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I need 3 types of insurance for two businesses - can I combine them?

Feb 15, 2022
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I need 3 types of insurance for two businesses - can I combine them?

When you own a business, you face a complex set of insurance challenges. You need to protect against the risks inherent in running a company: making sure the building is covered in the case of fire or flood with Property insurance, insuring against employee injury with Workers' compensation insurance, covering your business vehicles or fleet with Commercial vehicle insurance and dealing with liability issues utilising Liability insurance. When you own or manage multiple businesses the complexity in insuring your business interests compounds again.

So, is it possible to combine different types of insurance in a bundle when you have 2 or more businesses?

Let's break this down into two questions and get into the details.

Can I bundle my business insurances?

It is possible to combine several insurance policies for the sake of simplicity and for a cost-saving venture. Some examples of bundling insurance include:

combining your life insurance, income protection and total and permanent disability insurance
insuring your whole fleet of business vehicles through motor fleet insurance rather than individually
selecting a business pack for the most common business insurances

Let's look at the most common bundled insurance available for business owners, the business pack, and see how it stacks up as a package deal. Business packs typically include insurance cover for:

Public Liability, Product Liability and General Liability
Business Insurance
Insurance against theft, damage and fire
Cyber Insurance
and much more

Depending on your business needs, you may also add other types of insurance that are relevant to your nature of business as optional extras in your business pack. A business pack may be tailored to your industry, for example a Business Pack for Tradies Insurance. Generally Business Packs do not include Worker's Compensation. You can read in more depth about Business Pack Insurance here.

Pros and Cons of Bundling Insurance

The pros of bundling insurance:

Management Liability Insurance

Management Liability insurance is designed to provide protection to both the business and its directors or officers for claims of wrongful acts in the management of the business.

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Business Insurance

A business insurance pack can provide cover for your business premises and contents, against loss, damage, theft or financial loss from an insured interruption to the business.

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Business Package

Purchase up to six products under one Business Insurance Package.

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The pros of bundling insurance:

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You can save money on premiums
Administrative ease - Fewer bills and single renewal date
Simplified claims process, as the same insurer covers multiple risks

The cons of bundling insurance:

You may not be able to bundle all types of policies
You may be paying for coverage you don't need

In general, when you bundle your business insurance policies, you are essentially buying more than one policy from the same insurance company and they are able to offer the coverage at a discounted rate as a result. This is similar to the multi-policy discounts you may be familiar with for your car and homeowner's policies. Bundling can also make your life easier than if you are administering multiple policies.

However, bundling isn't the best option for everyone. One of the most obvious problems with bundling is that you may not need the other types of insurance or services you are being offered. If, for example, you don't own a business vehicle, then a bundling offer that includes car insurance won't do you much good.

Trying to figure out if you should combine all your needs into one plan can be tricky. In many cases, it's possible, but you have to know what you're doing to ensure you have all your business risks covered. It's always best to check the product disclosure statements and be aware of the inclusions and exclusions. This might seem like a lot of work, so it's really better to engage with a trusted insurance broker than end up with an issue that leaves you out of pocket.

Can I insure multiple businesses?

Business insurance for a company with multiple operations is relatively difficult because the risk and exposure faced by these firms may be unique to each operation.

When it comes to finding business insurance for a company with multiple operations, it can be difficult to find an insurance company ready, willing and able to provide coverage. This is because the risk and exposure faced by these firms may be unique to each operation, a single insurer may not be willing to cover those different types of risks.

More than that, even if you aim to engage different insurers for your different operations, they will need to know what other operations the business is exposed to so that they can adequately understand the complete risk in the business. Sometimes they may refuse to insure you as the risk profile is muddied by the existence of multiple operations and the complexity of engaging multiple insurers.

For a complex set-up like this it is best to contact a professional insurance broker with experience in your industry for a comprehensive discussion about this matter.

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So, is it possible to combine multiple types of insurance for multiple businesses?

There are certainly ways to streamline your insurance by bundling your business insurances, but as to whether it can be done across different businesses under your management, that will be unique to your scenario. Search for an experienced insurance broker using Advisr's Find My Broker Wizard to see how to get the information you need, specific to your situation.

business insurance broker small business business pack insurance bundling

General Advice Warning: This advice is general and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether the advice is appropriate for you and your personal circumstances. Before you make any decision about whether to acquire a certain product, you should obtain and read the relevant product disclosure statement.

All information above has been provided by the author.

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