Business Contents Calculator
Try our free property insurance calculator to ensure your commercial property and contents are adequately protected
Commercial property insurance is essential when it comes to protecting your business’s property, equipment, inventory, and contents.
It’s the foundational step in shielding your assets from unforeseen risks. But another crucial aspect is often overlooked: ensuring your property coverage limits are adequate enough to protect your business. For property coverage, you are required to get a coverage limit representing the cost to repair or replace your assets. Otherwise, a co-insurance penalty may apply in the case of a claim, and you will not be fully covered for your losses.
Our business contents calculator can help you determine how much insurance coverage you need to repair or replace your business property, equipment, and contents if you suffer damages or losses and need to file a claim. Try it now!
Additional Resources
- Commercial Property Insurance: Actual Cash Value or Replacement Value Coverage?
- What Is Co-Insurance and How Does It Affect Business Property Insurance?
- How to Do a Contents Inventory for Commercial Property Insurance
- 11 Reasons Why a Business Insurance Claim Could Be Denied
- What Is a Business Insurance Policy Limit?
- How Much Does Commercial Property Insurance Cost?
Frequently Asked Questions
Actual cash value and replacement value coverages are two different methods used to determine the compensation you’d receive from your insurance provider after filing a claim for a covered loss, such as a fire that damages your business property and inventory.
The difference between them is in how depreciation factors into the equation.
Actual cash value coverage considers the cost to repair or replace damaged property minus depreciation or ‘wear and tear’. It uses the damaged property’s current market value when it was damaged or destroyed by considering its age, condition, and obsolescence.
Replacement value coverage, on the other hand, replaces or repairs damaged property without deducting for depreciation. Therefore, it replaces damaged property with materials of like kind and quality without any depreciation deduction.
Co-insurance is an agreement between you and your insurance company. Essentially, it’s part of your insurance contract where you agree to maintain your property coverage limit up to the total value to replace it or a stated percentage of the property’s replacement value (usually 80% or 90%).
Your business property’s coverage limit should be the amount it would cost to replace all your contents, inventory, furnishings and the physical building you own, rent, or lease should it all be destroyed.
For example, if the value of the commercial property you want to insure is $1 million, and the insurance policy contains a 90% co-insurance clause, the amount of property insurance coverage you need is at least $900,000.
However, if your policy’s coverage limit is only $500,000, and a fire in your commercial building causes $400,000 worth of damage, you would be subject to a $177,778 co-insurance penalty. Therefore, your insurer would only pay out $222,222 for your claim.
A policy coverage limit is the maximum amount of money your insurance provider will pay for an insurable loss during the policy’s term.
Commercial insurance policies usually consist of several coverages, like general liability insurance, commercial property insurance, and professional liability insurance. You will have individual coverage limits for each type of coverage.
Some coverages may have predetermined policy limits. For instance, a commercial property policy may require you to carry a minimum amount of coverage, but you can increase the amount to reflect the total value of the property.
Business contents are the items your business owns that are kept at your commercial property and that you need to run your business. They include things such as:
- Machinery and equipment, like refrigerators and freezers in a restaurant or sewing machines tailors and clothing manufacturers use
- Office equipment (photocopiers, phones, fax machines, printers, point-of-sale terminals, monitors)
- Computers and laptops
- Furniture and fixtures (desks, tables, chairs, stools, shelves, cabinets, display racks, decor)
- Inventory and merchandise (raw materials, finished goods, packaged goods)
- Business supplies and materials (stationary, packaging and shipping materials, cleaning supplies, general office supplies)
- Tenant improvements or renovations you make to a commercial space you lease or rent that are permanently installed at the property, such as carpeting, flooring, or countertops
Commercial property insurance covers your business’s physical assets, including your building, contents, and inventory, against loss or damage because of fire, water, natural disasters, theft and vandalism.
Equipment breakdown insurance, also called boiler and machinery insurance, covers the cost to repair or replace your equipment and machinery if they cease to work because of an internal mechanical or electrical malfunction or explosion damage from other pressure vessels, like a boiler, storage tank, or heat exchanger.
Equipment breakdown insurance is designed to protect things such as HVAC systems, commercial kitchen appliances, office equipment, computers, production machinery, telecommunications systems and other essential equipment you need to run your company.
Have Questions? Get in Touch
Our friendly, knowledgeable brokers are happy to answer your questions and help your business get the low-cost, comprehensive coverage you need.
Visit our Contact Us page to live chat, call us toll-free at 1-888-654-6030 or email us at support@zensurance.com to review your existing policy and help you get customized protection that adequately addresses your liability risks.
