What do I need to prepare for a business insurance quote?
Gather eight things: your legal entity and owners, years under the current owner, revenue, payroll by job, every address and whether you own or lease it, your claims history, your current policy and renewal date, and any lease, loan or contract that sets insurance terms. Each one changes the price or whether an insurer will offer, so a complete package gets firm quotes. This page covers commercial policies such as liability, property, auto and workers' comp, not personal ones.
- Revenue and payroll set the starting price for most business insurance, so bring real figures, split by location and by job.
- Ask your current insurer for five years of claims history now. It is the item that most often holds a quote up.
- Bring every lease, loan and contract page that mentions insurance. They set the minimums your new policy has to meet.
Who owns the business, and how long have you run it?
The insurer needs the company's exact legal name, its type (sole owner, partnership, limited liability company or corporation) and who owns what share. It also asks how long the current owner has run it, since experience is hard to see on paper.
The legal name goes on the policy as the business being protected — insurers call that the named insuredNamed Insured The person or business listed on your policy as the policyholder, with the right to change or cancel it. Insurers call this the named insured.. A policy issued to the wrong name can leave the company unprotected. If the same owners hold other businesses, say so.
Years in business weighs heavily in the insurer's review of your business — insurers call that review underwritingUnderwriting The insurer's review of your business to decide whether to offer coverage, on what terms, and at what price. Insurers call this underwriting.. Young businesses close more often. Of private-sector business locations that opened in March 2013, 79.6% were still operating a year later and 50.6% after five years. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics) If you bought the business, the clock usually starts when you took over.
Why do they ask for revenue and payroll?
Revenue and payroll are the yardsticks most business insurance is priced on. Liability coverage is usually priced per thousand dollars of sales and workers' comp per hundred dollars of payroll, so these two figures set the starting price.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners notes that liability premiums are typically tied to sales and payroll estimates, with a florist paying about $1.50 per $1,000 of sales as its example. (Source: NAIC) Workers' comp rates are filed per $100 of payroll for each type of job. (Source: Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance)
- Revenue: last full year and your estimate for the next twelve months, per location if you have more than one, because each location is priced on its own sales.
- Payroll by job: owners, office staff, customer-facing staff, drivers and off-site workers as separate totals. Office payroll costs far less to insure than driver payroll, so one lump figure gets priced at the riskiest rate.
- Headcount: full-time, part-time and any independent contractors you pay.
Honest estimates are fine. After the policy year, the insurer checks your actual figures and adjusts the bill — insurers call this a premium audit. Your workers' comp policy is the one most often adjusted this way.
What do they need to know about each location?
Every address you operate from, whether you own or lease each one, and the basic facts about the building. The address decides the weather and fire risk; owning or leasing decides whether you insure the building or only what is inside.
Include storage units and any place your stock sits overnight. For each building, have the year built, what it is built of, square footage, roof age, the last updates to wiring, plumbing and heating, and whether it has sprinklers and a monitored alarm. These details drive the price of your property coverage because they match how small businesses actually lose money: in The Hartford's review of its small-business claims from 2020 to 2024, water and freezing damage made up about 22% of claims, and fire was the costliest, averaging $80,000. (Source: The Hartford)
How do I get my claims history from my current insurer?
Ask your current insurer, or your current agent, for a report of every claim on each of your policies over the last five years. Insurers call this report a loss runLoss History / Loss Run Your record of past claims, and the report from your insurer, usually covering five years, that lists them. Insurers call the record loss history and the report a loss run. more →, and few new insurers will give a firm price without it.
The report lists each policy period, the date and type of each claim, what was paid, what the insurer has set aside for open claims, and each claim's status. Sentry Insurance suggests asking in writing with your policy number, business name and the dates you need, and allowing about seven to ten business days. (Source: Sentry Insurance)
Underwriters commonly want five years for property, three to five for liability and three for workers' comp. (Source: Archipelago) Request one for every policy, including auto, from each insurer you have had in that time. A report showing no claims proves a clean record.
What should I bring about my current policy and contracts?
Bring your current policy's summary pages, your renewal date, and every lease, loan or contract clause that mentions insurance. The renewal date sets the deadline; the contracts set the minimums the new quote has to meet.
The summary page at the front of each policy shows who is covered, the dates, the coverages, the limits and the price — insurers call it the declarations pageDeclarations Page The summary page at the front of your policy showing who is covered, for how long, which coverages, the limits, and the price. Insurers call it the declarations page. more →. Start well ahead of renewal so there is time to fix whatever a new insurer finds.
Landlords and customers often set a minimum liability amount and ask to be named on your policy. Lenders set rules too: the Small Business Administration requires insurance on pledged property for its 7(a) and 504 loans above $500,000. (Source: Code of Federal Regulations, via Cornell Law School) A quote that misses one of these is a quote you cannot use.
This is the universal core; each line of business adds its own questions, and the industry pages on this site carry those checklists. Next, read the questions to ask your agent and how to tell if the result is enough coverage.
Frequently asked questions about preparing for a quote
Give honest projections for revenue and payroll, and describe the owners' experience in the trade. With no claims history to send, the insurer leans harder on the owners' background and the details of the location.
Be careful. Insurers usually work with only one agent per business, so two agents sending you to the same insurer can block each other. Ask each agent which insurers they plan to approach first.
Put the request in writing to the insurer and copy your current agent. If it still does not arrive, your state insurance department takes complaints about insurers.
Have your paperwork together? Send it over.
Send us what you have, and we will tell you what is missing before your business goes to any insurer.