
• Do you use volunteer staff for any part of your business operations?
• Do you offer a pension or retirement plan?
• Do you use artificial intelligence (chatbots, recruit bots or scanners, etc.) for employee hiring or career advancement?
• Do your employees have access to cash or sensitive information, or perform transactions?
• Do you have a gambling machine or casino on the premises?

Business liability that you might have answered “yes” to

You might have a risk liability that creates a significant coverage gap. Let us know, and we’ll help you assess your coverage needs.

Coverage to ask about

Let us know if you’re interested in learning more about specific coverage. We’re happy to answer your questions or get started on a no-obligation quote for you.

Learn how:

• A commercial umbrella policy can increase your liability limits across multiple policies.
• A directors and officers (D&O) policy can help offset your personal and business liability.
• Employment practices liability (EPL) insurance helps defend you if your employees sue you for discrimination, harassment, failure to promote or other claims.
• Bylaw coverage can help cover the cost to rebuild your business property to satisfy the building codes in your area.
• Improvements and betterments can help you recoup the cost of the improvements you made to your leased commercial property after a fire or other covered incident.
• Flood protection can help when the water comes pouring in from outside.
• Sewer backup protection can help when the water starts flowing back inside.
• Cyber liability and data breach coverage can help with costs related to fines and credit monitoring services, data and systems recovery, ransomware and public relations.
• Hired and non-owned auto coverage helps if your employees or volunteers are in an accident during a work-related function (events, deliveries, errands, client meetings, etc.).
• Travel insurance protects against costs related to cancellation and medical payments in case of injury or illness while traveling.
• Workplace violence and loss of attraction can help your business recover after a violent incident.
• Employee theft or crime can help you recover stolen funds if your employees are part of the theft operation.

Potential discounts for your business

Let us know about improvements you’ve made — no matter how small — because we might find you some discounts! Here are a few examples to get you started.

• Do you have business security systems in place (locks, alarm systems or video monitoring systems)?
• Do you have safety devices at your business (fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms)?
• Do you have water shut-off devices installed on your plumbing system (whole structure water shut-off or leakage detection systems)?
• Do you have temperature monitoring systems that alert if your property’s temperature drops below freezing (frozen pipes prevention)?
• Have you installed an impact-resistant roof or other improvements (if they appear on an approved list of materials)?
• Do you use dashcams and other safety systems in your business vehicles?

Let’s talk soon

If you have any questions about what’s covered (or not) on your current business policy, let us know. Even if it doesn’t appear on this list, please ask us about coverage that interests you. We’re here to help you protect what matters most to you.

Just click the button below with times that work for a coverage review. We’ll be in touch soon!