Business Property insurance protects your building and property against loss or damage from theft, accident, and a variety of other causes. The policy will pay for replacing or repairing covered property or providing compensation for irreplaceable items.
If you don’t own your building you’ll still need to cover its contents: fixtures, furniture, office equipment, inventory and the supplies stored at your location or off-site.
The premium will depend on whether you choose to insure the replacement cost or actual cash value (ACV) of the property. Most Business Property coverage is written on a replacement-cost basis, which will reimburse you for replacing lost or stolen goods with new items at current market prices. This feature can help your business recover from the loss or theft quickly. (If you’re leasing equipment, the leaseholder might require you to cover it at replacement value.) You’ll need to revise your coverage when you acquire or dispose of property. Be sure to update replacement values over time; a computer worth $1,000 two years ago might cost half that today – on the other hand, the price of a desk might well increase.
Actual cash value coverage, which generally costs less, provides reimbursement for the depreciated value of covered property. If your business owns its own equipment, which you could replace easily with comparable goods at depreciated market value, the lower premium of an ACV policy might make it a more cost-effective choice.
As always, our agency’s Business Insurance specialists stand ready to offer their advice on choosing the coverage that’s best for you. Just give us a call.
