Hyattsville, MD Business Insurance

From 2011 through 2019, 4,189 businesses in Maryland filed for bankruptcy. In many cases, these bankruptcies could have been avoided if the companies had been covered by the right insurance policies. As a business owner in Hyattsville, you can protect the investment you have made in your company by purchasing a comprehensive business insurance policy package.

Buying business insurance on your own can be difficult and complex, but independent agents make it easy. These agents can perform a complete risk assessment on your company and can recommend the best and most affordable policies to cover against each of its identified potential risks. Contact an independent insurance agent near you to learn more.

Why Do Businesses in Hyattsville Need Liability Insurance?

Even if, in the end, the courts rule in your company’s favor, a liability lawsuit can be very expensive. Business liability insurance is designed to protect your company by covering the associated court costs, legal fees, settlements, judgments, and other financial damages if it is sued for a covered event.

You will need to be sure that your business insurance policy package includes the right products to cover against each of your company’s potential liability risks. Examples of some of the policies you may want to consider include the following. 

• Premises liability insurance: This covers against third-party injuries, illnesses, and property damage caused by accidents on your business property for which your company may be deemed responsible.
• Product liability insurance: This covers against third-party injuries, illnesses, and property damage caused by defects or design flaws in products your business produces, sells, or promotes.
• Cyber liability insurance: This covers your company’s financial responsibilities and restitution costs if cybercriminals install skimmers on your credit card readers or hack into your computer system and steal customer data such as financial and personal details.
• Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI): This covers against accusations of illegal employment practices such as wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and malicious infliction of emotional distress.
• Professional liability insurance: This covers individuals in professional positions against accusations of negligence, failure to act, errors in judgment, and other professional mistakes that may have led to financial losses or other damage to their clients.

Talk to an independent insurance agent in Hyattsville to learn more about these and other commercial liability policies that may be a good fit for your business. Your agent can help you be certain that your company is properly covered against each of its liability exposures.

What Insurance Products Cover Your Business Property?

Businesses in Hyattsville are most likely to experience loss or damage to business-owned property due to hazards such as accidental fires, property crimes, electrical storms, windstorms, tropical storms, hurricanes, hail, freezing temperatures, ice accumulation, and blizzards.

Fortunately, each of these risks is covered by commercial property insurance, which is a standard part of every business insurance policy.

You may need to add specialized property insurance policies to your business insurance policy package for your business property to be fully covered against all of its potential risks. For instance, your insurance agent may recommend supplementing your commercial property insurance with products such as the following.

• Flood insurance: This covers against flood damage, which is not covered by commercial property insurance. Business owners can purchase up to $500,000 in structural coverage and $500,000 in contents coverage when they purchase an affordable commercial flood insurance policy through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
• Inland marine insurance: This covers your company’s portable property whenever it is being transported to or from another location or is being stored away from your place of business, such as at a job site.
• Bailee's insurance: This covers your customers’ valuable property whenever it is in your business’s care, custody, or control. This insurance is ideal for companies that perform services like repair, maintenance, or alteration work on their customers’ expensive items.
• Boiler & machinery insurance: This covers the cost of repairing or replacing your company’s well-maintained essential machinery if it breaks down or malfunctions. This insurance can also cover any revenue losses associated with the breakdown.

A local independent insurance agent can help you be sure that all of your business assets are suitably covered and that your coverage limits are high enough to cover the cost to rebuild, repair, or replace if necessary.

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Is Business Interruption Insurance a Good Idea in Hyattsville, MD?

Although the risk of tornado activity in Hyattsville is only 11% greater than the national average, it is a hazard that area business owners need to be prepared for. For instance, in 2001, an F3 twister touched down just 2.4 miles from the Hyattsville city center and caused more than $100 million in damage to area homes and businesses.

A major disaster like a tornado or a structure fire can do more than just damage your business property. It can also force your company to close down for several weeks while repairs are made.

Disasters in Maryland

• Number of federally declared disasters in MD since 1953: 36
• Most common reasons for declared disasters:  Floods, hurricanes, severe storms
• Average number of tornadoes in IL per year: 10
• Amount paid out in business insurance claims in MD in 2019: $7,567,341,000

If your company must close for an extended time due to damage caused by a covered event, business interruption insurance can help by providing a continuation of income until you are able to resume normal operations.

This insurance can provide the funds necessary for your company to continue paying regular monthly expenses such as rent, bills, loan installments, and employee salaries during the times it is temporarily unable to generate revenue.

Talk to a local independent insurance agent to learn more about business interruption insurance. Your agent can help you determine whether this optional coverage is a good fit for your Hyattsville business.

Do Businesses in Hyattsville Need Workers’ Compensation Insurance?

If your employees are injured on the job, or if they develop an occupational illness due to exposure to toxins at the workplace, your business can be held responsible for covering any necessary medical treatments and lost wages due to necessary time taken off work.

In the cases of severe injuries and illnesses, these costs can grow quite large. Fortunately, workers’ compensation insurance is designed to cover them.

With very few exceptions, all employers in Hyattsville are required by Maryland state law to cover their full-time and part-time employees with workers’ compensation insurance.

Worker injuries are more common than you may think. According to the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission, employees in Prince George’s County filed 2,976 workers’ comp claims in 2019 alone.

Rates for this insurance are based primarily on the types of jobs your employees do and the likelihood that they will be seriously injured while doing them. It would therefore cost a lot more to insure a tree trimmer than it would to cover a receptionist at a dentist’s office.

When you are shopping for workers’ compensation policy, a local independent agent can help you compare policies and rates from a few competing providers. That way, you can be sure that you are getting a good policy at a competitive price.

What about Insurance Products for Employee Benefits Packages?

When it comes to recruiting a talented pool of employees, you can give your company a competitive edge by offering an attractive employee benefits package that includes perks like paid vacation time, sick time, an employer-matched 401(k) plan, subsidized healthcare coverage, and life insurance.

When you are looking for the right insurance products to include in your employee benefits package, you will find that there are several different health insurance policies and options available for you to choose from. This can make it difficult to determine which to buy.

A local independent insurance agent can go over the pros and cons of each of the different types of plans, such as PPO, HMO, and managed care plans, and your different options, such as deductibles, prescription plans, and co-pays, so you can make an informed decision about which products work best for your company and your employees.

Why Work with an Independent Insurance Agent in Hyattsville?

Shopping for business insurance on your own or online can be confusing and can leave you with more questions than answers.

Local independent agents make buying insurance easy by identifying all of your company’s potential risks and recommending the right kinds of policies to cover against them. Additionally, these agents can save you time and money by doing the comparison shopping for you. That way, you can be sure you are getting great coverage at a competitive price.

There are more than 200 independent agents in Maryland. Set up a one-on-one consultation with an insurance agent near you. You will soon discover how easy it can be to obtain and compare a variety of customized business insurance quotes.