What factors are affecting your Business Owner Policy premium?  There are many factors that go into rating your Business Owner Policy for Design Professionals.  Each carrier has a different prospective of rating on this policy.  Below are some of those factors that could modify the premium.

Discipline – What types of services is your firm offering?  This can effective even if a carrier can offer a Business Owner Policy at all.  Most carriers like Architects and Engineers but if your firm is getting into some of the Construction Management services that can change the rating.

Office Building – What other types of businesses are within your office building?  Are there other offices or is there retail or restaurants.  These can have an affect on the premium, depending on the other risks around your office.

Details of the building – Age of the building, construction, updates on electrical, plumbing and roof and square footage your firm occupies.  These are factors that the carriers look at to also assist in rating.  Essentially they want to make sure the building is up to date and a safe place to operate a business.

Building coverage – Does your firm own the building?  If so, your mortgage company will require your firm to have coverage on the building.  This will be based on value and sometimes the driving force of the limit will be the mortgage company requirement.  The building limit on the policy is a factor in the premium.

Business Personal Property – Every business has Business Personal Property, the question is how much of a limit on the policy would it take to replace all of it in the case of a total loss.  The higher the amount of the Business Personal Property limit can change the premium amount.

General and Automobile (hired and non-owned) Liability/Umbrella – The limits, as in most policies, will change what the premium will be on the policy.  The higher the limits the higher the premium will be in most cases.

Claims – If your firm has claims it is going to depend on the amount of the claim and how many years ago the claim was.  Some carriers will look back three years on a claims history and some carriers look back more years.  It all depends on the carrier on how they will look at a claim.  It is best to provide as much information on a claim as possible.

As always, please feel free to call or email your PUI agent to ask questions on how your Business Owner policy is rated.