Business Insurance Quotes - Select the Ideal Business Insurance for Your Business

Business insurance quotes are the policy amount quotations offered by insurance companies that offer business insurance. Business insurance protects business owners from any liability in the event of any mishap or damage. The cost of any policy is never a standard one; it usually varies from company to company. The cost depends on the credit limits and the number of covers included in the policy. Therefore, the quotations for various types of policies differ. Different insurance types that you may come across are business, life, health, medical, home, property, and vehicle insurance, to name a few. Each type has different policy quotes and can offer different percentage of claims cover. Some of the quotes are higher than the ones offered by another insurance group. The higher cost may be genuine because of extra facilities and features, but, there are some quotes, which are unreasonably high for no extra cover or credit limits. To get the best quotes, it is always wise to compare and analyse the policies that are available in the market. This way you will end up enrolling for a best and relatively cheaper policy. You may compare insurance from free online business insurance quotes offered by various insurance groups. If you are not well versed with the insurance terms, you can even consult a broker to help you elaborate on the business insurance quotes. An insurance broker is an agent who will help you enrol into insurance policies. He will suggest various options available, compare the policies for you, and help you decide on the one that suits you the most. These brokers can help you negotiate the policy cost quoted in the insurance quotes.

Online Business Insurance Quotes: These quotes vary based on a few factors like the credit limit amounts, percentage of liability cover, number of risks enrolled, and policy periods, just to mention a few. They are higher when the number of risks covered in the policy is higher. You can not only compare insurance using the online insurance quotes tool, but also check for various options and combinations of insurance policies. Online facilities offered by insurance groups will usually allow you to enrol for business insurance policies. When you apply online, you will be asked to fill the online application forms and submit them along with required documents for verification. After the verification, if your application is valid, they will be forwarded to the processing department. When the processing is complete, they will email the insurance papers to you. You can either save them as a soft copy or take a print out and file it for your reference when needed. But, when you enrol for insurance policies using online facilities you may have to be extra cautious while checking the various terms and conditions mentioned, if you have any doubts regarding them, it is always better to clarify before enrolling for a business insurance policy.

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Understanding Taxi Insurance

There have been many occasions when people from Asia and other regions migrate to big cities in America, Australia and Europe. Here, many would like to own and run taxi businesses. The taxi services can be either public hire or private hire taxi services. The taxi businesses may be quite lucrative. But it would all go to waste if your taxi services are not adequately insured. Your taxi vehicles may fall prey to the road accidents. In such cases, the taxi vehicles have to be repaired and the taxi drivers have to be treated for injuries. So, for the incurred expenses, the insurance plans will be quite handy and efficient as well. But before you go ahead, you should know the adequate information about the concept of taxi insurance.

As there are two main types of taxi services, there are also two types of taxi insurance programs. One is the insurance programs for the public hire taxi services and facilities. This kind of insurance covers the damages and incidents that could affect the public hire tax services. Public hire taxi services are useful for the general public. If the cabs suffer from some sort of incidental damages, the taxi vehicles will be covered for the costs and expenses on repairs of the vehicles. The drivers will also be insured against the injuries in the accidents and so on. So, public hire insurance services can be a good way to protect and run your taxi business for long. You can opt for a good policy as well for your taxi business.

But there is also another insurance programs for the taxi businesses and taxi vehicles. This is the program of private hire taxi insurance. As the name suggests, the insurance is used for the private hire taxi services. These will be used only be individuals or firms for specific trips and also specific purposes. But there are some extra advantages and benefits for the taxi businesses which cater to a number of specific purposes and reasons. This is the feature of extra third person coverage. This means that the people, who have been injured along with the taxi driver in the accidents, will also be fully compensated for their injuries and medical care expenses. So, private hire insurance facilities are better than the public hire insurance services.

The taxi business managers have two options for their insurance programs. One is that they can opt to get each and every vehicle insured individually. Or they can choose to take a full-fledged insurance for the entire fleet of taxi vehicles. The second option of a fleet insurance is generally considered to be more convenient that the first option. This is because a fleet insurance application helps to save a lot of time and effort in submitting the driver's records and documents and the vehicle registration documents as well. At the same time, the fleet insurance program can also help to save money as it is considerably cheaper to take a whole insurance for the whole fleet rather than for just a few vehicles.

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How Commercial Insurance Price Comparison Sites Compare Business Insurance Quotes

You may think that one commercial insurance price comparison site is much the same as another. Some people swear by them, others cannot stand them but not all price comparison sites are the same. There are two distinct types and each has its own benefits, advantages and disadvantages.

This is why different businesses and commercial enterprises have very different user experiences, depending upon which type of comparison or price aggregator site they have visited. They may well prefer one brand comparison site over another, purely because they prefer the way that particular brand's website works and this often has nothing to do with the quotes it returns.

In order to understand the large differences it is necessary to get under the bonnet and look at the anatomy of a commercial insurance price comparison website's internal engine.

Inside a Commercial Insurance comparison

Leaving aside the prices quoted which are subjective and variable, the major factor that differentiates price comparison sites user experiences, is the location of the rating and underwriting engine that produces the quotes.

This engine is the rules based logic that produces the commercial insurance quotes you see in your browser. It can be either local with centralised processing, or remote with what is known as distributed processing.

Centralised comparisons hold all the commercial insurance policy and rating information local to the web server where a prospective businessman can compare quotes.

Distributed comparisons have to visit each insurance company or business insurance broker website to retrieve quotes and all the policy information which is then displayed on the comparison website. Distributed processing comparison websites are known a 'Scraper sites' because they scrape data from the fields of one form and pass it into equivalent form fields at a remote web server.

When someone visits a commercial or business insurance comparison website, they will initially be asked what type of cover they require for their business. For example a shop or office policy or perhaps just simple public liability cover. Commercial insurance is particularly difficult to underwrite, so the type of policies that are available on Internet tend to be packages where blanket levels of cover can be offered, in order to be suitable for the widest range of business activity and customers.

However all commercial risks have some common elements such as levels of cover required, which need to be captured in order to auto-rate and make comparisons. These are called rating factors.

Comparison Screens

The user is next presented with a screen that has been tailored to ask specific questions that are necessary to rate the chosen commercial insurance. Both types of comparison website offer variations on a theme for data capture, however both will use a typical form that requires filling.

As a businessman completes the online application form, the data entered requires validation. The values entered need to fit standardised parameters and exclude all those businesses that do not fit this standardisation. This is achieved by limiting the choice of the user. For example, the comparison site when asking the applicant to describe their business activities or trade type, will only present to the user the businesses and trades it can quote for, in the form of a drop down list.

Centralised processing comparisons are much more likely to do all the policy and underwriting criteria validation on the front-end form, with for example validation of postcodes, addresses, eligible business types, and numerical validation on sums insured. The centralised comparison system uses Javascript and calls to local tables This gives the system a very quick user experience and assures that the system can return a range of quotes for the prospective business. It also allows the system the provide as much data about available polices before the quotation process is complete, because it knows as the form is being filled out, what policies offer what covers for each of the questions asked.

Conversely, scraper processing sites need to feed data into the screen fields on a variety of remote websites, all which tend to require varying details and user input, in various sequential orders. Scraper sites therefore need to ask many more questions in order to be able to try to satisfy as many rating factors and underwriting rules required for as many different competing companies. The complexity of a commercial insurance policy often requires certain information that you cannot ask for later in the process.

Rating

When all the information has been collected, the data is sent to the rating logic to calculate the rates and premiums.

Trade, Turnover and other factors provided by the user about the business are used by the system to define coverage, policy clauses, excesses and limits of indemnity, which can be returned to the user as part of a quote offer.

Rating tables are held online either locally for a centralised rating system or on the remote websites for scraper style distributed rating. The premium price is calculated from the values of the rating factors provided by the user when compared against the online tables. The actual rating factors vary depending upon the type of commercial insurance policy being applied for, suffice to say that if the system is asked to provide quotes for commercial property cover, the risk address postcode will be used to define the theft rate and flood rate, which combined with the rate for the risks of fire for the trade concerned, will produce a rate for the property perils risk. Rates for commercial property, for example, are usually expressed as percentages per hundred pounds of sum insured.

Processing

It is at this point in the process that the differences in the two types of comparison site become apparent to the user.

When a comparison rating engine sat on a local server, processing is much faster. A locally rated panel will return quotes commercial insurance quotes and covers instantly. The system has all it needs at hand to calculate premiums and also return comprehensive policy comparisons of cover and risk options in micro-seconds.

A scraper site however will consist of extensive 'middleware' processing, which inevitably slows down the process. The role of this 'in the middle' software is to communicate with the remote websites where the rates are held, and pass all the users details. It then needs to collect the quotes and associated data coming back from the broker or insurance company server and structure and order it into a webpage that shows a price comparison.

The process may take a few minutes when multiple business insurance providers are being asked to quote. The upside is that distributed processing scraper sites generally compare far more policies or companies offerings and more often than not, will return many more quotes. If you can be prepared to wait! You have to wait for the processing to complete on the remote brokers servers and for the quotes, excesses, and terms and conditional clauses to be returned to the comparison website..

Distributed processing comparison sites may have a lot more companies competing and returning quotes, although this does not necessarily mean more choice of commercial insurance. Quite often they are offering the same product from the same company, the only variance being a price differential.

Offering too much choice can also have its downside and create technical and promotional problems. Many of the smaller brokers offering more specialist business insurance propositions, have joined large, well-known brand name commercial insurance comparison sites that employ the scraper methodology. However they often complain that they do not have the server processing power to be able to handle a flood of multi-stringed requests for remote underwriting and processing and by time the quotes are returned to the comparison site, the user has already been offered perhaps thirty or more policy propositions and gone elsewhere.

Comparing Business insurance Quotes

After all the processing has been completed the quotes are presented to the user, usually in order of cheapest first.

Both types of quote and policy comparison site allow the user to compare prices and premiums quoted, however only the centralised sites allow in-depth policy comparisons and to make changes to the original data entered.

Locally centralised comparisons allow the user to compare premiums and also adjust the propositions, add or remove covers and tailor a policy to a particular business needs.

Scraper sites do not allow this as they require all the information beforehand and demand that the user chooses any options or additional covers before the quotation process.

In this sense they only provide a range of premium prices and attached policy conditions for the user to choose from. The scraper sites make no provision to compare policy covers, whereas a centralised local processing comparison site will have all the information to hand for a complete policy and cover comparison. These features are not available for a comparison site that uses remote underwriting. In order to do this it is necessary for the user to visit each individual site, make the adjustments and return to the comparison site to compare quotes, before repeating the process, which is obviously very time-consuming.

Security should be a concern for all those using commercial insurance comparison websites. Although all comparison sites use secure servers and SSL sockets for transmitting the information supplied about the business, by its very nature a centralised processing site will be more secure. With scraper sites your details are being passed around possibly to up to fifty or more different sites around the web, each which could be compromised at any stage of the data transmission, including payment. Furthermore passing your details to fifty companies is effectively adding your business details to fifty mailing lists.

In summary, the user experience is much faster and more informative for businessmen seeking to compare commercial insurance quotes if they use a centralised price comparison website where everything is in one place. Better deals may be had from a distributed processing scraper site, however the process is long-winded with too many questions and too much waiting time. Too often insufficient policy information is returned with the quotes for the prospective buyer to make an informed decision about which business insurance product to purchase.

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Expanding a Business Also Expands Risks

The recession may be on its way to being over, but recovery is essential to getting many businesses back to the point where they may actually be making a profit, particularly restaurants, which saw a decline in business as many customers sought a way to save money during the recent economic crisis and reduced their visits to many of their favorite eateries.

While restaurants, including those in the New York area, are still finding it tough to bring back customers in the numbers they saw during times prior to the downward spiral, many are turning to innovations and expansion to grow their business.

While that can be a plus for many of those who are successful in accomplishing this, it can also open the door to unexpected liabilities that their current restaurant insurance policies were not designed to cover. New ventures often mean new risks and exposures.

Lack of Coverage Could Threaten Many Businesses

The possibility of a lack of appropriate coverage only becomes evident when a mishap occurs and a claim gets filed. For example, after someone has already threatened to sue for damages is definitely a bad time for a restaurant owner to discover they don't have sufficient coverage. If they had consulted with their insurance agent about their insurance needs before changing their business model they could have prevented a bad situation from occurring. Agents can ask key questions at renewal time, discover where new liabilities have come into place, and suggest additional coverages, thereby heading off this scenario and building a stronger relationship with their restaurant customers.

Here are some of the current trends that might put some restaurant owners at risk and the questions agents should ask their restaurant customers:

Mobility: Has the restaurant added any new services, such as delivery of meals using hired drivers using their own cars? Branching out their business: Is the restaurant starting a new line of business, such as catering or Food Trucks? Trendy foods: Has the restaurant begun introducing new menu items in order to attract more customers, such as: locally sourced foods, organic ingredients, or non-allergenic ingredients? Additional payment methods: Is the restaurant now accepting new methods of payment, such as online credit charges or smartphone purchasing?

By having the answers to these kinds of questions agents can offer customers a variety of options that go beyond the coverage required for an on-site restaurant operation. Restaurant insurance agents with experience in the food services industry can work closely with restaurateurs to make sure that they have the right "ingredients" in their policies.

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Tips on Securing the Best Commercial Roadside Assistance Company

With a myriad of companies offering roadside assistance plans, how do you go about obtaining the best plan for your company's needs?

You're probably already familiar with the extensive benefits a roadside assistance plan can offer. From saving you hundreds of dollars in towing fees and minor repair costs to potentially saving your company thousands of dollars in lost business, should a disabled vehicle leave your employee stranded and unable to make his delivery or schedule appointment, a roadside assistance plan is a very valuable resource.

When a company vehicle, whether it be a commercial, fleet, construction, or rental vehicle is an important tool in conducting your business, you don't want to choose the wrong roadside assistance company that could leave you without it for hours, or even days. Finding yourself broken down on the side of the road is a helpless feeling, and you don't want to your employees to be in this scary situation either.

The right company can make a difference in turning a bad situation to at least a tolerable experience.

Finding and securing the best commercial roadside assistance company who meets your needs before trouble strikes, is imperative. Ask about the company's response time, and do some research to determine if this information is in line with their past and present customers' experiences. Check references and read user reviews to see what other members have to say. If you have a lot of company vehicles you'll need covered, find a provider who will offer discounts based on the number of vehicles. Instead of just picking one and hoping for the best, pick out a few different programs and compare them. Be sure to compare apples to apples by comparing quality, benefits and cost of the service. If you or your employees do a lot of traveling, ask about long-distance towing, traveling services, maps and routing and travel discounts. Call the toll free number the company provides for roadside assistance. How long does it take before you reach a live person? After narrowing down your options, talk to company representatives. Knowledgeable and friendly representatives are usually a sign of a good company. A helpful staff that doesn't hesitate to answer any questions that you have will give you a good idea as to the type of environment and quality of service they offer.

Signing up for a commercial roadside assistance company doesn't have to be painful: learn about your options and get the best service for your company vehicles.

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Underwriting Insurability Criteria

Underwriting insurability criteria requires that actuarially the rates and premiums be determined with relative certainty. Otherwise the risk will be deemed uninsurable from the carrier standpoint. If the carrier is unable to price their products because of market conditions, regulatory constraints, or other environmental factors, the carrier might decide that this type of industry or classification is uninsurable from their standpoint. Below are some of the criteria that are used in underwriting.

Competitive criteria are always considered in this process. Even if the carrier can probably get a rate based on a tough risk exposure, if it is nowhere competitive no client is going to bother to purchase their products and services. So, if the carrier is not competitive sometimes they will just not bother with that industry.

Identifiable criteria is the another factor that is used in underwriting. Insured losses must be identifiable as to the time, cause of loss, place of loss, amount of loss, and responsible parties in order to determine whether this is a covered event. Potential losses that cannot be clearly identified will not normally be considered by an underwriter.

Predicting a loss is also used in this analysis. If losses cannot with a degree of certainty be predicted, then it is usually deemed uninsurable from insurance company's perspective. An example of this would be losses from nuclear explosion or radiation. The breadth and depth of those losses cannot be calculated as they could be global and last thousands of years.

The insurable risk also needs to be fortuitous. That's why in the areas of the country that are experiencing flooding that someone who wants to run out and purchase a flood policy won't be able to find it, as the flooding has already started.

The criterion includes the law of large numbers. If there's only one item of its kind that is looking for insurance, it probably is not insurable because it cannot be replaced or repaired. Generally speaking, the age-old axiom holds that insurance is based upon the law of large numbers. The smaller the number of insurable risks the tougher the risk and usually the higher the premium. The larger the numbers of risk usually leads to more competition and more insurance carriers competing for the business. Thus, the premiums are less in this class of business. Commoditization of most industries in our modern era has created larger units of exposure and less unique custom risk.

Insurable risks are accidental by nature, fortuitous events, and there needs large numbers of similar types of risk. In order to easily calculate the rates and premiums the risk should be easily identifiable as to time, place, and amount of potential loss. While we have discussed some general insurability criteria, each region of the Globe, each insurance carrier, and the specific risk in question can vary based on many circumstances.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Business Insurance Umbrella Policies

What is Business Insurance?

Insurance is risk management, whereby individuals and organizations hedge against risk by transferring it to another entity, at a cost. Business insurance is a form of risk management specifically suited to companies, including sole proprietorships. Business insurance is available in a wide array of formats, including a business owner's policy (BOP) and a professional indemnity (PI) insurance policy. While most businesses have insurance to hedge risk, there is insurance that the government requires by law.

What is a Business Insurance Umbrella Policy?

The great difficulty with hedging risk is recognizing it, as in recognizing specific risks as well as understanding how much of any one risk item there is. In some cases, it is practically impossible, so umbrella insurance is an object designed for such scenarios. In simple terms, a business insurance umbrella policy is responsible for various broad schools of risk and the policy assigns a maximum obligation to each school. When a claim-worthy incident occurs, the insurance company assesses the incident and then assigns it to the most appropriate school of risk.

What is Umbrella Liability Insurance?

The most important form of business insurance is liability insurance, and the most common form of a business insurance umbrella policy is a liability insurance umbrella. Due to the nature of liability, a company risks its immediate assets as well as its future income whenever it does business. Liability insurance hedges against that risk, and an umbrella policy protects the company against a myriad of circumstances rather than dictating situational coverage and so forth.

What are the Umbrella Liability Insurance Basics?

Umbrella insurance is, by its nature, more expensive than standard insurance. Therefore, most commercial umbrella insurance tends to be in addition to other policies. A company will have a core policy and if a claim-worthy event is specifically covered by it, then the core policy handles it. Otherwise, the umbrella policy drops down to fill the gaps in the core policy. Typically, an umbrella policy covers pure liability, and insurance companies sell it in increments of a $1 million dollars.

How is an Umbrella Policy Rate Calculated?

The calculation of business umbrella policy rates can be complex depending on the type of insurance. Above, we mentioned umbrella liability coverage that usually covers pure liability in increments of a million dollars. In those cases, the calculation is simple, and the insurance companies just multiply the per-million rate by the number of millions in coverage. In advanced scenarios, it depends on an estimate of risk as well as the particular industry, past performance, total worth, credit history and so forth.

How is the Lowest Possible Business Insurance Rate Achieved?

Achieving the lowest commercial umbrella insurance quotes is not much different from shopping for auto or home insurance for individuals. Rates fluctuate greatly, so comparison-shopping is the key to success. The Internet is an amazingly effective tool for insurance purchasers, and that is true for companies as much as it is individuals. Without the Internet, companies are limited by their local options as well, but with it, they are able to find a remote insurance company that best meets their needs.

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Commercial Insurance Distribution Channels on the Internet

If you worked for a UK Insurance company just twenty years ago or anywhere else in the world for that matter, you would not have heard the term Internet distribution channel, except perhaps in the idle chat of the IT department boffins and analysts in the company cafeteria.

There were only two main distribution channels, or ways of moving insurance products to the market and the Internet as a serious sales and marketing contender would have to wait another ten years to appear.

At the time, the main channels were the direct channel, which meant producing insurance products that could be sold directly to the public from a call centre, thereby cutting out the costs and expense of managing a middleman, and the broker or intermediary channel.

The broker channel was further sub-divided into insurance brokers, agents, tied agents, consultants, sub-brokers, managing agents for Lloyds and the affinity corporate market.

Both channels offered different propositions for the same products dependent upon the way a policy was sold.

At the time only personal lines insurance products such as car and home insurance were available via the direct channel.

It was also considered that commercial insurance and business insurance were too complicated a product to sell direct over the phone, would take up too much time and would require a bank of approved underwriters with scripts to man the phone lines, as no commercial insurance autoquote systems existed. Consequently nearly all commercial insurance was sold via the intermediary channel.

This dual path situation for the sales, marketing and deliverance of insurance polices continued until Insurance finally became a product that could be bought and sold on the Internet. The earliest offerings around the turn of the Century were for personal lines insurance and there was barely a mention of Commercial insurance, save for the odd contact us button.

Ironically as personal lines insurance developed over the Noughties and became a much larger channel of distribution, the two previous direct and broker channels re-established themselves online, this time in much closer competition.

However both the insurance companies and the insurance intermediaries were caught napping as a new distribution channel emerged on the Internet; the aggregator or price comparison site, and in record time accounted for over 90% of online Internet insurance sales.

The public love to compare prices and the fact that most personal lines products could autoquote without the intervention of an underwriter, meant they could all be aggregated into an online insurance price comparison site, such as we see everywhere in the media today. This is a testament to the comparison sites success as a channel in its own right.

Commercial Insurance in the meantime was still in its infancy as a channel on the Internet, until very recently.

The inertia was mainly due to the reluctance of the large general insurance companies to standardise and autoquote for commercial products. They felt the risk was too high and underwriters resisted the change.

The change came about by market forces as the Broker channel started to sell commercial products using its own web-enabled back office systems.

This meant that online business insurance brokers could collect information about a businesses insurance requirements on a website form, and pass the data to its internal systems. These back office comparison systems are composed of a panel of insurers and providers that provided autoquotes.

Straight through processing to an insurance company could be carried out by the existing EDI or electronic data interchange mechanism.

The single broker business and commercial propositions soon became the target of the price aggregators and the large and now very rich comparison sites, who started to offer online insurance comparisons using broker panels in 2009, which rapidly became popular with small business.

The large composite commercial insurers were forced to respond and last year released a string of autoquote products into the Internet channel including packages for shops, offices, pubs, commercial let property, tradesman, professionals and commercial liability to name just a few.

The fact that it is nigh on impossible to watch television for more than an hour or two today, without seeing an advert for a builders public liability and tools policy from a dotcom is proof that the Internet has finally arrived as a commercial insurance distribution channel.

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When You Might Need Insurance From Lloyds of London

If you have anything that your local insurance broker or online market cannot find coverage for, then you will usually be referred to a broker or managing agent who has access to Lloyd's of London.

This could be for anything from a car or factory requiring insurance, right through to an International Space Station or Game Show prize fund. If it's a strange or specialist risk, then Lloyd's will always be able find cover for it, for a price.

Lloyd's of London is an insurance market for global risks, marine and shipping insurance, business and commercial insurance and personal lines. It has markets for both property and liability insurance and all types of consequential loss.

No matter where you are in the World you can still get cover from Lloyd's, as long as your risk is specialist enough to warrant it.

Many people assume that Lloyd's is expensive because of the unique, hazardous and massive risks that it underwrites.

However this is not always necessarily so as demonstrated by the large Motor division.

The Motor department underwrites car risks like any other insurance company except that because Lloyd's is a specialist market with various syndicates and brokers competing on price, premiums are often much cheaper and covers more specific to the risk.

Lloyd's now has brokers, and underwriting agents with binding authority in over two hundred countries around the World.

At one end of the scale underwriters will be responsible for insuring personal accident cover, home, motor and property cover for a famous sportsperson, businessman or movie celebrity.

At the other end, syndicates or teams of underwriters at Lloyd's, will provide cover for a satellite launch or the liability for a new cancer fighting drug.

Between these extreme examples, cover is available and provided for everything from large commercial and industrial property, global marine shipping and events such as hollywood movie making through to large spectacles such as the Olympics or the World Cup.

In recent years Lloyd's has become the main market for global weather and environmental risks and in 2011 paid out for damage caused by Queensland's Cyclone Yasi, Christchurch earthquakes, the Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami, 1,600 tornadoes in the South and Midwest US and floods in Thailand.

For the Names that provide the funding, it was the largest catastrophe claims year on record, with a loss of £516 million.

Aside from catastrophe placement, Lloyd's is now the global market for new risks and emerging markets such as Computer Industry, Internet and Cyber risks, Intellectual Property, Genetic Engineering risks and Biotech risks.

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A Guide to Finding Insurance With Flexible Premium Payment Plans

Since the credit crunch and subsequent recession of 2008 everyone has 'felt the pinch' with the high unemployment, slow or little growth and inflation, leading to a restriction in the supply of money and cashflow problems.

Having to pay out large annual recurring fees has had a crippling effect upon many households on low or fixed incomes. So it is with insurance premiums, whether it is for a car, home or business, the insurance fees are usually demanded in one annual lump sum.

This had led to many people under-insuring or cancelling covers to try to make cost savings. In the most extreme cases this has led to an increase in the number of uninsured drivers on the roads and homes and properties without adequate cover. Similarly, cashflow has become a major problem for many small business and paying for the years cover in advance is not possible for many.

Everyone is looking for cheaper insurance and one way to stretch limited disposable income is to spread the payments for cover where possible.

Many personal lines and business insurance companies are now offering more flexible monthly premium payment plans.

Insurance by its very nature demands that for the contract to be in force and valid, the consideration for the contract in the form of money as a premium, must be received before the cover period for the contract starts.

With Insurance policies there is no credit. The money must be received before the event for cover to be effective.

Monthly payment plans work because they allow the insured to cover themselves on a recurring temporary basis, even where the contract in force is annual. A flexible payment plan allows the insured to retain the bulk of the premium and effectively earn interest on the amount unpaid. It is also easier to cancel the policy.

Many insurance companies do not like to offer flexible payment plans or staggered payments because it costs them money. When a policy holder pays the total premium 'up front', that money and all the other premiums collected, is put into investment funds that earn interest for the insurance company.

Many people assume that insurance companies make profit from the difference between premiums collected and claims paid out. It is this interest earned from the premium fund that is an insurance company's largest source of profit, earning money on money.

Payment plans therefore come at a price, usually with an interest rate that is a lot higher than the current standard APR, to allow for administration costs.

It is important to compare rates charged when looking for coverage as well as premiums, as these hidden costs can make what at first appeared to be a cheap proposition, a much more expensive option over time.

Finding Payment Plan Suppliers

So how do you establish if a company is offering flexible payments?

To save a lot of wasted time it is necessary to check whether an insurance company is offering payment plans, early in the buying process, before getting a quote.

If using the telephone to a broker or a direct insurer, ask early in the conversation whether such plans exist.

If using the Internet, look for companies displaying the Direct Debit mark in the form of overlapping twin D's. All insurance companies collect monthly payments by direct debit and this is a firm indication that a website offers these facilities.

Use search engines to narrow down the specific type of insurance required and add keywords to the search terms such as 'payment plan' or 'monthly payments'.

If using a price comparison engine, do not assume that all the companies quoting allow for payment plans, however most of the large ones will allow you to compare covers which usually provides this information.

On a cautionary note, if you have found a policy you are happy with and an insurance company that offers flexible payments, be sure to read the small print carefully. Many an individual or company has had their insurance immediately cancelled because of problems with missed direct debit payments and banks.

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Small Business Insurance for Common Marine Coverages

Small business insurance for common marine coverage's includes property that is mobile, transitory, and not fixed to any location. Some of the more common types of marine coverage's would be for Fine Arts, Valuable Papers, Laptops, Sales-persons Samples, and Contractors Equipment to name a few. Mobility contents exposure to more perils than other contents that are located in a building because of their transitory nature.

If you have a claim, most property insurance policies will only pay for the cost of the material, such as the canvas for a painting, but not the intrinsic value that goes with a typical piece of fine art. Since most small businesses do not have much in the way of fine art, the built-in coverage's usually suffice and are typically limited in value but you can purchase higher limits if desired. The most common limits for fine art are usually in the $5,000 to $50,000 range. Property that is at exhibitions, trade shows, and on display can also have coverage under the supplemental marine coverage's on a property policy. This is usually on a temporary basis so if you leave your property permanently on display at a museum, airport or some trade show that typically would be protected on the exhibition coverage.

The business personal property in transit is probably a supplemental coverage that can be useful for the typical small business. Since each business varies greatly as to their procedures and practices, property in transit coverage may or may not be necessary. The supplemental Marine coverage usually has limits between the $5,000-$50,000 ranges. You can purchase higher limits if you need to do so. Usually the insurance carriers separate out property in transit versus sales-persons samples of business personal property. This coverage typically does not cover property of others. You would need specific motor truck cargo coverage to cover property of others. Salesperson samples typically have limits of the $5,000 and $50,000 range.

Valuable papers and records tend to have in the package policies low limits. This is different from valuable papers and records having to deal with Accounts Receivables. This coverage is separate coverage that is unique and specific. A valuable paper and record in your business may not be a valuable paper and record to another business. This coverage typically pays to repair and restore the damage of the papers or records and the cost of recreating the papers. Many times you cannot recreate valuable records if they are paper only records but can usually be done if they are of a digital media type records. If the records are of a digital media type, the reproducing and restoring and/or replacing of these records can be substantial in the cost that is involved. The inputting and re-loading up databases can be an enormous undertaking. So having valuable papers and records coverage can help your business from suffering a financial loss because of damages to these records.

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So, You're Thinking of Becoming a Taxi Driver

For anyone considering becoming a taxi driver there some pretty important factors to be reviewed and research.

Firstly, do you have the temperament to be a taxi driver? Remember, you are going to be in an enclosed space with a great variety of people for hours on end. These people might sit or silence or natter all the way through the journey, they'll either be completely uncommunicative or highly opinionated and you're a captive audience. These people will also want you to fetch and carry things to and from the car and maybe cram impossible amounts of items of shopping in your boot. Additionally, some may be wheelchair bound or suffer from immobility. And, let's not forget the drunkard who might leave you a special present. If you are prepared to deal with the vagaries of Joe and Jo public, then your next consideration is choice of vehicle.

You will need to make a decision as to whether you want to drive a saloon, or opt for a people carrier, minibus. It is important you talk to local firms about the different rates you can achieve for operating both. This is research you need to do anyway, irrespective of what vehicle you eventually opt for. There are various costs involved in being a cab driver, so you need to know the work is available to cover taxi insurance, book rental (i.e. - support for the office that provides you work), fuel, plating (your registration with the local authority) and general running costs.

Once you've opted for a saloon car, there are requirements you should look for:

Most local authorities require that any car used for a private hire vehicle is less than 15 years old. Remember, although your taxi insurance quote will be lower the older the car, there could well be a trade off in how much you have to pay out to keep the car running. A newer car should cost less and if you can afford a brand new car, you have the assurance of manufacturers extended warranties. Some industry experts recommend that a large saloon that has depreciated by 70% after three years is the optimum choice - models such as a Mercedes C5, Audi 95, Vauxhall Vectra If your driving is going to be mainly large town/city based, you'll want a car that is comfortable being in 3rd gear for most of the day. Big windscreen for clarity of vision Comfortable, good-sized steering wheel Good sized boot Good radio/CD player Satnav An optional extra for taxi drivers operating nights and weekends in busy urban areas is the anti-assault screen.

Of course, you have to buy a vehicle you can afford. It is pointless taking out a car loan or entering into a finance lease if you don't earn enough from being a taxi driver to make the repayments. And, buy one where insurance is reasonable.

Public Liability Insurance: Often Neglected But Very Essential Aspect of Every Small Business   A Guide to Getting the Best Business Liability Insurance Quote   Residential Landlord Insurance   Commercial Insurance Quotes Online Pitfalls   Maximize Business Coverage By Finding The Right Provider   Policy Declaration Page Address   

Insurance Definitions

Every insurance policy that you purchased within United States will have within the insurance contract a section entitled definitions. Sometimes there will be specific definitions throughout the contract to make the coverages that weren't clear in each particular section of the policy more clear. Not all insurance policies are the same and the focal point of determining the differentiation issues lies in the definition of terms and coverages. Most of the newer insurance policy contracts have verbiage for coverages and definitions that have been clearly defined within court cases and case-law throughout all 50 states.

The definition of terms section can appear at the beginning of the policy at the end of the policy or throughout the policy, there is no standard for where to place this particular section or sections. Taking the time to understand some of the key terms in coverages of your insurance policy can help you when making the best decision when purchases for your company.

A simple example with regards to general liability should help in making this point more clear. One insurance carrier might define general liability as bodily injury and property damage that occurs only in United States. If your business typically does business outside of United States this might be a limiting factor for you to consider. Clearly an insurance carrier that defines general liability as worldwide for a premium that is approximately the same as another carrier that defines general liability as only within United States only can obviously be a better bang for your buck.

All general liability policies have to five main components. The first component is coverage for the premises in operations. The second component is for products and completed operations. The some insurance companies put in the fine print that there is no coverage for products and completed operations. They're only providing premises coverage. So if you happen to be an Internet retailer that works out of your home and you have a general liability policy that only covers premises only, you have major gaps in your insurance portfolio for coverage and protection. Being an internet retailer that is home-base you have almost no exposure for premises liability. You need the products and completed operations coverage.

Your main exposure is from products completed operations that you sell across the Internet. It is prudent for as the insured to clearly ascertain where your biggest liability exposure is. Then make sure that you have coverage to cover that exposure. So in that case that we presented for an example when you receive your proposal for off the internet that is home-based you need to make very sure that you see a proposal that clearly delineates that there are products and completed operations coverages that are being covered.

A third component is the personal Injury coverages that protect you from injuries to the person that are not physical per se. Then the fourth component is that of advertising injury which protects you from marketing advertising losses (not intentional). Lastly there is coverage for premises medical payments from third parties. Knowing all the definitions in your contract and help you in deciding which policy to purchase.

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Commercial Insurance Property Not Covered

Typically commercial insurance property policies do not cover items that can be and should be insured on other policies. There are other exclusions and limitations with regards to business personal property insurance that is important for you to understand where your coverage starts and ends. One of the biggest areas regarding contents that can be subject to dispute is that of property of others. Almost all property insurance policies exclude property of others unless the policy is specifically endorsed to provide that type of coverage.

If you happen to be in the transportation business the property of others can take on various values and risk characteristics that can change substantially from cargo to cargo. Therefore businesses that are in the transportation industry typically have motor truck cargo insurance specifically accept these types of exposures. If you happen to be any business that provides services for property of others this can also create gaps in coverage if you do not have the appropriate property of others coverage.

If you are in the auto repair industry, depending on how many vehicles you have any one time the property of others coverage can be quite substantial. In this service industry this type of coverage is called garage keepers insurance. It provides protection for the garage owner for the cars that you keep on the premises to service, repair, etc...

Agricultural type of content's such as crops, hay, fruit trees, potatoes, etc. are also not covered under the property insurance. The property insurance policy also excludes coverage for any land or water that is on the premises. To protect against abuse all property policies in United States have provisions that exclude any coverage for property that is of a contraband nature which means property that is illegal. Title and ownership of property can also be issues when it comes to property insurance. If you sell your property or parts of your inventory still remains on your premises there might not be any coverage for that since you no longer have an insurable interest in the property as it has been sold.

Although they may be listed on your balance sheet as personal items and contents, automobiles, trucks, and vehicles are not covered under the property insurance policy. Even though you might have vehicles stored on the premises they are almost always going to be covered under your automobile policy and not on the property insurance policy. Knowing how your policy defines "property" is important as what you as the insured thinks is property is usually no 100% what the insurance company defines as property.

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If You Own A Care Home Then The Correct Insurance Is Critical

No matter what type of home you own and run, you really do need the correct type of insurance.

This includes care for:

• The elderly • People suffering from Physical disability • People with Dementia (EMI) • People with Sensory impairment • Alcohol / Drug Dependency

and many other types of home, covering all ages and reasons why that person would be in the care home.

Care home insurance is a very niche and specialist insurance, so you will usually be limited by the number of insurers who will take on this type of insurance, but it is out there if you look hard enough. Just searching for care home insurance on the Internet can often take a while to sift your way through the results.

You will probably need to find a specialist insurer as many "more general" insurance companies will not offer this type of insurance and even if they do, they will not overly advertise the fact they do as they normally leave their specialist type of insurances to brokers who will then approach them on your behalf.

It is quite usual to use a specialist broker when it comes to finding care home insurance, mainly because if you try to find this yourself or the company yourself, you can often end up with a list of calls to make to companies who probably won't be able to deal with your requirements. A specialist broker or a specialist website that only deals with care home insurance will mean that when you hand over your details, you are not wasting your time and are only going to get back decent and relevant quotes.

When arranging your care home insurance, be prepared to answer lots of questions, which will usually include the speciality of the home, number of beds, location, staff numbers and so on, and quite often you will be required to provide information about your turnover and other financial information.

As with any other type of insurance, if you fail to provide full details or some of the others are incorrect, then you could well find that if and when you come to claim on the insurance it could well be void due to any errors or non disclosures. There really is no point in trying to save money by not providing certain details or distorting others, so make sure you are totally honest and truthful and provide the information accurately for the insurance company.

Public Liability Insurance: Often Neglected But Very Essential Aspect of Every Small Business   A Guide to Getting the Best Business Liability Insurance Quote   Residential Landlord Insurance   Commercial Insurance Quotes Online Pitfalls   Maximize Business Coverage By Finding The Right Provider