Differences Between Commercial and Personal Lines Insurance

While there are many differences between Commercial and Personal insurance policies below are 4 that come to mind.

1. Named Insureds:

On a personal lines policy, the Named Insured will be an individual or a married couple. For the business policy, there are a variety of entity types (sole proprietor, partnership, limited liability corporation, corporation, etc.) that could be listed as the Named Insured. Depending on the ownership structure, there may be multiple Named Insureds on a single policy. Understanding how different entities are set up is key to understanding who the policy is protecting and how to frontline underwrite the account.

2. Property Concerns:

When writing property coverage for personal lines consumers, agents are typically looking to cover homes and their contents. Property coverage for commercial consumers can cover a myriad of different building types – offices, storefronts, warehouses, etc. Contents coverage may cover any number of items, such as inventory, furniture, property of the business’ customers, and/or machinery.

3. Liability Concerns:

Commercial consumers will have broader concerns than personal lines consumers. Underwriters will consider four different liability exposures: premises, operations, products, and completed operations, while personal lines consumers primarily have only a premises exposure. Briefly, premises exposure is the potential that a claim could arise solely due to the condition of the property in which the business operates, operations exposure is the potential that a claim could arise in the process of the work the insured performs, products exposure is the potential that a claim could arise due to the products that the insured sells, and completed operations exposure is the potential that a claim could arise due to the work the insured performs after it is completed. Because businesses can have unique operations, it is important to understand which type of liability poses the most risk and would likely lead to a greater chance of claims.

4. Auto Insurance Concerns:

Businesses have many different needs when it comes to auto insurance. It is essential to understand who the drivers are and what the vehicles are used for. While these same principles apply when writing personal lines insurance, the variance in vehicles and uses are much greater on an auto insurance policy. Further, there are often additional regulations that apply to commercial risks. Drivers may be required to have special driver’s licenses depending on the size of the vehicles, and hauling certain commodities will require financial filings that will be new to the personal lines agent. 

excerpts from: https://insnerds.com/5-differences-commercial-personal-lines-insurance/