Business Insurance
Commercial insurance for Atlantic Canada’s professional services, retail, wholesale and office businesses — built around how you actually operate, and reviewed by a senior broker who knows your file.
Protect your Business
Commercial Insurance Built Around How Your Business Actually Operates
Most commercial programs are assembled from whatever the last broker could quote quickly. We build them the other way round — starting from what you do, where you do it, who you contract with and what your lease and client agreements oblige you to carry.
This page is for businesses outside construction: professional services, retail, wholesale and distribution, offices and service firms. If you build or develop, our Construction & Development programs are written for that work specifically. If you operate in manufacturing, real estate, seafood, hospitality, technology or renewables, start with Insurance by Industry.
What a Business Insurance Program Covers
Seven coverages do most of the work. Which ones you need, and at what limits, comes out of your operations, your premises and the contracts you have signed.
- Commercial General Liability — injury and property damage claims from your operations, premises and products.
- Commercial Property — building, contents, stock and leasehold improvements, plus the income you lose while you cannot trade.
- Commercial Auto — owned vehicles, and your exposure when staff drive their own.
- Errors & Omissions — the professional negligence claim your liability policy does not answer.
- Directors & Officers — personal exposure for the people who run the company.
- Cyber — ransomware, funds transfer fraud, privacy breach response and the downtime that follows.
- Deposit Financing — protection for deposits advanced on projects and purchases.
What Each Coverage Actually Pays For
Business owners are rarely told what each policy is for in plain terms. This is the short version — what each one responds to when something goes wrong.
Limits and wordings vary by insurer. The table describes what these coverages are designed to do, not what any particular policy will pay — your own wording governs.
Coverage |
What it responds to |
|---|---|
What Your Lease and Client Contracts Require You to Carry
Most commercial leases in Canada set out an insurance covenant in detail, and client master agreements do the same. These are the provisions that show up again and again — and the ones a landlord’s lawyer checks before they accept your certificate.
- All-risk coverage on your stock, furniture, fixtures, equipment and leasehold improvements.
- Commercial general liability at the limit your lease actually names. Read the number rather than assuming it — it is often higher than owners expect.
- Owned and non-owned automobile liability, whether or not the business owns a vehicle.
- Boiler and machinery cover where the premises contain pressure or mechanical plant.
- The landlord named as an additional insured, as its interest may appear.
- A waiver of subrogation so your insurer cannot pursue the landlord after paying a claim.
- Cross-liability and severability of interests, so each insured is treated as if separately insured.
- Your policy stated as primary and non-contributing with any insurance the landlord carries.
- Thirty days’ written notice of cancellation or material change.
- A certificate of insurance that matches the covenant line for line.
Where Business Insurance Programs Most Often Go Wrong
The claims that hurt are rarely the ones nobody saw coming. They are the five below, and every one of them is visible at renewal if somebody looks.
- Coinsurance. Property policies carry an 80, 90 or 100 per cent coinsurance clause. Insure for less than that share of real value and the insurer pays the same proportion of your loss — $600,000 of cover on an $800,000 property turns a $200,000 fire into a $150,000 settlement.
- The tenant’s legal liability sub-limit. It sits inside your liability policy and is usually far smaller than the headline limit. Landlords write their lease requirements against the larger number.
- Non-owned automobile. If anyone runs a bank errand, collects a client from the airport, rents a car on a business trip or takes a car allowance, the business is exposed above their personal limit.
- Values that never get updated. Replacement costs, stock levels and business interruption figures set three renewals ago, in a market where rebuild costs have not stood still.
- Certificates that do not match the contract. Additional insured status, waivers and notice provisions get read line by line at claim time, not at signing.
Surety Bonds and Specialist Programs Alongside Your Insurance
We place insurance and surety together, so your coverage and your bonding capacity are built to support each other rather than compete for the same balance sheet. If your business sits outside the general commercial profile, these are the better starting points.
- Surety bonds — bid, performance, payment, licence and permit, and the commercial bonds a business is asked for by regulators and counterparties.
- Construction & Development — if you build, develop or subcontract, the program is materially different and belongs there.
- Insurance by Industry — manufacturing, real estate, seafood and fishing, hospitality, technology and renewable energy each have their own page.
- Personal insurance — home, auto and high-net-worth coverage for owners and key staff, handled by the same office.
Who We Write Business Insurance For
- Professional services — accountants, consultants, engineers, architects, agencies and IT firms.
- Retail and service premises — shops, showrooms, salons, studios and service counters.
- Wholesale, distribution and light manufacturing — warehousing, stock in transit and equipment breakdown.
- Offices and head offices — including businesses with staff across more than one Atlantic province.
- Non-construction trades and service contractors — maintenance, landscaping, cleaning, installation and field service.
- Not-for-profits and associations — where a volunteer board creates real directors and officers exposure.
Frequently Asked Questions About Business Insurance
There is no single “business insurance” policy. A commercial program is assembled from parts: general liability, property, automobile, and then the specialist covers your operations call for — errors and omissions, directors and officers, and cyber. Which parts you need, and at what limits, comes out of what you do, where you do it and what your contracts oblige you to carry.
Your lease and your client contracts usually decide it for you. Commercial leases and master service agreements name a required limit, and it is often higher than owners assume. Start by reading the number in your own documents rather than working from a rule of thumb, then look at whether the exposure justifies more than the contractual minimum.
Not by your commercial automobile policy, which covers vehicles the business owns. When an employee drives their own car on company business, their personal policy responds first — and the business is exposed for anything above that limit. Non-owned automobile coverage answers that gap. It is triggered by ordinary things: a bank run, an airport pickup, a rental on a business trip, or a salesperson on a car allowance.
The exposure is not really about technology. It is about holding client information, moving money on emailed instructions, and depending on systems to trade. A cyber policy responds to ransomware and extortion, funds transferred out on a fraudulent instruction, the cost of a privacy breach response, and the income lost while systems are down. Any business that invoices, banks online and holds personal data has all four exposures.
Commercial property policies require you to insure a set share of the real value — commonly 80, 90 or 100 per cent. If you insure for less, the insurer pays the same proportion of your claim. On an $800,000 property insured for $600,000, a $200,000 fire is settled at $150,000, less the deductible. It is the most common reason a business that thought it was insured is not made whole.
Conditions have been moving in buyers’ favour. Through 2025 and into 2026 most Canadian commercial lines have been flat to modestly down — liability, property, directors and officers, and cyber — with commercial automobile the clear exception, where costs have continued to rise. That mix rewards a proper review rather than an automatic renewal, particularly if your values or operations have changed.
Yes, and in the same office. Placing them together means your coverage and your bonding capacity are built to support each other, rather than two brokers competing for the same financial information.
Broadly: what the business does, revenue and payroll, your premises and the values in them, any vehicles, a copy of your lease or the contracts that set insurance requirements, and your current policy and claims history. If you do not have all of it to hand, start the conversation anyway — we will tell you what actually matters for your class.
Talk to a Business Insurance Broker
Tell us what the business does and what you are being asked to carry. You will hear back from a broker who handles the file themselves — not a call centre.
Ready to Review Your Business Insurance Program?
A proper review takes one conversation and your current policy. If your program is right, we will tell you so.