What business insurance do I need?

How to use it

Work top to bottom. The list underneath rebuilds with every change, so there is nothing to submit.

1. Your industry. Pick your trade from the 69 industry guides if it is listed. This fills in the business type for you and adds a link to that industry's guide.
2. Business type. One of 13 broad categories, such as construction and trades, food and hospitality or professional services. Choose the closest match if your trade is not listed.
3. Employees. Count everyone on payroll except owners, part-time and seasonal staff included. Your payroll records will have the number.
4. Vehicles. None, personal cars on business errands, vehicles the business owns or leases, or trucks over 10,000 lbs and anything hauling goods or people for others.
5. Where you work. Home, a leased space, a building you own, or mostly at customers' sites.
6. The statements. Seventeen yes/no items: customers visit, you give advice, you sell products, you hold personal data, you serve alcohol, a contract asks for proof of insurance, and so on. Tick what is true today.

The homepage shows a compact version with five of the statements and the first eight results, linked to this page.

The math

There is no formula here. It is a set of if-then rules, and each coverage appears once, in the highest group its rules reach.

• Required or nearly always needed: workers' compensation once you have employees; commercial auto if the business owns or leases vehicles; general liability if customers visit, you have premises, contracts ask for it, you sell products or you work in construction, food, retail or real estate; liquor liability if you serve alcohol; property if you own the building; an ERISA fidelity bond if you sponsor a retirement plan; a surety bond if a license or contract calls for one.
• Strongly recommended: property for leased space, business income, a BOP for smaller employers with premises, hired and non-owned auto, professional liability, cyber, employment practices, umbrella, crime, D&O and others, each triggered by specific answers.
• Worth considering: coverages that rarely apply to everyone, such as equipment breakdown, builder's risk and spoilage.

Take a hypothetical four-person landscaper that leases a yard, owns two pickups, hauls mowers to client sites and is asked for certificates. The required group would hold workers' comp, commercial auto, general liability and a prompt to check your state's disability and paid leave rules. Property, business income, a BOP, hired and non-owned auto, employment practices, umbrella and equipment coverage would land in the strongly recommended group.

Assumptions and limits

The tool knows your answers and nothing else. It does not see your state, your lease, your lender or your contracts, and a contract can require a coverage the rules never suggest. Workers' comp rules differ by state; Texas lets most private employers opt out, and South Dakota has no law requiring it. The tool never picks limits and never prices anything. For limits, use the business income (interruption) limit calculator, the How much umbrella coverage do I need? and the coinsurance penalty calculator. To see your state's rules, use the workers' comp and benefits requirements by state.

"Required" means required by law or nearly always demanded in practice. A reason on the screen is a one-line summary, not coverage advice, and the policy form decides what is covered. Take the list to a licensed agent or broker and read What business insurance do I need? A checklist by risk for the long version.

Your answers stay in the browser. Nothing is saved unless you press Save, which stores them on this device only; Clear removes them.

Where the figures come from

• Texas rule: the Texas Department of Insurance coverage page and its 2016 employer participation report.
• Trucking minimums: 49 CFR 387.9, $750,000 for for-hire interstate carriers of general freight in vehicles of 10,001 lbs or more, $1,000,000 or $5,000,000 for hazardous materials. See FMCSA insurance requirements and filings for motor carriers.
• ERISA bond: Department of Labor Field Assistance Bulletin 2008-04, at least 10% of funds handled, $1,000 minimum, $500,000 maximum ($1,000,000 if the plan holds employer securities).