Small business insurance in California

Workers’ compensation insurance in California is a legal requirement. This insurance helps protect your business if an employee gets hurt, sick, or dies as a result of an incident on the job. It can cover medical costs, legal fees, and lost wages due to the injury. Note that workers’ comp coverage is required for HVAC and tree service companies even when they're solo operations with no employees.

Also known as commercial liability insurance, general liability insurance in California covers damages and legal costs associated with injury claims from people who don’t work for you (like customers), damage to other people's property that your business caused, and medical costs associated with these incidents. It also covers libel, slander, and copyright infringement. Plus, there are endorsements you can add to customize your general liability insurance in California, including cyber, hired and non-owned auto liability, employment-related practices liability, and employee benefits liability.

Also called property & liability insurance, a business owners policy (BOP) is a type of commercial insurance in California that combines general liability with coverage for your company’s property. You'll get protection for the building you own, space you lease, and any property needed to run your business, while also receiving coverage for things like business interruption. This kind of business insurance in California can replace lost income, as well as cover other costs associated with getting your business back up and running after suffering property damage, such as the use of a temporary location. You can also tailor your BOP with lots of add-ons including cyber, hired and non-owned auto liability, employment-related practices liability, and employee benefits liability.

You might hear people call this errors and omissions (E&O) insurance. It can protect you from the cost of damages and legal fees when someone says your professional service caused financial harm to them or their business. Coverage includes both mistakes by your business (errors) and the failure to perform a service (omissions). Having professional liability insurance in California is crucial if your business provides professional advice, offers a professional service, or has contractual requirements for the coverage.

If your company owns or leases vehicles, this policy protects your business. This type of California business insurance can provide coverage for your legal fees and the medical costs of others if your employee is at fault in an accident. It can cover the cost of damages even if the vehicle is used for personal activities outside of its primary business use.

You can buy this coverage as an add-on to a general liability, professional liability, or BOP policy. It helps pay costs related to system hacks or data security breaches where a hacker steals sensitive information and uses it to commit fraud or is likely to.

You probably know that every insurance policy you purchase has a maximum value that it will cover in the event of an incident. Umbrella insurance adds another layer of protection: it can cover costs that exceed the limit of another liability policy, subject to its own limit. Without it, you might be responsible for anything over your policy limit. Business liability suits can easily exceed the actual value of many small businesses, so we highly recommend an umbrella policy to protect your company.