Some common backyard activities may lead to claims and lawsuits. Don’t spoil your summer. Here are some activities you may need to insure against:

“Attractive nuisances”: Seventy percent of drownings happen in the summer and occur in backyard pools. A backyard pool is just one example of what insurers call “attractive nuisances”-items that pose great potential danger and are particularly interesting to children. This category also includes ponds, fountains, trampolines, and swing sets.

The solution: Raise liability limits and get umbrella liability insurance. Some insurers will require safety measures; ignoring this could mean cancelled policies or denied claims.

Summer soirees: You’ve gathered friends and family for a barbecue, complete with wine spritzers and beer. But remember: If alcohol-related accidents happen during or after your party, you’re liable for damages in most states.

More than 40 states have host liability laws, making hosts responsible for guests injured-or worse-from consuming alcohol. And more than 35 states have host liability laws that specifically pertain to third-party property damage or injuries stemming from alcohol consumed at your home/party.

Don’t leave alcohol in the open, ensure drinkers are of age, and don’t push your friends to drink more. Consider taking their keys on arrival. Call my office about your state’s regulations and be prepared to increase your liability limits.

Grills and fireworks: Fire risks increase in summertime-just consider that grills alone cause roughly $35 million annually in property damage, and fireworks account for two of five fires reported on Independence Day. Set off fireworks as far from your home as possible, and don’t place your grill too near porches or trees. Also have fire extinguishers nearby, and ensure you’re aware of local fireworks regulations.

Confirm you have adequate liability, property damage, and medical coverage. And don’t forget to ask about coverage terms if someone else causes damage or injuries.

If you’re a business owner, you know research, planning, and asking questions are all necessary for you to manage every aspect of your business-from employee schedules to general operating procedures to taxes.

Admittedly, you need to spend your scarce time and resources on activities that are key to your business. So other things necessarily slip.

But one thing that should be-and often isn’t-a top priority is your commercial insurance coverage. You pay high insurance premiums to protect your company from risks.

Why not take the necessary time to ensure that your coverage is working for you? And while you’re at it, look for ways to potentially reduce the cost of commercial insurance premiums.

Here are six ideas that may reduce your commercial insurance costs.

Create and maintain safety routines

Workers compensation insurance is one of the largest commercial insurance products a business has and needs. To keep these costs down-whether by discounts or through being claim-free-you need to be vigilant about eliminating safety hazards. Create a safety plan and maintain it. Involve your employees in the plan, such as by setting up a rotation to inspect business grounds or buildings. When you find something wrong, fix it immediately.

Beef up your training programs

Most insurers will offer sizeable discounts for companies that implement training programs for their workers. This benefits everyone.

Keep your insurance up to date

At least once a year, examine your insurance to ensure that all your needs are being met, but also to be sure you aren’t paying for coverage that is no longer needed. If, for example, you’ve recently outsourced work previously done internally, you may no longer need coverage. Or the coverage should change.

Classify employees properly

If you have employees, you can save by ensuring that your employees are classified correctly. Premiums for workers compensation and liability insurance rates are partially determined by employee classifications. For example, you may have sales representatives who are still classified as production line workers. Talk to your agent to ensure that your classifications are correct and up to date.

Install security features

It’s not as expensive as it used to be to install security, and there are a plethora of options now. Since insurers usually give instant discounts to businesses that have installed security features, you may find that you can pay for part or all of the cost of installing security with the discount.

Talk to your agent about reducing premiums

This may sound obvious, but many people don’t feel comfortable telling their agent they want a better rate and, even worse, they don’t ask if there’s something they can do to reduce premiums. Most agents are happy to help. By talking about it with you, your agent might become aware of some aspect of your business that could result in savings and may also suggest ways to reduce premiums that you hadn’t thought of before.

Make it a point to review your policy at least once annually, and to speak to my office after the review. Remember: It never hurts to ask!

In business, as in life, it’s about knowing the right questions to ask. As a business owner, you may have concerns about your commercial insurance coverage. The following are four questions to ask your insurance agent about commercial insurance.

Why do I need it? You only have to think of the alternative. Even sole proprietors and independent contractors need commercial insurance coverage, as they are open to risk in any interaction they may have with individuals or other companies. No matter how small or large your company, your personal assets are at stake-which is why commercial insurance is so important.

What’s covered? Typically, you’ll have a commercial insurance “package” tailored to the needs of your business. It’s designed to protect you if your business is found legally liable for damage to another party. Coverages may include: Slander, libel, or misleading statements or advertising; property or physical damage; medical payment coverage; personal injuries that occurred on your business property or resulted from the use of your products; legal fees, including court fines/costs, settlements, and attorney fees; intellectual property claims or copyright infringement.

Who’s covered? This is dependent on your business type, and you can adjust it as your business grows. Typical policies will cover you, your corporation as an entity, co-owners and directors, and officers and shareholders.

Do I need specialized policies or policy addendums? Also dependent on business type, these may include: Workers compensation insurance, Product liability insurance, Key man insurance, commercial auto insurance, Cyber liability insurance.

Regardless of business type, size, or location, small businesses need insurance. In addition to insuring business assets, small-business owners are also protecting their personal assets and their reputation. As well, many states require small businesses to carry certain coverage, and for some businesses (such as building contractors), even customers may want proof of insurance coverage.

If you’ve previously passed on coverage because of the price, think again. You’re risking bigger costs if your business is found liable for a large loss.

My office can help you navigate the various coverage options available. But your first step is to decide what you want covered, what you need protection against, what losses and risks your customers face, and what risks or losses your employees face.

Small business insurance consists of three main components: liability insurance; coverage for property and buildings; and coverage for business equipment and other contents. The following are some types of available coverage:

Employer’s liability insurance:

Legally, businesses with more than one employee must carry this coverage. It provides protection for costs incurred (including damages and legal fees) if an employee becomes injured or ill as a result of his or her job.

Public liability insurance:

If your business regularly comes into contact with the public, this provides protection in the event that they or their property are injured or harmed in some way. This is essential if customers visit your business premises.

Professional indemnity insurance:

Mistakes causing financial harm to a customer or client can happen in a number of professions. Also known as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, this covers claims or legal costs incurred if this transpires.

Key man insurance:

If an employee vital to your company’s success dies or is seriously injured and unable to work, key man insurance helps cover what the loss of this individual would cost your business. A coverage amount is decided before a policy is purchased by determining potential losses stemming from that employee’s absence (say your top salesman is injured). This may be hard to quantify, and the amount you’ve settled on may be insufficient, but at least there’s something there to compensate for the loss.

Business interruption insurance:

If a disaster causes you to shut your doors for an extended period of time, the losses could sink your business. This policy will allow you to return to original operation levels.

Commercial vehicle insurance:

If you or your employees drive company vehicles, this is required by law. The right coverage depends on the vehicles, and how often and how they’re used.

Insurance for property and buildings:

Business property damages and losses due to fire, lightning, riot, explosions, malicious damage, storms or floods, or vehicle damage is covered by most commercial policies.

Business contents insurance:

As seen, your property and building coverage for physical locations provides protection for buildings themselves-not their contents. This covers content losses inside your building and includes anything that would fall out if you turned it upside down.

The Internet has made many things possible, and one of these is running a business from the comfort of your home. For many, the dream of becoming one’s own boss is now a reality, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need comprehensive commercial insurance. While some of your insurance needs are the same as those of a regular storefront, you also face different risks that standard insurance policies might not address.

The majority of businesses today obtain insurance coverage through a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP), which lumps several different types of policies into one plan. Luckily, this can be tailored to meet your needs; but exactly what kind of insurance does an e-commerce business need?

First, you’ll still need to invest in standard policies such as:

Property insurance: Just because you aren’t operating a physical business doesn’t mean you don’t need property protection. What if your headquarters/home were to catch on fire? This type of insurance would help pay for repairs, but it can also help cover computer issues and data loss.

Liability insurance: If someone tries to sue you, whether it’s from data loss or libel, liability insurance will help pay for defense costs as well as for settlements against you. It’s extremely important to set the appropriate limits for this coverage, as lawsuits can sometimes climb into the millions of dollars.

Workers compensation: If you have one or more employees, it’s likely required by your state that you offer them workers compensation. If someone is injured while at work, this benefit pays his or her medical expenses and protects you from being sued. Make sure you check with your state board to ensure your policy meets the law’s standards.

Then there are other less common forms of insurance you should consider, including:

Intellectual property insurance: A form of liability insurance, this coverage protects you in case you’re sued for copyright infringement. Even if you’re certain your idea or trademark is 100 percent original, many claimants simply take businesses to court because they know those companies don’t have the money to pay for a court case.

Transportation insurance: Many e-commerce businesses are retail based and rely on second-party shipping and handling to transport goods. Although many shipping facilities have insurance policies of their own, you need to be sure your goods are covered. This policy helps you recover from losses resulting from a failed shipment.

Business interruption insurance: While it’s true the Internet never sleeps, there’s always a chance that a glitch could knock you offline for days, whether it’s a natural disaster or a third-party problem. If it’s a long enough interruption, you could suffer profit losses. This type of policy can help you recover once you’re back online.

It’s important to connect with my office when searching for e-commerce insurance products. Data and Internet security is a top priority, and malware isn’t the only threat lurking around the Internet. Like the Internet, insurance has no physical presence, but when you need it, it’s there.

During times of grief, insurance and taxes are the farthest things from your mind, but they must be dealt with at some point. If you’ve recently inherited a home from a loved one, there are some important details that you may not have considered.

Think insurance first

One of the first things you’ll need to do is contact your insurance company. Just because the occupant of the house expired doesn’t mean the policy has as well. Ask the insurance company to add your name as the primary insured person, and check to see how long the policy will remain active. This will ensure that any claims filed during this period will be covered.

If you choose to keep the inherited property, it’s a wise move to review the insurance policy before automatically opting for the same coverage. Depending on the area, a home could have appreciated greatly over the years, and the coverage amount needs to reflect current value.

If you rent it

If you choose to rent out the property, speak to my office about additional coverage specifically tailored to rental properties. You’ll likely need to increase your liability coverage and revise the personal property section of your policy.

Although your insurance policy regards a home as a structure, our office doesn’t; we understand the stress and can help you through the tough decisions so your inheritance will pay off, either as an option to live in or as a source of rental income or cash from its sale.

Your building is protected from certain risks by property insurance; your employees, by workers’ compensation; and your vehicles, with commercial auto insurance. But what about risks associated with your business’s intellectual property (IP)?

Most business owners know protecting IP is crucial; one of the best ways to do so is with IP insurance. But how exactly does it work?

What is intellectual property? There are four types of IP (with definitions courtesy of Investopedia):

• Trademark: “A symbol, word, phrase, logo, or combination of these that legally distinguishes one company’s product from any others. Any infringement on a trademark is illegal and therefore grounds for the company owning the trademark to sue the infringing party.”
• Copyright: “The ownership of intellectual property by the item’s creator. Copyright law gives creators of original ideas, art, etc. the exclusive right to further develop them for a given amount of time, at which point the copyrighted item becomes public domain.”
• Patent: “A government license that gives the holder exclusive rights to a process, design or new invention for a designated period of time.”
• Trade secret: “Any practice or process of a company that is generally not known outside of the company.”

What does IP insurance cover? There are two types of coverage to help in the event of alleged IP infringement. One pays the costs of your legal defense if someone claims you stole their IP; the other, the cost of suing someone you believe has infringed upon or stolen your IP.

For businesses centered on ideas or inventions, IP insurance to protect them is essential. Typically, commercial general liability policies exclude IP coverage. Sometimes available as a policy provision, and commonly paired with Errors and Omissions (E&O) policies, there are also stand-alone IP insurance policies.

Who needs it? Any company whose core business is the development of new products should have IP coverage.

For larger businesses, IP insurance is essential because of turnover. Patents can easily expire without anyone noticing, typically after 20 years. IP protection through constant and proper IP designations (think © and ^TM) is a good preventive measure, but IP insurance functions like liability protection.

All companies should consider IP insurance to protect against claims, especially small businesses, since they are more vulnerable to the costs of legal defense expenses or judgments, where damages can run from $650,000 to $5 million.

Finally, all businesses face employee IP theft risks.

Do you need IP insurance if you’ve correctly registered IP and know your idea is original? If accused, you’ll need to prove ownership of your IP, and IP insurance can help fund the expenses to do that without unneeded and unjust financial strain.

How do I obtain coverage? You must know you haven’t infringed upon anyone else’s IP and be able to prove you’ve conducted an IP search and filed patents, copyrights, or trademarks. You also can’t have any claims or lawsuits filed against or by you.

Contact my office to help you navigate the issues around IP.

Paying for one’s own vehicle in addition to gas and insurance is just too costly for many Americans today, according to Matt Moore, vice-president of the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI).

As a result, the number of people who are using other methods of getting from place to place – such as car shares or rentals – is on the rise.

But if you don’t own your own vehicle, you don’t need auto insurance – right? Wrong. In some states, you aren’t allowed to drive anyone else’s vehicle without your own insurance. But fortunately, “named non-owners insurance” is available for those who don’t own vehicles, but may rent or drive others’ cars.

Named non-owners insurance provides bodily injury and property damage coverage, and is attached not to a vehicle, but to the “named” policyholder. It covers you in any vehicle you drive. Without it, you could be sued if you cause an accident driving someone else’s vehicle. For example, you borrow your friend’s car and cause an accident. If he or she has minimum liability on the car, and the liability coverage maxes out, your named non-owner policy will kick in to cover what’s left.

This coverage works for those who regularly rent cars or drive others’ vehicles, car-share participants, and those who are required to file an SR-22. Generally, named non-owners insurance is a great option for many people.

If you plan to own a car sometime in the future, it maintains your good-driver status, but more importantly, it offers peace of mind.

There are many risks involved in manufacturing and selling products. Whether you’re a small operation selling handmade soaps or candles, or a large company manufacturing auto parts, your business needs product liability insurance.

If you make, sell, or distribute a product, you are responsible for the safety of that product. If it ultimately is unsafe and someone is hurt, you could be held financially responsible, and even your personal assets could be at stake. Business size isn’t always the bottom line – even a small business growing, harvesting, and selling a crop at farmers’ markets could be liable for consumers’ injuries or illness resulting from its crop.

However, some businesses may not need as much coverage as others; it depends on the level of risk, and this usually is a function of the type of business or industry. Companies, such as those manufacturing medicine, medical equipment, toys, and sports equipment, for example, have a higher level of risk than jewelry manufacturers or tool suppliers.

It’s not just the manufacturer that is liable: Every business in a product’s supply chain can find itself liable for a defective or dangerous product. Many cases of liability have been attributed to a retailer, wholesaler, or middleman, providing they were proven negligent.

All these companies should consider product liability insurance, even if they don’t actually manufacture items directly. It just takes one recall or one lawsuit to close a company. Discuss the coverage you should have with my office. You may be glad you did!

In a virtual world, your commercial insurance policy can seem like just so much more boring paperwork. However, if you’re a business owner, get over it; it’s essential you read and completely understand your policy, however boring. To get you to that place, here are some common – and important – business insurance terms you need to know:

Actual Cash Value (ACV): This refers to the cost of replacing destroyed or damaged property with like or similar property. However, depreciation is taken into account, so whatever the insurer pays to replace the property will have deductions for depreciation. For example, a surround-sound system installed in your restaurant 10 years ago is destroyed in an electrical fire. Your insurance would pay an amount to replace it with a similar or like item, less any depreciation value to account for value lost over a decade. If you have high-value items such as electronics, artwork, or antiques, consider replacement cost coverage, which allows a higher claim payout, because it doesn’t deduct for depreciation.

Act of God: These are naturally occurring perils over which policyholders have no control, such as earthquakes, devastating windstorms, typhoons, or similar events.

Aggregate limit: An aggregate limit is the maximum amount you can receive for a specified period of time. For example, you may have an aggregate limit of $200,000 for one year, which would mean that regardless of how many separate claims you make, once your policy pays out that amount for the year, it won’t pay more. Some policies have general aggregate limits, meaning the total amount your insurer will ever pay, regardless of how many claims.

Exclusion: These are “named provisions” that specifically identify items that aren’t covered, including losses occurring from specified actions or issues.

All-Risk policy: This policy will pay for losses regardless of the reason the loss occurred. The term “special form” is sometimes used. Regardless of which term is used, be aware these policies may contain exclusions or sub limits.

Named Perils policy: The exact opposite of an “all-risk” policy, “named perils” specifically defines what causes of loss will be covered. Usually, these include vandalism, fire, or acts of nature. This policy provides coverage ONLY for events listed in the policy, and although it’s usually very affordable, it offers very limited coverage.

Valued policy: Also referred to as an “agreed amount” policy, this states that an event resulting in a complete and total loss will be covered up to a specific, pre-determined amount as stated in the policy.

Endorsements: These are provisions added to a policy that provide extra coverage, alter a policy in some way to account for special coverage needs, or define exclusions or inclusions. Often referred to as “riders”, they can be thought of as amendments to policies.

Real Property: This refers to things such as the land or items permanently affixed or attached to it: sheds, detached garages, permanent fixtures like fences, and sometimes heavy machinery and equipment.

Personal Property: Personal property is different from real property in that personal property is easy to relocate. If you turned your building upside down, anything that falls out is considered personal property, such as furniture, computers, and office equipment.