If you are one of the 350,800 small businesses in Oklahoma, you already know that workers compensation insurance and commercial auto insurance are required. Although general liability insurance isn’t required in Oklahoma, it is the most essential business insurance that protects you and your business from one of the most common types of lawsuit, a slip and fall suit brought by injured customers and more. We explain the details and recommend the top 4 general liability insurance providers in Oklahoma.
- The 3 best general liability insurance companies in Oklahoma
- Is general liability insurance required in Oklahoma?
- What does general liability insurance cover?
- What doesn’t general liability insurance cover?
- Why small businesses in Oklahoma should get general liability insurance
- What affects how much I’ll pay for general liability insurance in Oklahoma?
- How much does general liability insurance cost in Oklahoma?
- How to find cheap general liability insurance in Oklahoma?
The 4 best general liability insurance companies in Oklahoma
We research more than 20 companies offering general liability insurance in Oklahoma and here are our recommendation of the 4 best providers.
- CoverWallet: Best for comparing online quotes
- Progressive Commercial: Best if you also need commercial auto insurance
- Hiscox: Best for small and midsize contractors in Oklahoma
- Next Insurance: Best for a completely digital experience
CoverWallet: Best for comparing online quotes
CoverWallet is a digital broker. They work with several leading business insurance companies. An advantage of working with CoverWallet is that within minutes, they can provide you with several quotes from their partner companies so that you can compare them in one place, making it convenient for you to select the best and the cheapest one for your company.
Not only making it convenient for small businesses to compare quotes and buy policies online, CoverWallet also makes it super easy and convenient for small businesses to manage business insurance policies as well. After buying a policy through CoverWallet, you can manage all of your policies which you may buy from different providers on their digital dashboard.
CoverWallet has excellent customer satisfaction rating and excellent financial strength rating. They earn an excellent (A) rating from BBB. They are a part of Aon, one of the biggest insurance broker in the world, who has an excellent financial rating (A+) from AM Best.
Progressive Commercial: Best if you also need commercial auto insurance
Progressive is one of the leading providers of commercial auto insurance. They have both excellent financial strength rating and good customer satisfaction rating.
If you need both commercial auto insurance and general liability insurance, you should definitely consider them. It is easy to get quotes from Progressive Commercial, buy policies online, and manage policies digitally.
Hiscox: Best for small and midsize contractors in Oklahoma
Hiscox is one of the leading business insurance providers. They are the pioneer offering several business insurance policies online.
Hiscox offers an extensive suite of insurance products to businesses of any size and in any industries. However, they have an emphasis on providing business insurance to small and midsize contractors in Oklahoma. The portfolio of business insurance products Hiscox offers include general liability, to professional liability, workers compensation, product liability insurance, commercial auto insurance, commercial property insurance, even cyber security insurance, and many more.
Hiscox has an excellent financial strength rating (A) from AM Best and earns an A- rating from BBB.
Next Insurance: Best for a completely digital experience
Next is one of the popular insuretech startups, modernizing business insurance by offering a completely digital experience.
Within minutes, you will be able to get quotes, buy a policy, and manage the policy completely digitally. You will not need to speak to anyone throughout the journey.
They are licensed in 50 states and offer several business policies including general liability, professional liability, BOP, workers compensation insurance, commercial property insurance, commercial auto insurance, and even product liability and cyber liability insurance.
Despite being a startup, Next is backed by Munich Re, one of the leading reinsurance companies in the world. They also earn an A+ rating from BBB.
However, this doesn’t guarantee that the quotes from Next Insurance are the cheapest one, you should always shop with few companies or with a digital broker like CoverWallet to compare several quotes to find the cheapest one for your company.
Is general liability insurance required in Oklahoma?
No, general liability insurance isn’t required in Oklahoma. Only workers compensation insurance and commercial auto insurance are required in Oklahoma.
However, general liability insurance is an essential business insurance policy that any business should consider having. It protects businesses from lawsuits when their customers are injured in their premises or property damages are caused at their customers’ locations.
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
Depending on the company and the policy, some general liability insurance policies also cover product liability. If you manufacture and sell physical products to the public, having a general liability insurance policy that also covers product liability is great. That saves you money on another policy.
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
- Damage 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 Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma?
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 Oklahoma?
The majority of small business owners in Oklahoma can expect to pay between $250 and $3,500 a year for a general liability insurance policy. On average, a small business in Oklahoma pays $1,400 for a general liability insurance policy. This depends on many variables that we mentioned above such as the industries, the size, the number of employees, revenue, how long you have been in business, claim history, etc.
The cost of general liability insurance for a small business in Oklahoma varies by providers. You should expect to have different quotes by different insurance companies. Make sure to shop around with at least 3 companies or with a digital broker like CoverWallet to compare several quotes to find the cheapest one for you.
>>MORE: How Much does General Liability Insurance Cost?
How to find cheap general liability insurance in Oklahoma?
General liability insurance is essential for small businesses. Even it is not required in Oklahoma, 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 Oklahoma. 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
- 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 Oklahoma. 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.
