Most agents have read about a liability claim. We've sat on the other side of one — the incident report, the adjuster, the sublimit nobody checked until it mattered. That's the difference between a policy someone sold you and a policy someone built for you.
Everything else is detail. If an agent hasn't asked you these, they've quoted you — they haven't covered you.
Not what you own — what a jury could decide you owe. A slip in your lobby, a customer's property damaged by your crew, a claim that your work caused someone else a loss. This sets your liability limits, and it's the number most businesses under-buy.
Building, equipment, stock, tools in a truck. The trap isn't the limit — it's how it's valued. Replacement cost and actual cash value are very different cheques after a fire, and coinsurance can cut what you're paid even when you're under the limit.
The fire is covered. The three months you're closed while it's rebuilt is a different coverage — business income. Payroll still runs, rent still runs, and your customers go somewhere else in the meantime.
Landlords, general contractors, franchisors and clients routinely require specific limits, additional insured status and waivers of subrogation. If your policy doesn't match your contract, you've signed a promise your insurance won't keep.
Independent, so the market competes for your account instead of one company deciding what you're allowed to have.
General liability, tools and equipment, workers' comp, and the bonds that keep you eligible to bid.
Property, liability, liquor liability, spoilage, and the comp that goes with a kitchen crew.
Where we know the most. Innkeeper's liability, assault and battery sublimits, and franchise requirements.
Business owner's policies, professional liability, cyber, and employment practices cover.
A hotel is a liability business wearing a hospitality costume. Someone slips in the lobby. A guest's car is broken into. A pipe lets go on the third floor at two in the morning and you're standing in it in your work shoes.
Every one of those was a phone call we made ourselves, back when we were the general manager rather than the agent. Which is why this conversation goes faster with us, and why we ask things other agents don't:
The job doesn't start until the certificate lands, and a wrong one is worse than a late one. Send us the requirements from the contract or the job site and we'll issue it correctly the first time — right holder, right wording, right additional insured status.
If a general contractor or a landlord has sent you a list of insurance requirements you don't understand, forward it. Reading those is the job. We'll tell you what you already satisfy and what you're actually missing, which is usually less than the list makes it look.
An independent agency is only as good as the markets it can reach. Here is ours — the actual list, not a number on a banner. If your risk is unusual, the odds are good that something on this page writes it.
How we reach them. Progressive and Hagerty are direct appointments held by this agency. The remaining markets are accessed through the First Connect agency network, which is how independent agencies of our size reach national carriers. Either way the policy is issued by the carrier and serviced by us — you deal with one agency, not a network. Access is not a guarantee of an offer: every market applies its own underwriting, appetite and state filings, and appetite changes.
No obligation, and if you're already in good shape we'll say so. Licensed in Illinois, Maryland and Virginia.