If you run a small business in Arizona, you already know that workers compensation insurance and commercial auto insurance are legally required in Arizona. General liability insurance is not required in Arizona, but it is the most essential business insurance that any business conducts in a physical location should have. It protects small businesses against law suits when customers are injured in your business’s premise or when you or your employees cause damages in your customers’ houses. The good news is that there are so many companies offering general liability insurance in Arizona. We research and recommend the 4 best general liability insurance companies in Arizona for your consideration.
- The 4 best general liability insurance companies in Arizona
- Is general liability insurance required in Arizona?
- What does general liability insurance cover?
- What doesn’t general liability insurance cover?
- Why small businesses in Arizona should get general liability insurance
- What affects how much I’ll pay for general liability insurance in Arizona?
- How much does general liability insurance cost in Arizona?
- How to find cheap general liability insurance in Arizona?
The 4 best general liability insurance companies in Arizona
We research more than 20 companies offering general liability insurance in Arizona and here are our recommendation of the 4 best providers.
- CoverWallet: Best for comparing online quotes
- State Farm: Best for combining with personal insurance lines
- Next: Best for a completely digital experience
- Hiscox: Best for small and midsize contractors in Arizona
CoverWallet: Best for comparing online quotes
If you want to compare several quotes to select the best and the cheapest one, CoverWallet is a great option. CoverWallet is a digital broker. They work with several leading business insurance companies. After providing your personal information, you will get several quotes from their partner companies in one place to compare. This can save you a lot of time from getting quotes from these companies separately.
Their quote process is very simple and fast. It will take less than 10 minutes to get several quotes.
After providing your information, in addition to providing general liability insurance quotes, CoverWallet also recommends you other insurance policies that are relevant with your business. If you are new to buy business insurance, you should consider discussing with their knowledgeable customer service associates who will explain the details of business insurance and recommend the most suitable policies for your business.
State Farm: Best for combining with personal insurance lines
State Farm is the biggest auto insurance provider in the US. But you might not know that they are also one of the top 10 business insurance companies. State Farm provides a comprehensive list of business insurance policies and caters to a wide range of industries, especially the smaller ones such as hair salon, spa center, barber shop, or small restaurant and cafeteria. They also provide an impressive business insurance directory with hundreds of educational articles and resources.
If you get insurance from State Farm, you should have absolute peace in mind. They ranked 2nd in the prestigious annual JD Power customer satisfaction survey for small businesses. They also have A+ financial rating from AM Best.
If you have personal insurance policies from State Farm, you know that you work through their State Farm agents. You can contact the State Farm agent to add general liability insurance policy to protect your business. You will also enjoy some special discount when bundling general liability insurance with your personal insurance policies from State Farm.
Next Insurance: Best for a completely digital experience
Next is one of the popular insuretech startups. They aim to modernize business insurance in all aspects, making it easier and more friendly for small businesses to buy and manage business insurance policies completely digitally.
You can get a quote online within minutes. You can buy a policy, print the certificate of insurance, and manage the policy completely online using their great digital product experience. If you prefer conducting your business completely digitally, Next might be a great option for you.
Being relatively young, Next manages to offer several business insurance products from general liability insurance, professional liability insurance, workers compensation insurance, commercial auto, commercial property, BOP (or business owners policy), and business equipment protection. They also offer great discount when you bundle several policies.
Next is backed by Munich Re, one of the most reputable reinsurance companies in the world. That should give you some peace of mind if you want to buy a policy from them. They seem to have earned a great customer satisfaction rating as well (A+ from BBB).
Hiscox: Best for small and midsize contractors in Arizona
Hiscox is one of the largest business insurance companies. They specialized in providing business insurance policies only (no personal insurance lines). They are the pioneer offering business insurance online. If you search for any business insurance types, it is likely that you will see Hiscox on the first search result page.
Hiscox offers a wide range of insurance policies to businesses in several industries. However, they seem to have an emphasis on contractors, with customized policies for both general contractors and independent contractors.
Hiscox has an excellent financial strength rating (A) from AM Best and an A- customer satisfaction from BBB.
Is general liability insurance required in Arizona?
No, general liability insurance isn’t required in Arizona. Only workers compensation insurance and commercial auto insurance are required in Arizona.
However, general liability insurance is the most essential business insurance policy that any business should consider having. It protects businesses against one of the most common types of lawsuit, a slip and fall suit brought by injured customers.
What does general liability insurance cover?
If you can only get one business insurance policy that is not legally required, you may consider general liability insurance. It covers:
- Third party injury
- Third party property damage
- Advertising injury
Whatever business you’re in, if you deal with customers at a physical location, whether it is your business’s premise or your client’s, it’s a good idea to have general liability insurance. Customers may slip and fall at your business’s premise. They may sue you for medical expenses. General liability insurance will pay for that and your legal costs as well.
Or if you visit your clients’ houses to conduct some business and accidentally break a valuable decorative vase. If they sue you, general liability insurance will cover that too. It also covers you if you are sued for slander or libel
In some cases, general liability insurance can also cover product liability. If your company manufactures and sells physical products to the public, having product liability coverage is necessary.
What doesn’t general liability insurance cover?
Although general liability insurance is an essential policy, it doesn’t cover everything that can go wrong. It doesn’t cover:
- Injuries to your employees (that’s workers compensation)
- Damage to your own property (you’ll need commercial property insurance)
- Data breaches and cyber crime (you’ll need cyber security insurance)
- Damages caused to your customers when they use or consume your product (you’ll need product liability insurance)
- Your clients sue you because they are not happy with your service (you’ll need professional liability insurance for that)
- Bodily and property damages caused by auto accidents while you are driving for work (you’ll need commercial auto insurance for that)
- Illegal acts
- Damages that you do on purpose
The first six are covered by different types of policies. Anything illegal and destructive is not covered at all.
Why small businesses in Arizona should get general liability insurance
According to businessnewsdaily, slip-and-fall accidents and premises liability are the two in the the top 3 most common lawsuits against small businesses (after breach of contract). And according to a survey conducted by smallbizdaily, 36%-53% small businesses had to deal with a lawsuit every year. So, getting sued due to your customers slipping and falling in your business location is a lot more common than you would think. These statistics are national, but Arizona businesses should expect to have similar frequencies of slip-and-fall accidents.
Getting sued is expensive. From a study by National Center of State Courts, the median combined costs of lawsuits for both parties in a premise liability lawsuit such as slip and falls is $54,000. This can easily bankrupt a small business if they have to pay everything out of the pocket.
Then, too, you’ll have to deal with the emotional toll if someone sues you.
Lastly, for businesses in some industries like general contracting or construction, clients prefer you having proper insurance coverage. More often than not, clients would request you to show insurance proof before signing the contracts for the project.
What affects how much I’ll pay for general liability insurance in Arizona?
Many factors affect how much you’ll pay for insurance, such as:
- Where you work
- What industry you’re in
- How long you’ve been in business
- Revenue
- Number of employees (the more employees you have, the more likely it is that one of them will damage something)
- Claims history
- The policy’s coverage. The coverage is usually at $1M. The higher the coverage, the higher the premium of the policy.
How much does general liability insurance cost in Arizona?
The majority of small business owners in Arizona can expect to pay between $250 and $5,500 a year for a general liability insurance policy. On average, a small business in Arizona pays $1,550 for a general liability insurance policy.
As you can see, different insurance companies will give you different quotes. So be sure to shop around with at least 3-5 companies or a digital broker like CoverWallet so that you can compare several quotes to choose the best and the cheapest one for your company.
>>MORE: How Much does General Liability Insurance Cost?
How to find cheap general liability insurance in Arizona?
General liability insurance is essential for small businesses. Even it is not required in Arizona, you should consider having it to protect your business. Depending on your industry, it might not be very expensive.
In addition, you can find cheap general liability insurance for your business in Arizona. Below are some tips that you can consider:
- Always make sure to shop around for the cheapest price. Getting quotes from several companies or comparing several quotes with a digital broker like CoverWallet.
- Before renewing your policy, make sure to shop around again to ensure that your current policy has the cheapest price already.
- Sometimes insurance companies will let you take a risk assessment to earn a discount
- Bundling several policies together will also earn a discount, when you can
- Just like auto insurance, maintaining a good and continuous record of general liability insurance policy for your business can also help keep the price low.
Last Thoughts
General liability insurance is a necessity if you own a small business in the state of Arizona. It may not be too expensive. It will give you peace of mind and allows you to focus on growing your business. After determining how much coverage you need, you should get quotes from at least 3 companies or a digital broker to compare and choose the cheapest one for you.
You should also consider the company’s financial strength and customer satisfaction rating in choosing the final company to buy the policy from as well. You want a company with low prices that you can rely on.
