Commercial insurance in Ontario

You can anticipate a business insurance policy to cost somewhere between $500 – $5,000 annually. That, of course, is a broad range. But it’s the best we can give you as far as concrete numbers.

Here are some factors that insurance companies use to determine your annual business insurance cost:

• Claims history
• Annual revenue
• Location
• Industry

Why is industry important? The type of work you do matters because some present greater risks than others. A company that distributes baby toys, for example, is at greater risk of a commercial general liability claim than a company that distributes textiles, given the former is dealing with products handled by infants. With greater risk comes greater insurance cost.

Yes there are.

Here are some types of coverage to consider:

• Commercial general liability 
• Cyber insurance
• Commercial property insurance
• Professional liability insurance
• Commercial vehicle insurance
• Directors & Officers insurance

The most popular types of commercial insurance are property and liability insurance. Property insurance covers your company’s physical assets and liability insurance protects you in the event you cause damage to someone else’s.

Unlike ‘direct’ insurance companies, brokers don’t issue policies to clients. Instead, we shop the market on their behalf, finding the best fit for our clients. Since we’re not tied to just one insurance company, we can place our clients with any of the providers we work with.

Different insurance companies have different appetites when it comes to risk. So while one insurance provider might turn your business away because it doesn’t like working with companies in a particular industry, company size, or other factor, as a broker we can place you with an insurance company that will insure you. Having access to different insurance players allows us to find the best match for your business.

Another advantage: Insurance companies change their tune quite often. Sometimes one bad year full of claims can turn an insurance provider away from a particular industry for good. When that happens, your commercial insurance broker can pivot for you to find someone that does.

That’s subjective!

Best for Company A might not be best for Company B.

In order to find the best commercial insurance policy for YOU, we recommend that you shop around every few years to see what the market has to offer.

Pro tip: Always compare apples with apples. What does that mean? Not all policies are created equal. It’s easy to look at a $500/year policy and an $800/year policy and think the choice is a no-brainer. But that more expensive policy might have a lot more coverage. When comparing two policies, always make sure they are alike.

There is no law requiring incorporated or registered businesses to carry insurance.

Unlike car insurance, which requires Ontarians to carry a min of $200,000 in liability insurance, business insurance is not mandatory.

Operating your business that way certainly comes with risks! It also looks unprofessional to some. If you’re a contractor, many clients will ask for proof of insurance. If you don’t have it, that may raise some eyebrows.

For those reasons, we recommend getting a business insurance policy, even if it’s not mandatory.

While we recommend businesses protect themselves with as much insurance coverage as possible, we understand that smaller and startup businesses have other financial priorities and won’t necessarily be able to budget for an all-inclusive policy.

At the very least, you should have commercial general liability insurance. That’ll cost you $750-$1,500 annually, a small sum considering what could go wrong if you’re renting an office space in a landlord’s building, for example.

Every business is different though. If you’re unsure, call a broker and they’ll help you through the decision process.

You have two options:

1. Call an insurance broker like KBD
2. Get an online quote and finalize your policy with a broker later

Can you do it completely online? That depends on your business.

Basic sole operator businesses (like fitness instructors) CAN get their insurance policy 100% online.

For the other 95% of businesses that own a building, sell products, have employees, and more, 100% online insurance is not yet available.

No!

The minimum requirement to qualify for commercial insurance in Ontario is that your business is registered. Governments want businesses to be registered so they can collect taxes from them.

We recommend you go a step further and incorporate your business. Why? It removes your personal liability risk. If your business isn’t incorporated and does something that causes someone to sue, they’ll come after YOU rather than your company.