Contractor insurance
General liability, workers compensation, commercial auto and tools coverage, explained plainly. Tell us what your contract requires and a licensed specialist will confirm exactly what you need.
A construction business has four distinct exposures, and they do not overlap. What you do to other people is general liability. What happens to your own employees is workers compensation. Your vehicles are commercial auto. Your tools are inland marine.
Contractors usually start with general liability because a contract demands it, then add workers compensation when they hire, commercial auto when they buy a truck, and tools coverage either when something is stolen or when they realize general liability was never going to pay for it.
Two more come up less often but matter when they do. A business owner's policy bundles liability with property and business income if you have a shop or yard. Professional liability covers claims that your work was done wrong, which is a different question from whether it caused damage.
Look at what the general contractor or the client is asking you to prove. That document names the policies, the limits, and whether they want additional insured status. Send it to us and a licensed specialist will tell you exactly what it requires.
Send us your requirementEach one answers a different question. Buying one does not cover the others.
Pays for injury or damage your work causes to other people. The policy your contract asks you to prove.
Pays medical costs and lost wages when your own employee is hurt. Required in nearly every state once you have staff.
Covers the trucks and trailers. A personal policy excludes business use entirely.
Covers the tools themselves, in transit and on site. General liability never does.
No, and the difference costs people money. A certificate of insurance is evidence that a policy exists. It gives the holder no rights under that policy. Additional insured status is what actually protects the general contractor, which is why a serious general contractor asks for both and reads them.
No, never. General liability pays other people for damage you cause. Your tools are your own property, and they need inland marine. This is the single most common coverage gap we see, and it usually gets discovered after a theft.
No, and most contractors do not have all four on day one. General liability is usually first because a contract requires it. Workers compensation becomes mandatory once you have employees. Commercial auto matters as soon as you drive for work, and tools coverage matters as soon as your tools are worth more than you could replace out of pocket.
Buy the policies you actually need at limits your contracts require, and no less. The cheapest premium is not the cheapest outcome: a policy that fails to satisfy a contract requirement, or that omits completed operations, costs you the job or the claim.
Sometimes. General liability, commercial auto and inland marine can often be written together, and a business owner's policy bundles liability with property. Workers compensation is always separate.
An uncovered loss becomes a personal liability rather than an insurance claim, and for a construction business the numbers are large enough to end the company. Continuity matters especially on claims-made coverage like professional liability, where a lapse can leave past work uninsured.
Tell us your trade, payroll, state and what your contract requires. A licensed specialist will follow up.
