General Liability.
The policy your clients ask for before they let you start, and the one most owners never read.
General liability covers what your business does to other people: injury, property damage, and the legal costs
of defending either. Most owners buy it because a contract demanded a certificate, then discover its real shape
only when something happens.
Price here is decided by your classification code more than
anything else, and businesses are miscoded constantly. Send us your current policy and we will check
the code, check the endorsements your contracts actually require, and price it across a wide panel of
carriers.
Three things, plus the lawyers
General liability is narrower than most owners assume and broader in one respect they never expect: it pays to defend you even when the claim is meritless, and that alone often justifies the premium.
Bodily injury
Someone who is not your employee is hurt because of your business, your premises or your work. A customer falls in your shop, a passer-by is injured at your job site, a client trips over your equipment.
Property damage
You damage property belonging to someone else while working. A contractor cracks a countertop, a cleaner ruins a floor, equipment you installed causes a leak.
Personal and advertising injury
Libel, slander, defamation, and copyright or trademark infringement in your advertising. Small businesses underestimate this one badly, particularly anyone marketing online.
Legal defence
Paid on top of the limit on most policies. A claim you eventually win can still cost tens of thousands to defend, and this is the part that quietly does the most work.
What general liability will not do
Every gap below is a real policy someone forgot to buy. Knowing which ones apply to you is most of the job.
Your own property
Your building, equipment, inventory and tools are commercial property coverage, not liability. This is the most common assumption we correct.
Your employees
Workplace injuries are workers’ compensation, which is mandatory in almost every state once you have employees and carries penalties for going without.
Professional mistakes
Bad advice, a design error, a missed deadline. That is professional liability, and any business selling expertise rather than goods needs it alongside.
Your own work product
Damage to the work you performed is generally excluded. A contractor whose installation fails may be covered for resulting damage but not for redoing their own work.
Vehicles
Anything involving a vehicle used for business belongs on commercial auto. A personal auto policy will not respond to business use.
Cyber and employment claims
A data breach is cyber liability. Wrongful termination, discrimination or harassment claims are EPLI. Neither is included here, and both are increasingly common.
Certificates, additional insureds, and why the paperwork fails
Most general liability is bought because a client, landlord or general contractor demanded it. What they actually require is usually more specific than a certificate, and getting it wrong stops work.
A certificate confirms, it does not create
A COI is evidence that coverage exists on the day it was issued. It adds nothing to the policy. If a contract requires more than you carry, the certificate will simply prove the shortfall.
Additional insured is an endorsement
Naming a client or landlord so your policy responds to claims from your work for them requires an endorsement on the policy, and the specific form number often matters. Sending a certificate alone is the most common contract failure we see.
Waiver of subrogation
Frequently required, particularly by general contractors and larger clients. It prevents your insurer pursuing them after paying a claim, and it must be endorsed rather than assumed.
Primary and non-contributory
Contract language requiring your policy to pay first, before the other party’s. Standard in construction and increasingly common elsewhere. Also an endorsement.
Limits written into contracts
One million per occurrence and two million aggregate is the usual demand. Where a client insists on more, a commercial umbrella above the policy is nearly always cheaper than raising the underlying limit.
We handle the paperwork
Certificates issued the same day, endorsements arranged, and the wording checked against what your contract actually says rather than what it appears to say.
Your class code is the price
Every commercial policy is rated on a classification code describing what the business does. Carriers price the same code very differently depending on their appetite that year, and businesses are miscoded routinely, particularly when the work has changed since the policy was first written.
Miscoding is common and expensive
A business coded into a higher-hazard class pays substantially more for identical work. It also cuts the other way: a code that does not describe your actual operations can leave a claim disputed.
Appetite varies enormously
Carriers cycle in and out of trades and industries. The company that was competitive for your class three years ago may be avoiding it now, and another may be pursuing it hard.
Revenue and payroll drive the rest
Most policies are audited at the end of the term against actual figures. Estimating badly at the start means a bill or a refund later, and we would rather set it accurately now.
A BOP is often cheaper
For smaller and lower-hazard operations, bundling liability with property in a Business Owners Policy usually costs less than buying them separately. We price both ways.
Send us your current policy, and we will check the code before we check the price.
The declarations page shows your classification, limits, endorsements and audit basis. That is everything needed to tell you whether you are coded correctly, covered properly, and paying market rate. No cost, no obligation.
How we approach a commercial program
We start by asking what the business actually does day to day, not what the industry label says. That conversation is where miscoding gets caught, and it is also where the missing policies become obvious. Owners rarely arrive knowing they need EPLI or cyber; they arrive knowing a client wants a certificate.
Then we price general liability on its own and as part of a Business Owners Policy, because for a significant share of businesses the bundle costs less than the liability alone would elsewhere.
We also read your contracts. Not all of them, but the requirement clauses, because additional insured wording, waivers of subrogation and primary and non-contributory language are where compliance actually fails. Matching them precisely is faster than discovering a gap the week a project starts.
And we handle the administration. Certificates issued the same day, endorsements arranged, renewals reviewed against how the business has changed rather than rolled over unchanged.
Check your classification code.
It sits on the declarations page and it decides more of your premium than anything else. If it does not describe what you do today, both the price and the coverage are wrong.
Have my code checked →General liability, answered plainly
What does general liability actually cover?+
Third-party bodily injury, third-party property damage, and personal and advertising injury such as libel, slander or copyright infringement in your advertising. It also pays legal defence costs, which on a disputed claim are frequently larger than the settlement itself.
What does it not cover?+
Your own property, your employees' injuries, professional mistakes, damage to work you performed, employment disputes, cyber incidents, and vehicles. Each of those is a different policy: property, workers' compensation, professional liability, EPLI, cyber and commercial auto respectively.
Do I need it if I work from home or have no employees?+
Usually yes, and for two reasons. Any client who visits, any product you supply and any work you perform at someone else's premises creates exposure. And in practice most contracts, leases and vendor agreements require proof of it before you can start work.
What is a certificate of insurance?+
A one-page document confirming your coverage exists, which clients and landlords request constantly. Important to understand: a certificate confirms coverage, it does not create it. If someone needs to be named an additional insured, that has to be endorsed onto the policy itself.
What is an additional insured?+
A party added to your policy so your coverage responds to claims arising from your work for them. Landlords, general contractors and large clients routinely require it, and the specific endorsement form they ask for matters. Sending a certificate without the endorsement is one of the most common contract failures we see.
How is the premium calculated?+
Primarily by classification code, which describes what your business actually does, then by revenue or payroll, location, claims history and the limits you select. Class code is the largest single factor, and being coded incorrectly can mean paying substantially more than you need to or holding coverage that does not respond.
What limits should I carry?+
One million per occurrence with a two million aggregate is the common baseline, largely because that is what most contracts specify. Whether it is adequate depends on your work, your clients and your assets. Where more is needed, a commercial umbrella above it is usually far cheaper than raising the underlying limit.
Is a BOP better than standalone general liability?+
Frequently. A Business Owners Policy bundles general liability with commercial property and often business interruption, usually for less than buying them separately. It suits smaller, lower-hazard businesses. Larger or higher-hazard operations generally need the coverages written individually.