Pennsylvania Small Business Insurance

When you are planning to start a new business, there are so many different things to consider. Your start-up costs will include everything from the office space or storefront to supplies and marketing ideas. This new business is not only a labor of love, but also a major financial investment. Therefore, high on your to-do list must be obtaining Pennsylvania small business insurance to protect this important investment.

Business insurance is designed to protect your investment in the event of unforeseen crises such as a natural disaster, the death of a partner, an injured employee, or a lawsuit. If your business has employees, you are required to pay for workman’s compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, and possibly state disability insurance.

Workman’s compensation insurance covers medical costs, rehabilitation costs, death benefits, and lost wages for employees that are injured at work. Small businesses established as sole proprietorships or partnerships aren’t required to purchase workman’s compensation insurance as long as all of the business’s employees are owners of the company. In this case, the purchase of liability insurance is left to the discretion of the owners.

Unemployment insurance is a federal program whereby eligible unemployed people will receive cash payments for a specified period of time. These benefits are paid from funds which are the result of employer, employee and government contributions. Once again, if your employees are also owners of the business, you are not required by law to carry unemployment insurance.

Types of Business Insurance

There are insurance policies available for almost every conceivable business issue, but they vary widely in cost and coverage. Because of the many options available, it is important to talk over your specific needs with your insurance agent.

Some commonly available policies are:

General Liability Insurance

This liability insurance is purchased by business owners in order to protect them from lawsuits related to accidents, injuries, and claims of negligence. These policies protect small businesses against claims resulting from bodily injuries, property damage, medical expenses, libel, slander, defending lawsuits, appeals costs, and other legal issues.

Product Liability Insurance

Companies may be liable for a product’s safety if they are involved in its manufacture, wholesale, distribution, or retail sale. Product liability insurance protects the small business against financial loss as a result of a defective product that causes injury or bodily harm. The amount of insurance that you purchase will depend on the type of products you sell or manufacture. For example, a furniture store would have far more risk than a card shop.

Professional Liability Insurance

It is important that business owners providing services, such as a hair salon, should consider having professional liability insurance. This coverage, also known as errors and omissions insurance, is liability insurance that protects your business against malpractice, errors, and negligence when providing services to your customers. Some states require you to carry this type of policy, depending on your profession. Most states require physicians to carry malpractice insurance in order for them to practice medicine in their state.

Commercial Property Insurance

For a small business that operates a store-front or otherwise occupies a building, property insurance will cover everything related to the loss and damage of company property. The loss may be due to a wide variety of events such as fire, smoke, wind storms, hail storms, civil disobedience and vandalism. The definition of “property” is broad, and includes lost income, business interruption, buildings, computers, company papers and money.

As with homeowners’ and renters’ insurance, property insurance policies come in two basic forms:

All-risk policies cover a wide range of perils, except for those specifically excluded in the policy. They are usually more expensive and generally cover risks faced by the average small business.

 Peril-specific policies are exactly the opposite and only cover losses that are specifically listed in the policy. Peril-specific policies usually include fire, flood, crime and business interruption insurance.

Home-based Business Insurance

In spite of what you may believe, homeowners’ insurance policies do not usually cover home-based business losses. It is possible that you may be able to add riders to your pennsylvania homeowners‘ policy that will cover normal business risks, such as property damage. You will need to investigate the limits of coverage that will include your business, especially concerning general, product, and professional liability coverage. You may need to purchase additional policies to cover these risks.

Our home is our haven at the end of the work day. Here we keep all our valuables and look forward to relaxation and privacy. Our home shelters me and my family, keeping us safe and protected. Our home is our most expensive and valuable investment. Cheap Pennsylvania homeowners insurance provides affordable protection for the home we love.

When we bought our home, our mortgage company required us to carry homeowner insurance so they are protected from loss if something happens to the house before we finish paying for it. We also wanted insurance coverage to protect ourselves so we can rebuild or repair it if something happens. We wanted as much coverage as we could afford, but we sure did not want to pay any more than we had to for good coverage. We also wanted to find a reputable insurance company with good customer service when claims have to be filed.

First, we got recommendations on different insurance companies from friends and family members who use them. We also checked online for names of the leading companies selling insurance in our state. Next, we decided what types of coverage we wanted to request and gathered the information we needed to provide the companies in order to receive a realistic policy cost quote. We gave the agents the value, age, and square footage of the house. We told them about our safety devices of an alarm system and smoke detectors. We also figured up what our furniture and other home contents were worth. Then we gathered a dozen Pennsylvania home insurance quotes and studied them. We compared the quality of the different coverage policies and the company’s reliability as well as the total cost.

We discovered that if we bundled our homeowners insurance with our auto insurance, we received a bigger discount. Our family is very safety conscious but we learned that by doing a few things more, like adding carbon monoxide detectors upstairs and downstairs and putting a fire extinguisher on each level, we also got a break on our rates. We learned about liability concerns about our family’s trampoline and added a safety net so we could insure it. We bought a fire and waterproof safe to keep jewelry, guns,  and important papers inside. One agent suggested we develop a family emergency escape plan and practice it and we did. We accepted the highest deductible we could afford to help keep our overall rates down. Our house is now covered for fire, smoke, tornados, fallen trees, wind damage, broken windows, burglary, vandalism, hail and other weather related-damages, and water damage from plumbing leaks. We covered the contents of our house for their replacement value, not their actual value. This way we can get the latest electronics to replace ours if they are stolen or destroyed and we can replace all our furniture and clothes if we ever have the need.

In the next few years, we want to install an in-ground swimming pool. Thanks to our insurance company, we already know what we have to do to make it safe and affordable to insure when the time comes. We will also review our house and contents coverage annually now to make sure we keep enough insurance coverage for all our needs. We found the Williams Agency had detailed information, which helped us a lot. Check them out online at Williams-agency.net if you need rate quotes and help to find the right insurance for your home.

We have discussed mandatory vehicle liability coverage, collision and comprehensive insurance, as well as uninsured and underinsured motorist policies. There are other Pennsylvania car insurance policy options that we should cover as well. One of these is Personal Injury Protection, otherwise known as PIP.

Personal Injury Protection and No-Fault Insurance

Personal Injury Protection (PIP) is mandatory in Pennsylvania. States, like PA, that require PIP insurance coverage, are called “no-fault” states. Also known as “First Party” coverage, PIP is a basic type of “no-fault” medical coverage. It pays your medical bills and those of your passengers, due to an accident. Personal Injury Protection can include:

• Treatment from hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers
• Rehabilitation
• Lost earnings
• Funeral expenses
• Child care if parent is disabled due to an accident

Who is covered?

You (the policyholder)

Other authorized drivers in the household

Passengers

Pedestrians injured in accident

Regardless of who caused the accident, this insurance will cover the costs of injuries due to a collision. The minimum coverage required by state law is $5,000. Since coverage is mandatory, using PIP will not increase your insurance premiums. This coverage is important for people who do not have adequate health care coverage to cover medical conditions that can result from a serious automobile accident. If you use your limit of PIP insurance, then your personal medical insurance will be responsible for the remaining medical bills. This insurance is especially important for drivers that often carry other passengers, or who carpool.

No-fault insurance was created in an attempt to decrease the number of lawsuits filed in order to prove who is “at fault” in an accident. Studies have determined that auto insurance is approximately $300 more per year because of this litigation. The belief is that litigation costs will decrease since no-fault insurance will cover medical bills regardless of who is at fault. In exchange for this coverage, you give up some of your options to sue the other driver in an accident. There are also limits for ‘pain and suffering’ and ‘loss.’

Under a ‘pure’ no-fault system, your insurance company would pay for all economic damages such as medical bills, loss of wages, rehabilitation, physical therapy, etc. You would be unable to sue for pain and suffering, loss of companionship, etc., in the event that you did not cause the accident. There are no states with a pure no-fault system. Instead, all 13 no-fault states have a modified no-fault system.

Pennsylvania car insurance is unique in the fact that it is a “choice no-fault” state. Policy holders can opt for pure no-fault coverage, or what is called a “tort” option. We will discuss the details of tort options in our next article.

Your car is a huge part of your life. You use it to get to work everyday and to transport your family every night. It is important that this mode of transportation is safe and operating at its highest level of ability. There are many things you can do to ensure that you are taking proper care of your vehicle. There are also plenty of things you can do to ensure the safety of yourself and others around you when it comes to your car.

Make sure you keep your car locked at all times. It is imperative that only you as the driver have access to the vehicle. If the car is unlocked, you will more likely be vulnerable to theft or other random accidents that can occur in an unlocked vehicle.

It is important that you never leave your car running if you are not in the vehicle. A running car is a gold mine for a nearby thief. Running vehicles can also be the cause of accidents if a child were to bump the car into gear. It does not matter if you only plan to leave the vehicle for a few minutes, a running car can be a dangerous object and it is also vulnerable in many different ways.

Refueling your car may seem like an easy, routine job, but it too can be very dangerous. Make sure you take your keys out of your car as you fill it with gas. You will also want to stay outside of the vehicle at all times. Many drivers do not realize how flammable gasoline can be. By entering you car, you may be gathering static electricity that could spark the gas into flames.

In today’s world of identity theft, it is very important that you keep your personal items out of view when you are not in your vehicle. If you make it a habit of keeping your wallet, checkbook, license or other items in your car, at least make sure someone who happens to be walking past cannot see them. You will increase your likelihood of a break in if important items are evident in your vehicle.

There are many things you can do to protect yourself and your car, but the best thing you can do is have Pennsylvania car insurance. Car insurance coverage is required by law and each state has their own regulations. Erie insurance agents can advise you as to what the Pennsylvania law says about insurance in the state. You can add additional types of coverage above the legal requirements as well.

In order to obtain cheap Pennsylvania car insurance, you will want to force the companies in the area to compete. You can get Pennsylvania free auto insurance quotes online from many different companies. Once you have the quotes in your hand, you can compare them to each other and choose the Pennsylvania car insurance quote that best fits your needs. When in doubt, contact the Williams Agency for details on insurance topics.

So, you’ve had a great time this summer – vacationing, boating, waterskiing, taking trips on the motorcycle and in the motorhome, or riding the trails on your 4-wheeler. Now that cooler weather has arrived, it’s time to put those toys away and think about winter activities. One wintertime activity that many Pennsylvanians enjoy is snowmobiling. It’s a favorite winter pastime for individuals, couples, groups, and families.

The first snowmobile, made over 75 years ago, was able to carry 12 people and was popular with taxi companies and loggers. The first 2-seater appeared in the late 1950s, and the snowmobile has been a popular recreational vehicle ever since. While zipping over new-fallen snow and appreciating the winter wonderland is the primary reason for snowmobiling, it’s important to know the risks involved, the safety precautions that should be observed, and the available pennsylvania snowmobile insurance that you should take advantage of.

According to the Pennsylvania State Snowmobile Association, snowmobile season on state parks and state forest lands begins December 11^th (the day after the end of antlerless deer season) and runs to April 1^st. Riding on state game lands, where permitted, begins January 15th. There are 3,600 miles of groomed trails in Pennsylvania that are available for snowmobiling.

There are specific regulations for riding on state game lands:

• Your snowmobile must be registered with the Bureau of Forestry’s snowmobile unit, and have the permit visibly displayed.
• Children under the age of 16 must take a safety course and have a safety certificate before they can operate a snowmobile off their parents’ property. The certificate must be carried with them at all times.
• All riders are required to wear an approved helmet.
• Liability insurance is required.

Although it is a fun, exhilarating winter activity, snowmobile accident statistics are numerous and sobering. Most accidents are the result of a collision with fixed objects, such as trees or large rocks. Sometimes they involve motor vehicles or other snowmobiles. Head injuries remain the leading cause of fatalities and serious injuries, which is why Pennsylvania requires all riders to wear helmets.

Snowmobile coverage is similar to automobile coverage. Liability insurance includes:   

Property damage – Covers damage that you cause to another person’s property.

Bodily injury – Covers bodily injuries to others if you are at fault in an accident. This includes medical bills and possibly lost wages or legal fees if a lawsuit is brought against you.    Uninsured motorist – Covers damage caused by uninsured or underinsured drivers.

Collision – Coverage that pays for damage to your vehicle if you hit another vehicle, if another vehicle hits you, or if your vehicle rolls over. It can also include coverage for safety apparel. Collision coverage can be required if your vehicle is financed or leased.

Comprehensive – Helps pay for damage to your vehicle not caused by collision. Examples include: damage or loss due to theft, vandalism, falling objects, fire, storms, flood and certain other disasters. Comprehensive insurance may also cover custom parts and equipment.

Other optional snowmobile coverage may include:

• Towed trailer coverage
• After-market parts and accessories
• Transport trailer coverage