Business liability insurance

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electrofelon

electrofelon

Senior Member
Location
Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
How much y'all pay? I'm mostly a one man LLC (but the lady told me the policy is for the LLC so I can have other members and it's the same rate). I'm covered in NY and Washington. I forget the coverage, prolly a million or two. I've been paying $1100 per year for the last 10 years. Just went to renew and it went up $200. Lady said pretty much all insurance went up this year, and I was lucky mine didn't go up as much as many others. Sounds like a typical BS sales line to me. Should I shop around again? I might just cancel the thing, stupid insurance it's basically a scam. I don't even need it for any of my licenses. Never used it, probably never will. I get liability protection thru my LLC anyway. What are y'all paying for a similar setup?
 
electrofelon said:
How much y'all pay? I'm mostly a one man LLC (but the lady told me the policy is for the LLC so I can have other members and it's the same rate). I'm covered in NY and Washington. I forget the coverage, prolly a million or two. I've been paying $1100 per year for the last 10 years. Just went to renew and it went up $200. Lady said pretty much all insurance went up this year, and I was lucky mine didn't go up as much as many others. Sounds like a typical BS sales line to me. Should I shop around again? I might just cancel the thing, stupid insurance it's basically a scam. I don't even need it for any of my licenses. Never used it, probably never will. I get liability protection thru my LLC anyway. What are y'all paying for a similar setup?
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You have liability protection via your LLC. What you don't have is someone to cover your legal expenses if you get sued. It might be more important to have liability insurance to have someone else cover your legal expenses as to cover whatever judgements there might be.
 
petersonra said:
You have liability protection via your LLC. What you don't have is someone to cover your legal expenses if you get sued. It might be more important to have liability insurance to have someone else cover your legal expenses as to cover whatever judgements there might be.
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Good point, however I have no worry about getting sued. The only thing I could see needing the insurance for is cracking someone's granite counter, drilling thru a finished wood floor, some water drywall damage from drilling thru a water line, etc. I could just pay for that out of pocket. Sure anything is possible, but getting sued just doesn't seem at all likely to me.
 
electrofelon said:
Good point, however I have no worry about getting sued. The only thing I could see needing the insurance for is cracking someone's granite counter, drilling thru a finished wood floor, some water drywall damage from drilling thru a water line, etc. I could just pay for that out of pocket. Sure anything is possible, but getting sued just doesn't seem at all likely to me.
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you get sued once and the premiums you pay for liability insurance will look really cheap compared to the lawyer bills.
 
petersonra said:
you get sued once and the premiums you pay for liability insurance will look really cheap compared to the lawyer bills.

I don't have a major issue with self insuring for minor things, but what happens if your work starts a fire and does a million bucks worth of damage? Or kills someone?
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Same reason for vehicle insurance- I'm a pretty good driver but a lot of people aren't. Or health insurance- hardly ever a claim, but when I hit my head last year, the premiums didn't seem like much compared to the bills they paid.

You (don't) pay your money and you take your chances.
 
zbang said:
Same reason for vehicle insurance- I'm a pretty good driver but a lot of people aren't. Or health insurance- hardly ever a claim, but when I hit my head last year, the premiums didn't seem like much compared to the bills they paid.

You (don't) pay your money and you take your chances.
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I've had 3 cars totaled out from under me by other drivers. Without insurance, I'd have been totally...well, you know. We got the extended warranty coverage for my wife's (used) Acadia. Two months shy of expiration, the transmission was replaced. We got our money's worth out of that as well. YMMV.
 
electrofelon said:
So has anyone seen their rates jump recently or was that BS?
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I think BS.
I've had my General Liability since 2007

It started at about $1200 per year, and has gone down every year. My year starts in August. This year I think is about $57.00 less than last year. I think it's down to about $850

I'm not an LLC, just DBA not sure if that makes a difference.

I'm in Missouri, I work in Kansas 95% of the time.
Not sure if that makes a difference.
 
I use Next insurance and my rate is a little over 700 for the year. Each state would have different rates.
I would of thought Oregon would of been more expensive, looking at what you guys pay guess not.

As far as going up, same as last years
 
AC\DC said:
I use Next insurance and my rate is a little over 700 for the year. Each state would have different rates.
I would of thought Oregon would of been more expensive, looking at what you guys pay guess not.

As far as going up, same as last years
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When I first got insurance around 10 years ago it was about $700 for coverage in NYS. But I needed coverage in WA state too and I remember it being somewhat difficult to find a company that would cover both - and that's why I ended up paying the $1100.......

Lady said tile setters were the only people who saw their rate go down. All def seems BS....
 
If your comfortable with your insurance and you trust them just stick with them. I shopped around like crazy for the cheapest. Never head of Next insurance till I found them. If I ever have to use them I hope I don't find they have closed there office and moved to Jamaica :LOL:
 
AC\DC said:
If your comfortable with your insurance and you trust them just stick with them. I shopped around like crazy for the cheapest. Never head of Next insurance till I found them. If I ever have to use them I hope I don't find they have closed there office and moved to Jamaica :LOL:
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Got a thing in the mail today from Next.
 
I don't think you can compare insurance "apples to apples", especially between states. Mine is about half of what the OP's is but AFAIK, it's only for my state.
 
These kind of policies are usually audited annually. Rates get adjusted to what comes up for possible risk during those audits.

If your net receipts was significantly higher than usual after the last audit, that can mean they are taking on more risk and may raise rates.

If you worked in two states but it was because you lived near border between them, it may not make a much of a difference on the location aspect but that may not be seen same as working in two states on opposite ends of the country.
 
I worked on gas stations and fuel piping as well as electrical work. I carried pollution liability because of this. My agent could not find it from a NC certified company (not sure certified is the right word). I signed a paper saying I was aware of this, agent said it was no big deal (I trusted her). If the insurance company is (certified?) in NC, then the state would have come in and covered the bankrupt company liabilities towards the insured.

Well, about 6 months after 9.11, here comes a lawsuit for pollution damage. I turn it over to the insurance company and get word that the underwriter is in receivership. Basically, bankrupt and out of business. So I'm left hanging, on my own. I was able to get out of it for less than $20K (details not important).

My agent said something like this has never happened before, blah blah blah, and sorry, you are on your own. Pretty sucky experience.
 
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