Business insurance cost and pricing
What moves the price, how to choose limits and deductibles, and how to compare quotes.
10 articles
Newest first
Your business insurance renewal went up. What now?
Find out which number moved, from your payroll estimate to your claims to the insurer’s rates, and ask your insurer to explain it in writing. Then get a quote for the same coverage to compare, well before the renewal date.
Cost and pricing9 min read
How much does business insurance cost?
There’s no honest single number. Your premium is a rate for your kind of work multiplied by the size of your business, then adjusted for your limits, deductibles and claims, and a quote is the only place your own number exists.
Cost and pricing13 min read
How to choose a deductible
Pick the highest deductible you could pay from cash twice in one year without missing rent or payroll. Then check how it applies, per claim, per car or in hours, and whether the premium saving would add up to the extra deductible before you’re likely to claim.
Cost and pricing8 min read
How to choose liability limits
Start with the highest limit any lease or contract requires, because anything less can cost you the space or the job. Then ask whether one serious claim, or a bad year of smaller ones, could go past it, and raise your limits if you couldn’t pay the difference yourself.
Cost and pricing8 min read
How workers’ comp premiums are calculated
For each kind of work, payroll is divided by 100 and multiplied by that classification’s rate. The total is then adjusted by your experience modification, if you have one, and by other credits and charges that vary by state and insurer.
Cost and pricing9 min read
Ways to lower your business insurance costs
The levers that work are accurate classification and estimates, limits and deductibles that fit, fewer and smaller losses, claims reported promptly, certificates from your subcontractors and a careful review at every renewal. The ones that backfire all involve shading the facts.
Cost and pricing9 min read
What decides the cost of general liability insurance
Your general liability premium is a rate for your kind of business multiplied by a measure of its size, usually sales, payroll or square footage. Your limits, deductible, claims record, location and any endorsements your contracts require then move it up or down.
Cost and pricing8 min read
What decides the cost of professional liability insurance
Your profession sets the starting rate, and your revenue, the size of your contracts and the kind of clients you serve set how much is at stake. Your limits, deductible, claims record and retroactive date then move the price, and so does whether defense costs come out of your limit.
Cost and pricing9 min read
What is a premium audit, and how do you prepare?
A premium audit is the insurer’s review, after the policy period ends, of the actual payroll or sales your premium was based on. If the real figures are higher than your estimate you owe more, and if they’re lower you may get money back.
Cost and pricing9 min readWhat you need to get a business insurance quote
You need an honest description of your work, your location, your revenue and payroll, your claims history, the value of what you’d insure and the insurance clauses in your lease and contracts. Here’s the full checklist, and what you can leave out.
Cost and pricing9 min read
Read enough? See your price.
A quote takes about five minutes, and your certificate is ready the day you buy.