A Business Owner’s Policy (or BOP Insurance) is important to any small business to cover potential damages and losses when unexpected events happen. A BOP policy includes the coverages of general liability, commercial property, and business interruption in one master policy. If a small business can only afford one insurance policy, it should be a Business Owner Policy.
>>MORE: What does Business Owners Policy (or BOP Insurance) Cover?
We compared 12 different companies offering BOP insurance, and here are our recommendation of the 5 best business owner policy companies based on coverage quality/selection.
- CoverWallet: Best for comparing several quotes online
- Chubb – Best for Customized BOP Insurance
- Travelers – Best BOP Insurance for Comprehensive Coverage for All Industries
- Vouch Insurance – Best BOP Insurance for Startups
- AmTrust Financial Services – Best BOP Insurance for Small and Unpopular Industries
CoverWallet: Best for comparing several quotes online
If your main goal is to get the cheapest quote for your BOP policy, you might want to start with CoverWallet. They are a digital broker. They work with several leading business insurance companies and are able to pull quotes from these companies for you to compare and select the best and the cheapest one conveniently.
They also offer great digital capabilities that will make your managing of your business insurance policies a lot more efficiently and conveniently. You can manage all of your business insurance policies in the dashboard. You can download the certificate of insurance, renew the policy, or file a claim in the dashboard.
You should be glad to learn that they earn a good customer rating and review on BBB (A).
Chubb – Best for Customized BOP Insurance
Chubb is one of the world’s largest property and casualty insurance companies, with offices in more than 50 countries. Its business owner’s policy covers small and medium-sized business owners with up to $30 million in revenue across all types of verticals, from artisans to wholesale businesses.
Its Business Owner Policy is fully customizable with additional layered options to meet each unique business’ needs, including privacy and data breach, employment practices, equipment breakdown, water back-up, and employee dishonesty coverage.
Quotes can also be obtained with a quick online form to find an independent agent within a 5+ mile radius of any zip code.
Travelers – Best BOP Insurance for Comprehensive Coverage for All Industries
Travelers offers a traditional business owner’s policy along with specialized coverages for all types of businesses, including but not limited to contractors, healthcare, pet care, and retail. It offers one of the most comprehensive resource guides we’ve seen, with a ‘Find Solutions‘ resource guide that allow users to discover insurance products by industry.
When selecting ‘Construction’ as the industry and ‘Concrete Contractor’ as the business, Travelers offers a dedicated landing page with details on its IndustryEdge product and recommended coverages, such as inland marine and contractors professional practice coverage which addresses pollution liability issues. Its ‘Insights and Expertise‘ section also has resource guides with blog titles such as “6 Top Risks for the Construction Industry” and a video on “Managing Construction Defect Risk.”
Vouch Insurance – Best BOP Insurance for Startups
San Francisco-based Vouch Insurance is a newer “fully digital” platform geared towards startups, promising “prices on average 24% cheaper” vs. competing carriers. Recently, it launched a $45M fundraising round by Y Combinator Continuity, launching in Utah before expanding to additional markets with the goal of delivering full nationwide coverage by the end of 2020.
Its Business Property and General Liability coverages are rolled up into a business owner policy that covers income interruption and off-premise business personal property. Business property coverage protects against physical assets such as computers and office chairs.
Other coverages are startup-friendly, including cyber/data breach for offer breach notification support and credit monitoring to affected customers and Management Liability insurance for litigious merger and acquisition deals.
Vouch promises applications needing only 10 minutes or less to complete. The website is very easy to use, with a live chat function connecting users to licensed insurance professionals during regular business hours, complete with thumbnails of their smiling faces. Note, Vouch is not available in all states as of the time of this writing. There is an option to join a waitlist to receive news and updates.
AmTrust Financial Services – Best BOP Insurance for Small and Unpopular Industries
AmTrust Financial Services offers insurance packages to small businesses using 9500+ agents in over 30 countries. Its business owners policy packages underwriting 350+ class codes that span all types of verticals including retail, offices, restaurants, and wholesalers. They do have a long list of exclusions, including all businesses located in Florida.
Like Travelers, AmTrust also has an extensive resource library with industry news and small business titles such as “Risks, Dangers of Being Underinsured.”
Some common knowledge about BOP insurance:
- What is BOP insurance?
- What does a BOP insurance policy cover?
- Who needs a BOP insurance policy?
- How much does BOP insurance cost?
- How to find cheap BOP insurance?
What is BOP insurance?
BOP insurance, or Business Owners Policy, a bundling insurance policy that most small businesses should have. It bundles three essential business insurance policies together: general liability insurance, commercial property insurance, and business income interruption insurance. As a result, it is simpler and more cost efficient for business owners to have, instead of carrying three separate business insurance policies.
Many insurance companies offer BOP coverage. However, there may be differences among these policies. Some BOP policies only cover general liability and commercial property, but not business income interruption. So make sure to double check with the company that you shop with or your insurance broker if you do want to have business income interruption included in your BOP policy.
What does a BOP insurance policy cover?
A BOP insurance policy provides the same coverages for your business as in three policies:
General liability insurance covers small businesses from legal responsibilities towards property damage or bodily injury or reputational harm caused to third parties that are not involved in the business, ie. not your employees (workers comp insurance will cover your employees).
See more details in the best general liability insurance companies.
Commercial property insurance covers small businesses from damages and loss of all of your buildings and assets, including inventories and supplies lost to fire, theft, windstorms, and other ‘acts of God.
See more details in the best commercial property insurance companies.
Business income interruption insurance helps pay for the loss of income and sales in the event of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or fire. It protects against product loss, an inability to fulfill orders, customers lost to competitors, broken vendor contracts, and additional unforeseen expenses. It is worth noting that insurance companies in general refuse to pay the claims of income loss due to COVID, arguing that it is not considered as a natural disaster.
There are insurance companies bundling cyber security liability coverage in BOP policy as well. This is particularly useful for small businesses that have lower risk of cyber security attacks, but still want to have a cyber security liability coverage. It is probably a good idea since any business can be at risk of cyber security breach nowadays since all of us rely on the internet to stay connected and work.
Who needs a BOP insurance policy?
Any small business should consider a BOP policy. However, there are some eligibility conditions in place. Insurance companies generally offer BOP policies to businesses that have up to 100 employees or up to $1M in annual revenue. If we surpass these milestones, congratulations in growing your small business, but you also need to have these policies separately.
How much does BOP insurance cost?
Small businesses typically pay from $500 to $2,500 a year for a BOP policy.
Obviously, the cost of a BOP policy depends on several factors: the coverages, the level of coverages, the size of the company, the nature of the business, deductibles, etc.
If you want to get a cheap BOP policy for your small business, be sure to shop around with a few companies or a digital broker so that you can compare several quotes.
How to find cheap BOP insurance?
Here are some tips to help you find the coverage you need at a fair price:
- Shop around for the best value. Get quotes from a few companies or compare the multiple quotes generated by a service like CoverWallet.
- Never stop shopping around. Make sure you get new quotes before you renew your BOP insurance policy.
- Take advantage of discounts. If they’re not offered to you when getting a quote, ask about them, whether you’re buying online or through an agent.
Taking these steps will help ensure you’re not paying too much for your BOP insurance coverage.
