Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Are You Properly Insured with Your Home Based Business?

People who work out of their homes face the unique risk of losing both their home AND their source of income. Despite this fact, many home-based business owners do not purchase separate insurance for their businesses. Home owner’s policies vary, but many will provide a minimal amount of coverage for home-based business property. Liability on a homeowner’s policy may provide coverage for employment such as a baby sitter, but NOT for employees of your home-based business.

There are options for gaining affordable insurance for your home-based business. Some home owner’s policies offer a home-based-business endorsement for very small businesses (a few thousand a year in income). For larger businesses, especially if you have employees, a stand-alone Home Business Policy is more appropriate.

If you gross over $250,000, or employ more than three workers, you may have problems. Also, you can’t usually bundle coverage with a home owner’s policy if you have a co-owner who isn’t a relative, or who doesn’t live in the home. In such cases, consider a more comprehensive business owners policy, known as a “BOP.”

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