If you’re a small business owner who is looking for the best way to ensure your company, then a business owners policy—better known as a BOP—is a great way to start. It makes sense for many companies to carry this coverage because it offers several types of commercial insurance in one place. As a result, this single plan can often substantially reduce your overall cost for coverage.

All the same, BOPs are not all-inclusive. In their standard forms, they generally only offer commercial property, general liability and business interruption coverage. As a result, the pragmatic policyholder should always consider expanding upon their benefits portfolio.

Adding Benefits to Your BOP

By adding coverage into your BOP, you’ll be able to account for the fact that you sometimes might face liabilities that are separate from those covered under standard BOP benefits.

The following are four types of critical benefits to commonly added coverage to BOP plans.

1. Professional Liability Insurance

Often, professional service providers—lawyers, CPAs, doctors—need this benefit because it is their services themselves that might cause harm to clients. This benefit covers more than just someone slipping and falling in your store. Rather, it covers instances like one where a CPA makes a mistake on a client’s taxes and then gets sued over the resulting burden. This benefit is sometimes known as errors & omissions (E&O) insurance.

2. Employment Practices Liability Insurance

Businesses are required to conduct their hiring, retention, review and termination practices in compliance with employment law. Failure to do so might result in allegations of harassment, discrimination, failure to hire or promote, or unfair termination. Should legal action arise as a result of these incidents, then an employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) policy, will help you defend against the claims.

3. Commercial Auto Insurance

If your business owns or operates vehicles of any kind, then you will need to insure those vehicles in compliance with both state and interstate auto insurance laws. A commercial auto insurance policy will offer you the necessary liability, physical damage and related benefits for your needs. It will ensure that you will have protection if you ever face unexpected vehicle damage or losses.

4. Workers’ Compensation

Another insurance benefit that most businesses are required by law to carry is workers’ compensation insurance. It will provide supplementary income, medical benefits and other assistance in the event that one of your employees gets injured or becomes ill as a result of their work.

In many cases, workers’ compensation and commercial auto insurance benefits must be purchased separately from BOPs. However, EPLI and E&O benefits are sometimes available as BOP endorsements. Our agents are happy to work with you to optimize your BOP’s benefits and your other policies in the most efficient ways.