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Insurance is a multi-faceted industry with many different kinds of products and different business structures for each product. Each comes with its own industry-specific jargon that must be understood through different business insurance definitions.

There are five different kinds of business insurance. Definitions of these kinds of business insurance are as follows:

General Business Insurance: this is an industry standard that applies to retail, manufacturing, hospitality and food services, construction, and most industries in the country. General business insurance protects employers from liability that might come from unsafe working conditions, property damage and wrongful advertisement claims.

Professional Business Insurance: this protects lawyers, doctors, engineers, architects, real estate professionals, and other individuals that are at risk of liability from their professions. This generally comes in two forms: Malpractices (primarily used by doctors) and Errors and Ommisions (or E&O insurance, most commonly associated with legal professionals).

Product Liability Insurance: this is used by manufacturers of potentially dangerous products to protect them against injury resulting from product malfunction. The cost of the insurance varies greatly and depends largely on the type of the product being insured.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance: This is a new kind of liability that covers wrongful acts that might come against or between employees in the workplace, including sexual harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination.

Umbrella Insurance: this is not necessarily limited to business insurance. Definitions of what can be considered umbrella insurance vary somewhat, although it typically refers to a bundling of various kinds of insurance under one policy to reduce cost. The providers of umbrella insurance often extend their services into automotive, homeowner, and health insurance as well.


This Business article was written by Mark Karavan on 11/25/2009