Ohio Commercial Insurance

Hitchings Insurance Agency is a one-stop shop for all your Commercial Insurance needs, from Liability Insurance and business-specific coverages to Health Insurance and Employee Benefits packages. We will take care of you, your business, and your employees.

For businesses in Ohio, Michigan, and beyond, we provide all the advantages of a large national firm and all the personal service and attention that only a local neighborhood business can offer.  Our service is friendly, personal, and highly responsive. Our top priorities are earning your trust and building a long relationship. We are a reliable partner through every stage of your business.

You’ve worked hard to build and grow your business. You deserve the security of knowing that if adverse events occur, you would be able to get your business up and running again. That’s where Hitchings Insurance Agency comes in! We take a consultative, partnership approach to helping you safeguard your valued business assets and your staff.

Business Coverage

At Hitchings Insurance Agency, our licensed insurance professionals and benefit managers are experienced at risk assessment and financial planning across a wide range of industries, spanning family farms and Main Street retail to construction, healthcare, and everything in between. We partner with premier insurance companies to offer a wide array of specialty and industry-specific coverages. Here’s a sampling of some of the most popular coverage we offer:

• General Liability Insurance
• Commercial Auto Insurance
• Small Business Insurance
• Contractors Insurance
• Commercial Real Estate Insurance
• Furniture Retail Insurance
• Trucking Insurance
• Restaurant Insurance
• Cyber Liability Insurance
• Commercial Umbrella Insurance

Employee Benefits

We not only insure your buildings, property, inventory, and equipment, but we also take care of your most vital asset, your people. Hitchings Insurance offers a robust menu of Employee Benefits, along with the expertise to help you compare plan benefits and costs so that you have the information you need to choose the right plan for your budget and your business goals. We help you plan and provide a benefit package that will help you attract and retain top people in your field.

• Group Health Plans
• Dental and Vision Plans
• Short-Term Disability Insurance
• Long-Term Disability Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Long-Term Care Insurance

Cyber Liability Insurance

In your business, you carry insurance to protect your valuable assets – your land, your buildings, your equipment, your vehicles. Are you protecting your data, too?

Without the right Ohio Cyber Liability Insurance policy in place, the costs and losses associated with data breaches can be enormous, and beyond the scope of your business’s General Liability policy. In addition to the interruption of your business and the liability you face for the exposure of sensitive customer information, a data breach can harm your business’s reputation and put your people and clients at risk. Most states require businesses to inform their customers if their data has been accessed inappropriately. The cost for complying with post-data breach regulations can be substantial.

Don’t think you’re safe because your business is small or you aren’t in finance or healthcare – more than half of all small businesses have experienced a data breach, and half of those have had it happen more than once. Smaller companies are often at higher risk because their defenses can be easier to breach. Almost every business has cyber exposure. Any organizations that collects and stores any type of personally identifiable data, including electronic employee records, is vulnerable.

The prevalence of malicious data breaches is matched only by their variety – from ransomware and cyber-extortion to sophisticated social engineering and email spoofing, there are a dizzying number of techniques hackers use to get at your data. Your own staff can be their (witting or unwitting) accomplices – mistakes, malice, and a failure to maintain minimum security standards are common causes of data breaches.

In Ohio, Cyber Liability Insurance is there to help mitigate your liability in the event of a data breach which compromises sensitive information, whether your own or your customers. This type of special insurance helps protect you from the threats of lawsuits, recovering compromised data, restoring damaged networks and computer systems, complying with regulations about notifying affected parties that their data has been improperly accessed, and addressing problems that may have been caused by the outside manipulation of personal information.

In the event of a data breach, a fast, coordinated, multi-pronged response is essential in mitigating your liability, dealing fairly with all affected parties, and keeping your reputation up and your business running. Ask the Cyber Liability Insurance professionals at Hitchings Insurance Agency about the options available to you.

General Liability Insurance

Most business owners know that they need insurance coverage for their buildings, equipment, and their vehicles. Business Insurance is often associated with physical assets, but the costs of an unexpected

lawsuit can be as damaging to your business as a storm or a fire. Vulnerability to lawsuits is a fact of doing business today. Without the protection that an Ohio General Liability Insurance policy affords, a lawsuit can put your entire business at risk – particularly if you are a small business owner or independent contractor. No matter what size your business or what industry you are in, General Liability Insurance is key protection.

In Ohio, General Liability Insurance – also known as Commercial General Liability or CGL – protects you and your business against damages and costly lawsuits related to an injury or property damage stemming from your business operations or products. It’s available as stand-alone coverage or as a component in Business Owners Policies (BOP) and various industry-specific business coverage packages.

An Ohio General Liability Insurance policy protects you from damages for a variety of events:

• Physical injuries or property damage suffered by a non-employee related to your business operations or a product or service that you sell
• Damage from libel, slander, false advertising, or copyright infringement
• Attorney fees and other costs you incur in defending against lawsuits

Some examples might include:

• A slip-and-fall injury occurs to a delivery person while on your premises
• One of your service people damages a customer’s property while providing service in their home or business
• Someone sues you claiming libel, slander, or damage related to your advertising
• A competitor charges you with copyright infringement

 Hitchings Insurance agents are highly knowledgeable about industry-specific liability issues. We enjoy sharing our knowledge and helping our business partners make informed decisions. Depending on your business, it might make sense to expand your protection with additional liability options or to supplement your coverage with higher limits through Umbrella Insurance or Excess Liability Insurance.  We may also recommend coverage to address other liability exposures, such as Cyber Liability, Employee Practices Liability (EPL) and industry-specific exposures.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance

If your business has employees, at some point you may face a lawsuit alleging discrimination, wrongful termination, or any number of violations of employee rights and federal or state labor laws. Roughly one out of every 10 employers faces such a charge. In states with labor-friendly laws, the odds are even higher. Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) is designed to offer protection against the substantial cost of such lawsuits. Some EPLI policies also include prevention and risk management tools to help you improve and maintain your compliance with applicable laws to reduce your risk.

Consider the findings in the most recent biannual report on employment lawsuits from the insurance company Hiscox, which compiled the latest data on employment charge activity from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and its state counterparts across the US: “A representative study of 1,214 closed claims reported by small- to medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees showed that 24% of employment charges resulted in defense and settlement costs averaging a total of $160,000. On average, those matters took 318 days to resolve.” Cases that go to jury can be significantly higher in terms of cost and time.

Labor laws are complex – even the most well-intentioned and conscientious employers can run afoul of the law.  In some instances, charges can relate to bad conduct on the part of other employees. Employment Practices Liability Insurance helps protect you against a broad range of labor law missteps and violations, including:

• Sexual harassment
• Discrimination based gender, age, race, religion, or sexual orientation
• Illegal background checks
• Unpaid interns
• Violating wage and hour laws
• Employee misclassification as exempt or nonexempt, or as contract workers
• Wrongful termination
• Benefits mismanagement
• Breach of employment contract

If you have a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) or a Commercial General Liability policy in place, you may be able to add EPLI as an endorsement. Coverage is also available as a stand-alone policy. The cost of EPLI coverage will vary based on how many people you employ, what policies, procedures, and practices you have in place, and whether you’ve been sued before, among other factors.

Hitchings Insurance agents are highly experienced with Employee Benefits and knowledgeable about Human Resources-related matters. We understand the value of EPLI coverage. We will help you find the right protection to mitigate losses or costs should you face a charge.

We invite you to learn why so many of your neighboring businesses trust Hitchings Insurance Agency to protect their operations. Discover the difference yourself – fill out a free quote form or call us at 419-423-9145.

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