Bankruptcy Insurance

Bankruptcy insurance would be an ideal insurance policy for small business owners.  However, bankruptcy insurance simply does not exist.  What does exist are a wide variety of small business owners insurance options from liability insurance for small business to business interruption insurance to business contents insurance. 

Consult with an insurance professional who knows and understands you business, business niche and industry to ensure that you do not make common business insurance mistakes and risk the viability and profitability of your business.

Business owners work hard to grow their enterprises, investing countless hours, intense labor and careful attention to assure success. Yet many overlook one of the most basic components in securing their business’ long-term viability: adequate, appropriate business insurance. When it comes to insurance, business owners make some common, potentially terminal, mistakes that may be remedied easily with a little knowledge and guidance.
Read more…

Bankruptcy insurance does not truly exist for business owners, however an investment in liability insurance for small business can certainly make the difference between keeping your business running and profitable, and possibly having devastating consequences should you not be insured, or under-insured.

Many small businesses operate without liability insurance to cut down on operating costs, but in today’s business climate in which frivolous lawsuits are brought against companies on a daily basis, operating without any liability coverage is a highly volatile practice. Often, the cost of defending a claim without insurance can push a small business into extreme debt or bankruptcy.

Small business liability insurance can end up saving a company from a financial disaster in the long term and there are ways business owners can reduce their rates. Aside from implementing a sound quality control or risk management program, there are several proactive steps companies can take to keep small business insurance coverage costs at bay, including:

Shop around: Business liability insurance coverages range by company; read up on what is covered and what is not. Review policy plans from several insurers and compare rates.

Consider a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP):  Rather than purchasing separate types of insurance from various companies, consider purchasing a package of policies. When receiving an insurance quote on a BOP, be sure to understand what is included in the coverage. BOPs don’t typically include all types of insurance. For instance, Professional Liability insurance, also known as Errors and Omissions insurance, which protects organizations against claims of professional negligence and errors or omissions in professional work, is usually not included in a BOP.

Enlist a specialist broker:  If the small business operates in a niche, it will often require specialized insurance to safeguard against unique risks. Insurance brokers will know what coverages are necessary for the business and know where to go for the best rates.

Research industry settlements:  To better understand what small business insurance coverage might be needed, look at the other businesses within the same industry. Research recent legal actions and settlements from businesses that are operating in the same field. Talk to peers about their level of coverage. Using this information, small business owners can determine average legal and settlement costs to better gauge the amount coverage necessary for their business.

While the cost of safeguarding a business and its owner with liability insurance can be costly, a little due diligence can help in finding the best coverage for the best rate. Small business liability insurance will not only protect a business and its owner from costly litigations, it will also provide a solid foundation for success. Business owners should invest the time in researching insurance coverages and investigate their own liability insurance needs. This can be done by simply talking with peers, industry associations or insurance representatives. Having adequate insurance coverage can be one of the most important steps a business owner takes in ensuring the company’s survival.

Author: James Cochran

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Cochran

As bankruptcy insurance simply does not exist for business owners, a wide variety of other small business owners insurance options do exist to help business owners remain profitable and in business in the face of a difficult and challenging business climate. 

However, If your business has the added complexity of international business interests, you should contact your insurance agent regarding the coverage you may need to protect your business from potential political upheaval and unrest.

Many companies that are involved in international business don’t understand the nightmare that political upheaval can cause when it comes to their receivables. Trade credit insurance can eliminate this nightmare.
Read more…

Bankrutpcy Insurance for small business owners simply does not exist.  However, small business owners can create strong contingency plans for their business, as well as obtain business policies such as business interruption insurance.   There are small business owners insurance options that can protect you and your business from business failure, even bankruptcy.

Much like the saying, “Man plans, God laughs”, small businesses cannot afford to not only try to compete in an increasingly complex and competitive economy, but also juggle other factors that could negatively impact their ability to do business. Unfortunately, disasters do strike, and business owners must be prepared for the worst, so they can take strong action and remain in business should a flood, fire, or other disaster occur.

Anyone that has a business needs to think about disaster recovery planning. These plans are also referred to as business continuity plans, or business process contingency plans.
Read more…

Bankruptcy insurance simply does not exist for small business owners, if it did, small business owners would have a much easier time of figuring out how to protect themselves, their assets and their business interests!  There are a variety of small business owners insurance options to best insure your business and kind of business to avoid bankruptcy and run a successful and profitable business in a very tough economic climate.

Running a small business is a gamble where, as a small business owner or manager, you try to undertake the least amount of risk you can with an eye toward reaping the greatest gain. Small business insurance is your best tool for keeping your risk level low. Since this isn’t a game for you or your employees, small business insurance isn’t a luxury but an absolute necessity. So finding the best small business insurance coverage for your company becomes your goal.

When considering what the best coverage to have is, you need to start with the basics: general liability insurance, property insurance, and workers’ compensation. The purpose and function of the latter two are relatively straightforward.

Workers’ compensation insurance grants monetary awards to employees who are injured or disabled due to job related circumstances. This coverage is often required and may be regulated by state laws.

Property coverage for small business insurance guards against the loss of physical assets due to fire, accident, or theft. It allows you to replace or repair furniture, office equipment and supplies, inventory, and sometimes even the building itself. This type of small business insurance may either cover your loss at the replacement value of lost items or for their depreciated cash value. The best option for you depends on the capital you have on hand. Taking depreciated cash value coverage, also known as actual cast value (ACV), will save you money in the short term from lower premiums but will cost you valuable time in the event of an actual loss. Additionally, the items you need to replace may not be available at the depreciated cost no matter how much time you expend searching for a comparable replacement, and you may end up with substantial out-of-pocket expense. When possible, replacement cost small business insurance coverage is the superior alternative as it transfers a greater degree of risk to the insurance company, which is the purpose of having insurance in the first place.

General Liability small business insurance is a little more complicated. It protects you against legitimate or fraudulent lawsuits brought against your company for:

Bodily Injury - Harm to a non-employee due to an action or inaction on the part of your company, including a fatal injury. Note that harm to an employee is covered under your small business insurance workers’ compensation plan.

Personal Injury - Which includes, but is not limited to, libel, slander, wrongful entry, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution carried out by your company or an agent of your company.

Property Damage - Destruction of privately owned items or real estate by an action of your company or by the action of an employee while carrying out his or her duties for your company.

Advertising Injury - Harm to an individual or a corporate body due to your company’s advertising activities, including character defamation, plagiarism, and unfair competition.

General liability small business insurance not only covers damages assessed against you, but also your legal fees. Even if you win a lawsuit, a court case can be quite expensive. With a general liability policy, you are compensated for attorney’s fees, court costs, witness fees, and loss of earnings while in court.

How much general liability small business insurance should you get? The simple answer is: As much as you can afford. You certainly want enough to cover the dollar amount value of your business. One suggested baseline is a minimum of one million dollars per incident and three million aggregate, but this answer is too simplistic to cover the breadth of eventualities that comprise every small business owner’s risk. Individual cases will have different exposure and insurance needs. Does your firm interact extensively with the public? Do you manufacture goods that could be dangerous if handled incorrectly? You should also consider recent court awards for your type of business and in your locale as well as the general liability requirements of companies you may do business with. To determine the best option for you, consult with your small business insurance agent.

In most cases, a business owners policy, or BOP, will be the most affordable option. A BOP combines property and general liability coverage, as well as other useful coverage such as vehicle coverage, into one small business insurance policy. Generally available to companies not engaged in high risk activities, a BOP is simpler for you and more efficient for the insurance company, resulting in lower premiums.

Author: James Cochran

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Cochran

Bankruptcy Insurance would be a great policy, right?  If bankruptcy insurance did indeed exist, so many small business owners would never need to worry about their business, or a potential loss of income.  However, so much policy exists, but there are a wide variety of small business owners insurance options, including protecting your income to protect you and your family’s financial security and future.

When people take out insurance, they generally do so for the small items they own, for example, their TV, laptop or expensive hi-fi system. Very rarely do people think of insuring the most important thing they own, themselves.
Read more…

Bankruptcy Insurance presents the following article regarding the benefits of filing your company as an LLC, or Limited Liability Corporation.  As covered in the previous article, there is truly no such thing as "bankruptcy insurance".  However, the way that you structure your business can help to shield you, your family and your personal assets should anything happen to the business.  So, in a sense, an LLC is a way of insuring your personal assets from a potential downturn or bankruptcy regarding your business and business assets. 

If you are like an ever increasing number of people, you may have made the decision to start your own business. Indeed, the number of individuals who have elected to develop their own business enterprises has risen dramatically over the course of the past decade - a trend that is expected to continue well into the future. With this in mind, you may have found yourself wondering what is the best structure for your own business venture. In this regard, you will want to closely consider the benefits of a limited liability corporation.

At the outset, one of the most significant benefits of a limited liability company (which also commonly is referred to as a LLC) is the fact that it is easy to organize or establish. Unlike corporations of different types, partnerships and other types of business structures, you do not have to draft a significant document in order to establish a LLC in the first instance.

In most states around the country you actually can now go online and establish a LLC with the appropriate state agency (normally the Secretary of State’s office) in a matter of what really is minutes. Moreover, the costs associated with establishing a LLC in most states is minimal.

Another of the benefits that can be realized through the establishment of a LLC for your own business venture is that you are provided all of the same protections that are extended to a corporation. For example, you personally will be protected from liability for the operation of your LLC in the same way you would be protected through the establishment of a corporation. By that it is meant that your personal assets are protected against any person who might end up having an issue with your business - a personal injury, for instance.

Yet another benefit that can be realized through the establishment of a LLC is found in regard to tax related issues. With an LLC you are not double taxed as is the case with some types of corporations. Some corporations are taxed both on the business level and then again at the level at which you obtain profits personally from that corporation. Needless to say, saving money on taxes through legitimate means is always a priority for a business venture in the 21st century.

An important benefit associated with a LLC rests in the fact that you will not be bogged down with the paperwork that is associated with a corporation and some other types of business organizations. You do not have to maintain corporate minutes and other detailed records of the nature that are associated with other types of business organizations. The time and expense savings in this regard really does add up over the course of any given year.

Finally, throughout the country (and in similar forms the world over) a huge number of individuals and existing businesses are turning to the LLC structure when it comes to organizing new enterprises. Indeed, more LLCs are now being organized than any other type of business organization scheme that legally is available at this juncture in time.

Author: Jeff Ryan

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Ryan

Is there really such a thing as "bankrutpcy insurance"?   No, not really. Unfortunately, there is no insurance policy that you can take out to protect you or your business against bankruptcy.   Bankruptcy Insurance would be quite a policy in this day and age with a tough economy, a global recession and sagging consumer confidence and spending.

With that said, however, there are different forms of insurance that can help to protect you, your business, your family and precious assets against major risks that could cause a serious financial loss that could lead to bankruptcy. There are unforeseen circumstance, above and beyond the economy, that can pose a financial challenge for your business.  Here are some of those types of insurance policies you can evaluate for you and your type of business:

Product Recall Insurance: With the recent issues with toy recalls and other kinds of food recalls, product recall insurance can certainly help a business minimize the financial damage done with a product recall. Product recall insurance is a policy that is considered "extra-expense" coverage and not legal liability type coverage. For example, a product recall insurance policy may cover the expenses incurred with having to remove the product from your shelves. These expenses could include print or aired communication in notifying customers of the recall, any expenses in mailing notifications to customers or vendors, paying employees any overtime benefits that were involved in the physical recall of products from the shelves and their disposal or return to vendor. These costs can be considerable.

Business Interruption Insurance: Business interruption insurance covers the interruption of business should a disaster strike your business, such as a fire or serious windstorm. Business interruption insurance is not an individual policy, but included in a package policy. With a business interruption insurance policy you may be compensated for lost income, the profits you were forecasted to earn and operating expenses that continue even if you have temporarily ceased operations (like your utilities).

Employee Lawsuit Insurance: Insurance companies now offer policies that protect companies against costly litigation for sexual harrassment, wrongful dismissal or discriminatory employment practices.

Corporations also can benefit from insurance products that protect them from fluctuating interest rates and currencies. Foreign currency fluctuations can very dramatically impact a company’s ability to be profitable, in a manner that they could not foresee or control. Corporations, including one that I used to work for, even have insurance policies to protect the business against severe weather patterns that risk business profits.

One of the best ways to protect yourself, your family and your assets is to Incorporate your business, or become a Limited Liability Company. By structuring your company correctly you can protect yourself, your partners and any shareholders from being personally liable for the debts that the business incurs and struggles, or ceases, to pay back.   There are savvy ways to structure your business that basically act as an insurance policy, if you will, that protects you.

If you have more questions about how to best protect you and your business with any of these insurance products, contact your insurance agent or a business attorrney.